I love Chikorita...though Feraligatr has moved up over the years, I still like the cutie dinosaur and only wish it was a bit better competitively.
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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Perfect, I made it back in time for X & Y's 10th anniversary. There's plenty of things I don't like about these games still, but I'd be a a fool to not bring up some of my oddly specific favorite parts of the new generation.
No freaking way, they actually did something unique with the regional bird for once!? I'm sure we all know about this classic trope by now, but excluding Staraptor's overwhelming influence on all things Generation 4, I never really had much of a reason to be interested in any of these Pokémon that up to this point had all been very similar to each other. Learning that Fletchling evolved into the Fire-Type Talonflame was a very nice change of pace, and- wait a second, I'm skipping someone... oh, yeah, that's right. I'm not sure how many of you remember this, but not only was Talonflame revealed to be a Fire-Type spin on the regional bird trope when it evolved, but it and Fletchling's official reveals actually happened before Fletchinder's did. In practice, this meant there was a brief moment where it looked as if Fletchling would just straight-up evolve into Talonflame despite how extreme of an immediate change that would look like. Fletchinder being the one to both fill in that gap and be the one to introduce the Fire-Type to this family are the reasons why it's my favorite of those three. Corviknight could never.
Growing up with a game as oddly specific as Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs that changed my life as a Pokémon fan, one of the major takeaways I continue to enjoy from that game is that I just really enjoy riding around on Pokémon in the overworld. Nowadays we may take this feature for granted when several games including ORAS, the Alola games, Let's Go, Legends, and SV all had different ways you could traverse the overworld with Pokémon, but in good faith I can't not pay respect to the games that really started this trend for the core series, Surf HM in every game not withstanding. Out of the "choices" available in XY, I think Skiddo was probably my favorite, as most of the others just felt a bit sluggish at times.Also notice how neither Sword & Shield or BDSP wasn't on that list, just another reason Generation 8 is cringe
I wasn't sure which Pokémon to add in for this one, so you can have the legendary birds because they're the last three Pokémon in the Coastal Kalos PokéDex. Case in point, I really like the idea of separating each of the regions into their own little segments. Admittedly it makes more than enough sense for them to do this for an island-based region like Alola, but for regions like Kalos and much more recently Hisui, it's not usually something one would immediately consider. What this change to the standard Pokémon formula also does is bring up a fun hypothetical question that sadly hasn't been explored yet- what if you could start in any of these sections of your choosing? You'd still explore all three parts of Kalos in this case, but you just wouldn't be forced to start/live in Vaniville Town every playthrough. In any case, I love how this change lets each part of the region have its own distinct identity when in previous regions, the world design could often feel a bit repetitive as time went on.
No freaking way, they actually did something unique with the regional bird for once!? I'm sure we all know about this classic trope by now, but excluding Staraptor's overwhelming influence on all things Generation 4, I never really had much of a reason to be interested in any of these Pokémon that up to this point had all been very similar to each other. Learning that Fletchling evolved into the Fire-Type Talonflame was a very nice change of pace, and- wait a second, I'm skipping someone... oh, yeah, that's right. I'm not sure how many of you remember this, but not only was Talonflame revealed to be a Fire-Type spin on the regional bird trope when it evolved, but it and Fletchling's official reveals actually happened before Fletchinder's did. In practice, this meant there was a brief moment where it looked as if Fletchling would just straight-up evolve into Talonflame despite how extreme of an immediate change that would look like. Fletchinder being the one to both fill in that gap and be the one to introduce the Fire-Type to this family are the reasons why it's my favorite of those three. Corviknight could never.
Growing up with a game as oddly specific as Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs that changed my life as a Pokémon fan, one of the major takeaways I continue to enjoy from that game is that I just really enjoy riding around on Pokémon in the overworld. Nowadays we may take this feature for granted when several games including ORAS, the Alola games, Let's Go, Legends, and SV all had different ways you could traverse the overworld with Pokémon, but in good faith I can't not pay respect to the games that really started this trend for the core series, Surf HM in every game not withstanding. Out of the "choices" available in XY, I think Skiddo was probably my favorite, as most of the others just felt a bit sluggish at times.
I wasn't sure which Pokémon to add in for this one, so you can have the legendary birds because they're the last three Pokémon in the Coastal Kalos PokéDex. Case in point, I really like the idea of separating each of the regions into their own little segments. Admittedly it makes more than enough sense for them to do this for an island-based region like Alola, but for regions like Kalos and much more recently Hisui, it's not usually something one would immediately consider. What this change to the standard Pokémon formula also does is bring up a fun hypothetical question that sadly hasn't been explored yet- what if you could start in any of these sections of your choosing? You'd still explore all three parts of Kalos in this case, but you just wouldn't be forced to start/live in Vaniville Town every playthrough. In any case, I love how this change lets each part of the region have its own distinct identity when in previous regions, the world design could often feel a bit repetitive as time went on.
The birds were relatively unique: they wandered the region and you had to encounter them 12 times before they would go to roost at the Sea Spirits Den for you to capture them
Mewtwo was the disappointing one. The "Unknown Dungeon" was just......a room.....though it did have a very small cutscene at least
In a hypothetical Z Version I suspect Lugia would have gotten involved with the Sea Spirit Den, but perhaps Mewtwo would have gotten an actual dungeon.
I like how much more thought is given (competitively) to the "filler mons" in newer gens. In past gens you had stuff like Aromatisse, Golduck, Whiscash, Tsareena, Ariados, Chimeco, etc. etc. etc. Pokemon that kinda didn't have anything unique to set them apart and give them a reason to be used. Nowaday, espceially gen 9, we get filler mons like Lokix (my beloved), Mabostiff, Orthworm, Brambleghast, Grafaiai, Bombirdier, Dudunsparce, you get the picture. These mons are still not great (except Lokix, he is the best pokemon in OU and you can't convince me otherwise), but they all have a specific thing they uniquely can do. Some of it is due to signature moves and abilities, which seem to have been loosened up on this gen, but also a specific unique set of traits. Lokix has strong priority on both STABs due to tinted lens, Bombirdier has essentially unresistable coverage with Rock/Dark/Flying, Mabostiff has Stakeout, you get the picture. I love this new game philosophy.
It's also helpful when they give buffs to previously meh pokemon, like Roost and Competitive to Empoleon and Sharpness to Gallade, which was previously almost unheard of. This is a way to combat the growing power creep and let people who enjoy those old pokemon actually find success with them. Well done gamefreak. Still waiting on regenerator swampert and fluffy wigglytuff, though... there's still time for DLC2... please...
It's also helpful when they give buffs to previously meh pokemon, like Roost and Competitive to Empoleon and Sharpness to Gallade, which was previously almost unheard of. This is a way to combat the growing power creep and let people who enjoy those old pokemon actually find success with them. Well done gamefreak. Still waiting on regenerator swampert and fluffy wigglytuff, though... there's still time for DLC2... please...
Oh, I'm not saying they were unique at all. Mewtwo especially being saved for XY instead of a Gen 5 game because of Psystrike never really made any sense to me. Uniqueness aside, I just like how Kalos has three little sections is all. :)
If there’s one thing I’ll always love Gen 6 for was how it was my first proper entry into the community, before I’d just buy the games with my parents or as a gift. It was amazing to learn about the Fairy type being a new thing in real time, the new sylveon evolution and the speculation on its type. Plus all the things the game itself brought on release, like a break away from the normal/flying early game bird to more unique secondary types, and the existence of an actual T-Rex Pokémon 
I remember Vivillon’s patterns having to be gradually documented by the fandom because the 3DS wasn’t hackable at the time of XY’s release. It was a lot of fun seeing someone report a new pattern from another part of the world, and wondering just how many patterns there would end up being.
The rideable Pokémon in SwSh is Rotom
The rideable Pokémon in SwSh is Rotom
Emma/Essentia is my favorite underspoken part of XY. Cute storyline that uses Looker in a great way while also tying into the game's theme of wealth inequality better than anything in the main story... And she's also got a sick super suit and a funny lil cat friend! Insanely sick character all-around, I hope she returns one day.
I think the way that three members of Paldea's Elite Four use Terastallization is relatively interesting from a strategic point of view:
- Rika's Clodsire has Water Absorb, so after Terastallizing, it only has two weaknesses to Grass and Ice. It also removes its usual weaknesses to Psychic and Ground (though also removes the nice resistances Poison offers). The moveset here isn't great at exploiting the remaining weaknesses (no Poison Jab or Rock moves) but it does make use of Clodsire's bulk.
- Poppy is unfortunately the exception here, but that's mostly because Steel/Fairy is one of the best type combinations in the game. Pure Steel still isn't too shabby, especially with Terastallization powering up Gigaton Hammer.
- By turning Flamigo into a pure Flying type, Larry reduces its number of weaknesses from 5 to 3 (and unlike Rika, the lost resistances aren't that big of a deal). It gains a Rock weakness, but as Flamigo is a Fighting type with STAB Close Combat (and Liquidation), Rock Pokémon aren't going to be the first choice to counter it.
- Ice is infamous for its many weaknesses, so Hassel follows the precedent set by Rika and Larry and reduces his Baxcalibur's weakness count by Terastallizing. I guess the main loss here is that it gains Dragon's iconic Ice weakness in the process (Game Freak gave it Brick Break as a half-hearted measure to deter this, and to hit Steel types). Glaive Rush becomes a nuke from Terastallizing, as you noted, similar to Poppy's Tinkaton, but it doesn't have the usage restriction of Gigaton Hammer.
Masters brought her back and gave her a battle theme and everything, which was nice
I remember looking at leaks of the fully evolved starters a few days before the release, just so I could decide which one to get... but it wasn't easy because I thought they all looked really weird. I ended up going with Froakie in the end. I thought Greninja was an odd frog, but Frogadier was my favorite from the second-stages. After playing through X, Greninja grew on me and I ended up liking it a lot. I later used it on many teams for the Battle Maison as well as on my post-game team, and it always worked well. It is one of my two favorite fully evolved Water-starters.
And I completely agree with the second part! It was so fun to see Pokémon fans come together to figure out everything by ourselves (like with the Sylveon example I posted). That made the early X/Y days really exciting, especially compared to how it has been for subsequent games, where everything is leaked way ahead of the release date. This makes me miss the early X/Y days a lot, I guess something like that will never happen again...
I agree. Emma/Essentia is amazing. One of my favorite characters from X/Y, I also want her to make a comeback in the future. Outside of the games, I like how she was portrayed in Pokémon Adventures. There, her story/character arc was integrated into the main story. It was different, but still excellent.
Many people miss the Corocoro leaks during the X/Y days... but I'm of the opposite end as that's something I really don't miss. I prefer the way the games are advertised nowadays, with Youtube trailers that are released worldwide at the same time (just like the games). It feels like TPCi are more in control of the advertising this way, and while it gives us fans less to speculate about, it also means things are generally clearer right from the start, leading to fewer misunderstandings. I can't say I'm a fan of the riddler though. And another thing that bothers me is the large number of Pokémon Presents these days, those should be limited to new game reveals IMO. There's no need for an entire Presents if it is about a game we already know about, better to just drop a trailer directly in that case. But apart from that, I like the way the games are advertised nowadays and I prefer it over Corocoro leaks.
I do broadly agree the modern style is better (except when they stopped doing monthly updates) but the complaint about Pokemon Presents is a litle weird to me.
There were 2 this year, one for Pokemon Day to announce the DLC and one in August. The August one being a Presents is a little weird since it didn't really align with much and could have just been a series of smaller announcements throughout the month, but I wouldn't say it was too outlandish to have one not-a-nintendo-direct to just lump them all together
It's not that many
You're right, I somehow thought there had been more of them. Guess I misremembered, this might have happened because I usually don't follow the pre-release material for new games as much nowadays. While there have been more Presents in recent years than in the past, there haven't been quite as many as I thought. So that's a good thing! Turning this into something positive, I like how there hasn't been that many Pokémon Presents after all, since this makes them feel more special.
WHOAWHOAWHOA- Are you kidding me?
I don't have a perfect memory about the leaks, but I don't remember Fennekin using a Fighting-type move AT ALL in any pre-release picture!
Instead, screenshots has shown it with Confusion, a low-level Psychic-type more that:
- foreshadows its evolution's secondary type, and
- is learned by almost no Fighting-type Pokémon.
No No we all remember the use of animation of power punch and people thought he was going to be another Fire Fighting Pokemon !!! :)
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That's the one. The fact that it's not prerelease dickery like Scald Lapras or Ice Punch Blaziken is wild to me.
Fennekin has absolutely no reason to learn Power-Up Punch unless the devs thought some people wouldn't have a Braixen after fighting Korrina, so I legitimately believe it was a troll move by the devs.
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Antihaxxer, I can't believe you because your pictures don't show Fennekin using this punching move, so while you are searching through your 10+ year-old pics, I'm gonna ask Bulbapedia if...
Oh my God.
The Fennekin line does learn Power-Up Punch by TM.
What the hell?
Oh my God.
The Fennekin line does learn Power-Up Punch by TM.
What the hell?
When I had a Brave Fennekin, I gave it PUP as part of its move set for giggles. I do remember the terror that GF would do four Fire/Fighting in a row.
I remember the apprehension continued up until Gen 8 that the Fire starter would be yet another Fire/Fighting type.
This last one is extra-prophetic since it not only managed to accidentally predict all the typings for the Gen 6 starters (look at which starter is suggesting which type), but also that of Incineroar.
I wasn't too keen on it at first, but food-themed Pokémon are actually really charming and creative. Swirlix and Slurpuff are super cute imo, same with the Vanillite line. Vanilluxe looks silly but to me it's strangely a good mix between cute and cool. I generally did not like the Galar dex (especially the starters...) but mons like Polteageist, Applin, and Appletun are genuinely good designs, and the creativity that comes with making your own personalized Alcremie is also super cool. With Paldea and the Kitakami DLC, Dachsbun, Dipplin, and the Nacli line became some of my favorites, and Tatsugiri, Sinistcha, and Scovillain are also pretty cool. The only lines I'm not really a fan of are the Cherubi and Bounsweet lines.
Fire can hit an x48 damage multiplier.
Personally for me Dachsbun still looks too generic - I’ll be honest I didn’t really know it was food based until this post (sometimes especially with Pokemon I’m not a fan of I won’t really read their dex entries)
Cherubi (well mostly Cherrim) I’ve always loved. I don’t dislike the Bounsweet line itself, but Tsareena is part of the Lilligant/Lurantis/Tsareena/Arbolivia trend that I’m a bit over by now.
All* the fruit-based Pokemon get a pass from me because they feel like a natural extension of the fact that there are plant-based Pokemon. It's the Pokemon based on human-made foods that I have to head-canon an explanation for. My usual go-to is "they fell out of the dream world." Also works for mons like Trubish.
*except Appletun, since it's apple pie, but it gets a pass for being adorable.
*except Appletun, since it's apple pie, but it gets a pass for being adorable.
I also don't think of the fruit-based mons as the exact same category, but I'm also a fan of a lot of objectmons so I wouldn't call them better. Similarly, I always considered the Nacli line as based off salt as a crystal first, a ward second, and a seasoning last. Withing the group, I'm not a huge fan of Slurpuff (the theming feels tacked-on to something that's mechanically a pretty generic Fairy) and Alcremie (I don't care how similar they are, introducing something with that many forms in the same game they start cutting mons 'because the models were getting to serious' is a terrible look) but the others are fine. Dashbun is particularly up there for having a cool and (heh) flavourful signature ability and picking up the Mineral egg group.