Pokémon that were not prominent outside of their own generation

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

So after posting in and looking at posts from this thread about mons that were more prominent in generations beside their own, this inspired a potentially new interesting to topic: the opposite of that, Pokémon who haven't been in any sort of prominence or relevance in any game or generation outside of their debuting generation. There are probably a few examples of these, aside from the starters who aren't meant to be relevant outside of their own games, but this is a potentially interesting topic to discuss.

Let me start off with two examples thus far:

Glameow and Purugly are a prime example of this imo. They debuted in Diamond and Pearl, but they were exclusive to Pearl. In spite of this, they had prominence as being the ace of one of Team Galactic's commanders (Mars) and being a regular sight from team Galactic, and being the version exclusive counterparts to Stunky and Skuntank. They were absent from both Platinum and HGSS outside of trading, but they were especially not prominent in any generation since. They haven't been in any regional dex since Gen 4, and they only show up in Mirage Spots in ORAS, and while Skuntank got to show up in XY and SwSh, poor Glameow hasn't, and is still Dexited in Gen 8 as of now (though it will obviously be back in BDSP).

Another prime example is Blitzle and Zebstrika. Blitzle is very much a prominent Pokémon in its debut game of Black and White, being an early game Electric-type that shows up early and becomes an incredibly cool zebra in Zebstrika, as well as being the ace of the well known Elesa. It's still prominent in BW2 due to being Elesa's ace, but it's also less prominent in that you can only find it in the wild readily evolved as Zebstrika: unlike BW1, you cannot raise it from a humble little Blitzle and you will need to breed if you want to use Blitzle, which is only possible in the post-game of BW2. Zebstrika hasn't appeared in any regional dex ever since, and is completely unavailable in Gen 7 without transfer and is also currently Dexited from Gen 8 (unless Legends brings it back, which I'm low key hoping it does, Zebstrika is so cool :( ). In Gen 6, much like in BW2, it is only available in the Friend Safari in XY's post game and the Mirage Spots in ORAS: in both cases, it's readily evolved as a Zebstrika, which means it's also less special to find since you don't get the luxury of evolving it from little Blitzle. This is one of those Pokémon who hasn't been prominent since its debut and has since been largely an afterthought, not showing up prominently in any games since (Excadrill and Galvantula come close to being as non-prominent, but had the luxury of finally returning in Sword and Shield's Galar dex, something Zebstrika hasn't had the luxury of having just yet).

Are there any other examples of this you can think of? Feel free to discuss!

 

[mertyville]

Remember Smogon Birb?
When this thing came, it dominated every format it was part of. Even in Ubers and VGC 2016 it was almost everywhere. Gale Wings obviously the reason that catapulted it to the top and there is a good reason GF nerved it.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Another one from Gen 6. Following the regional bird, we have the regional bug. Scatterbug is available early on in X/Y (though I guess that's true for most/all regional bugs), Spewpa can later be found on pink Berry Trees while wild Vivillon can be found in the Friend Safari during the post-game. Vivillon also had the huge form difference thing going for it. 18 regular forms and 2 Event-only forms (which were released eventually, fortunately). Many players (myself included) obtained a full collection of all 18/20 Vivillon forms in X/Y because it was fun. It was also Viola's ace Pokémon.

After Gen 6? In Gen 7, it is only available through Island Scan in US/UM, and it is currently dexited from Gen 8.

 

[Chadlad50]

Hot take: Vivillon >>> Butterfree. Not only is Vivillon more interesting than Butterfree with the different forms gimmick, it's just so much cuter than Butterfree.

 

[The Mind Electric]

These three are everywhere in B/W. You're guaranteed to fight one in the first gym, you probably used one in that same gym, the rivals have them, a bunch of random trainers have them, even Morimoto has them. It's not hard to see why; with B/W's restricted Pokédex, giving the trainers on each route a variety of Pokémon can be hard. The monkeys are easy type coverage to fill slots, so they get used all the time.

After B/W, the monkeys rapidly faded away. Even B2/W2 used them less with the extended Pokédex, and after Unova you pretty much don't see them at all except for maybe a few trainers at the start of the game. With more options available for each type, the monkeys were no longer needed, and were promptly dumped for more interesting Pokémon.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Seviper.

In its debut generation, it was fairly notable. It was a Sapphire and Emerald version exclusive, and while it wasn't used by maingame bosses it was Pike Queen Lucy's signature Pokemon. Nowadays Seviper is...just another Poison type (sometimes still version exclusives with Zangoose), albeit one that seems to get quite a few appearances in the series.

Klingklang is a good one. Was a Pokemon on two different rosters of N in different forms and was even lucky enough to be Colress's ace. Since then it's been Mirage Spot / Island Scan fodder until it finally returned in SWSH.

 

[powergo1]

I'd argue that Stantler wasn't even prominent inside it's own generation. In Gold and Silver it could be obtained at a 5% encounter rate on Route 36, or at a 30% encounter rate on Route 37 (changed to a 40% encounter rate at night in Crystal), and although I haven't used it, it is ok compared to other Normal types. Now lets look at obtaining Stantler post GSC:

• Emerald: Safari Zone extension (postgame)
• Pearl+Platinum: Route 207 PokeRadar (postgame)
• Black+White: Abundant Shrine (postgame)
• Omega Ruby+Alpha Sapphire: Mirage Mountain

And that's it. Stantler could only be obtained through transferring in Gen 7, and was then Dexited (I wonder why). This makes ORAS the only games outside of GSC+HGSS where Stantler is obtainable before getting into the Hall of Fame, but to do so requires you to get the right Mirage Mountain to spawn. Also, there is no notable trainer (that I am aware of) that has used a Stantler ingame. The only attention that Stantler has received recently was a costume in Pokemon Go lol.

 

[mertyville]

I think one of the more forgotten but important Gen 3 Pokemon is Regice. It started of as the best Regi of the OG trio to becoming the worst. It was an ice type basically unfaced by fire moves and could deal massive damage with explosion. Also BoltBeam coverage is sweet d(´w ` )
Not to mention, it is Brain's or Brendon's Legendary focused Pokemon and in the anime the last major opponent Ash had to beat to get the final symbol in the Battle Frontier arc.
After just 1 Generation, it dropped from OU to NU permanently. If it had gotten Ice Body in Gen 5, he may have seen some more experimentation.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

and although I haven't used it, it is ok compared to other Normal types.

sorry to derail the thread but imma stop you right there

Stantler is not a good Normal type on its own merits nor is it good compared to any other Normal types inhabiting Johto (including Kanto ones).

I just used one in GSC, and it was so depressingly average I honestly thought you'd be better off using Guts Raticate with relearned Swords Dance (in HGSS, but even in GSC I think Raticate is a better option since it comes earlier and thus builds up Return faster). Also both GSC and HGSS are functionally the same game anyway as they hardly made any changes.

Oh, Stantler has Intimidate in HGSS? So does Tauros. Its distaff counterpart Miltank has far better bulk and roughly equivalent offenses. Other Normals come earlier. Yeah the only thing Stantler is good to comparatively is...lolPersian.

back to the topic though:

Spiritomb! Cynthia's lead and...that's literally it. It's suffered uniqueness decay ever since it was introduced (yay it appears from opening a menu under certain conditions in Sea Mauville?)

 

[DreamPrince]

Persian.

Not only is Persian overshadowed by Meowth in terms of marketing and merchandise, but it’s historically one of the worst Pokémon ever outside of Gen 1. In Gen 1, it actually had a legit niche thanks to Slash, Crit Mechanics, and High Speed, but it was still held back by terrible stats. In Gen 2, Crit mechanics changed, robbing Persian from its niche. And ever since, it’s been bottom tier. And you what the ironic part is? In Gen 6, Purugly actually outclassed Persian thanks to Defiant.

Although Alolan Persian had a respectable niche thanks to Parting Shot and Fake Out in VGC 17, Incineroar came in 2018 and that’s all that need to be said.

From FSG: “ Let’s not mince words. It sucked. After the 1st generation, where it was pretty good, it was legitimately dreadful.One of the worst things you could use to be honest. If you were using it, it was probably because you really wanted to use Persian, not because it was the best Pokémon out there.”

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Coming at you with two sorely neglected Sinnoh Water-types.

Lumineon

Ah, poor Lumineon. It's hard to stand out as a Water-type, but I really do think Lumineon is the absolute nadir of its type. Never anyone's signature, never been in a regional dex apart from Sinnoh where it debuted. Fishermen you fight on ocean routes occasionally have one but that's about as much exposure as this thing ever gets. It's not even available as a shiny in Pokemon Go yet.

This is largely down to it not standing out at all from its piscine brethren. It's thoroughly average statwise and gets all the usual things Water-types get: Ice moves and a couple of Flying and Bug moves for good measure. And the thing is it would be so easy to make it stand out. Just give it Quiver Dance. Why the hell not? It's literally a butterfly fish. I think Game Freak might be reticent to give it to something not Bug or Grass type, but it's not like Lumineon would be gamebreaking if it got it. Come on. Give it a cool little niche.

I used Lumineon the last time I played Platinum and I really liked it. It's always been a fun little favourite of mine.

Phione

You can sort of argue this one. Manaphy hasn't exactly been prominent itself, and Phione is so closely tied to Manaphy that well yeah duh of course it hasn't been prominent either. But while Manaphy, like all mythicals, gets events every generation to keep it available, Phione gets nothing, despite allegedly being a mythical itself. If you want one, you're left to breed one of the Manaphy you got from an event. And because it can't be used in battle facilities and NPCs almost never use mythicals it never shows up on anyone's team.

It had one single anime appearance and that's it. Its lore basically boils down to "it comes from Manaphy, but it is not Manaphy". For all that many of the more recent mythicals like Zarude and Zeraora have hardly any lore beyond "hardly any of these Pokemon exist, and they're really freaking strong" Phione somehow has even less than that.

 

[Chadlad50]

I don't know how prominent it was in Hoenn but I'll say: Breloom



As far as I know, if you want a Shroomish/Breloom before the post game, your only options are Hoenn. I don't think it's ever been in a regional dex outside of it's homeland, Hoenn. It's not like other Pokemon that only make an appearance in one region. Breloom doesn't feel like a mediocre "only exists to fill up the dex" type of a Pokemon. It's actually pretty good, with a distinct and good design. So it's weird to me that it only appears in one regional dex. I could be wrong about this though, this is mostly based off of what I've heard from my friend who's favorite Pokemon is Breloom. But looking over it, it seems the only games you can get it in before post-game were the Hoenn games.

 

[Codraroll]

Not saying this is the right answer, but ... this is the right answer.

Sawsbuck, and its pre-evolution Deerling (whose form differences are less notable), are very strongly tied with the Seasons system in Gen V. So when Seasons turned out to be a Gen V-exclusive thing, so did their various forms. You could get Sawsbuck in Friend Safari in XY, and Deerling is a DexNav Pokémon in ORAS, but in both cases the Spring form is the only form available. You can transfer up the other forms from the Gen V games and even breed them with the offspring retaining the form of the parents, so they're not impossible to get in the Gen VI and VII games, but it's a hassle and a half. Sawsbuck was also one of the many victims of Dexit, so all its forms are currently unavailable. It's too bad, because it's a really good design. At least the forms can be seen in all their majesty in New Pokémon Snap.

 

[Celever]

Here's one that makes me sad, because it's genuinely one of my favourite Pokémon, as someone who grew up watching the anime and loves elephants.



These two are some of the most elusive Pokémon in existence. Starting in their debut generation, they were exclusive to Silver, and later in Gen IV they were exclusive to HeartGold. And in Silver and HeartGold, they were put on the infamous Route 45 -- the final route before facing the 8th gym leader Clair, and the wild Pokémon are around level 20. This is where a bunch of our favourite Gen II Pokémon like Gligar, Skarmory, Phanpy, and Teddiursa were placed exclusively in, making using one the least appealing thing possible because there's almost no main game left and you'd have to do a huge amount of grinding to get it up to par, and Johto is the worst region to grind in out there. In particular, you have no ability to ever use Phanpy itself -- you just have to grind until it level evolves into Donphan anyway.

Crystal is by far Phanpy's best appearance. You can catch one on the second route of the game! Granted it's a detour that you won't necessarily know about, but it means you can raise the tiny elephant throughout your adventure. Is it annoying as hell that it's a Morning-Exclusive encounter, and a 5% one at that? Absolutely, but this is still by far Phanpy's highest prominence ever.

Hoenn: Safari Zone (Gen III's Safari Zone is kinda infamous for sucking too)
FRLG: Post-game island
Colo: Unavailable
XD: A wild Pokémon. Come on, every other elusive Pokémon in Gen III is a Shadow Pokémon, and they make Phanpy one of the 9 Wild Pokémon. They also come hugely underleveled, anyway.
DPPt: Swarm (post-game)
BW: Unavailable
B2W2: Trade with Curtis. This means that it's exclusive to the female player character, is available extremely late, and worse it's the 10th Pokémon he trades to you. So it takes 10 days once you get far enough in the game to unlock the trade, essentially making it post-game again for a fairly tedious side mission that's locked to people playing as the girl. This is too much I can't.
XY: Friend Safari
ORAS: Safari Zone and Mirage Mountains
SM: Unavailable
USUM: Unavailable
SwSh: Dexited

This is just sad. I mean, this is a Pokémon used by Ash in the Johto anime! It's fairly consistently popular! Why was it decided that this Pokémon should never be available, ever? If it's available in BDSP by some miracle, or Gen IX, I'm probably using it just because it's one of my favourites but I haven't had the opportunity to use it in-game in 6 generations!

Phanpy's last viable in-game appearance was 6 months before I was born. I'm 20.

Bonus Round



Depending on whether or not you count Colo/XD, then everything I just said applies to Teddiursa too. In fact, it's slightly worse because Teddiursa is only in Emerald's Safari Zone, and therefore not even in ORAS at all. So Teddiursa hasn't been obtainable since SoulSilver outside of the god-awful trade in B2W2 where this time it's exclusive to the male player character, or friend safaris in XY lmao. However, Teddiursa's best appearance is absolutely XD. Genius Sonority threw the little guy a bone by making him your tutorial for catching Shadow Pokémon, meaning it's a de facto starter, as it's your second Pokémon and the whole game is double battles. If not for XD, Teddiursa would be even more screwed over than Phanpy.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Not saying this is the right answer, but ... this is the right answer.

Sawsbuck, and its pre-evolution Deerling (whose form differences are less notable), are very strongly tied with the Seasons system in Gen V. So when Seasons turned out to be a Gen V-exclusive thing, so did their various forms. You could get Sawsbuck in Friend Safari in XY, and Deerling is a DexNav Pokémon in ORAS, but in both cases the Spring form is the only form available. You can transfer up the other forms from the Gen V games and even breed them with the offspring retaining the form of the parents, so they're not impossible to get in the Gen VI and VII games, but it's a hassle and a half. Sawsbuck was also one of the many victims of Dexit, so all its forms are currently unavailable. It's too bad, because it's a really good design. At least the forms can be seen in all their majesty in New Pokémon Snap.

This one really baffles me because... yeah alright, I kind of had a hunch when I played Black and White that the next set of games would heartlessly abandon seasons, but they didn't need to chuck out the other forms. Alright fine, when X and Y were freshly released it wasn't too unreasonable to say "sorry, the only way to get the other three forms is to transfer them over" but when Sun and Moon came out? Nah. There would have been all kinds of ways to include each of the four forms, some more bullshitty than others. Have the Winter form only appear on the obligatory snowy route. Have each island in Alola be home to one specific form of Deerling. Have Spring Deerling be the default encounter but there's like a 1% chance of encountering the other ones. Do what Platinum did with fossils and have players with even-numbered IDs encounter the Spring and Summer forms while players with odd-numbered IDs get the Autumn and Winter forms. Do something, for god's sake. They're usually actually pretty good with incorporating shit like this (the increasingly incongruous antique shops in every region where you can buy all of the various legendary and mythical artifacts say hi) but the way Deerling and Sawsbuck have been consistently tossed in the trash really bugs me.

 

[TailGlowVM]

Not specifically one generation, but this is notable enough that I think it counts here:



They are literally the only evolution line from Generation 1 never to have featured in a regional Pokedex since Johto. Otherwise you have to get them from the Poke Radar, dark grass in the Dreamyard, Hidden Grottos, the Friend Safari, or a couple of Mirage Islands in ORAS. While Venomoth was mediocre in the beginning, later generations were considerably kind to it with the addition of Sleep Powder, Tinted Lens, and Quiver Dance - strange that it has been so rare for so long.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Spiritomb! Cynthia's lead and...that's literally it. It's suffered uniqueness decay ever since it was introduced (yay it appears from opening a menu under certain conditions in Sea Mauville?)

It also has a special encounter in the Crown Tundra.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

It also has a special encounter in the Crown Tundra.

I never played the DLC, primarily because I was disappointed with the base game. I did see it in the DLC on Bulbapedia though.

 

[Foxxeyy]

I'd argue that all the simis and pans deserve to be on this list. Despite having early access to all of them in early X/Y (Santalune Forest), you don't seem them at all for the rest of the game except for maybe a few negligible trainer battles. However, in Black/White, they're very important for the first gym, becoming (almost) mandatory to take down the first gym leader's pokemon, as it's incredibly hard to overlevel Pokemon in BW and they have the type advantage over you. Not only that, your rivals Cheren and Bianca both take one of them, depending on which starter you choose.

I don't care about their competitive side because I assume nobody has ever used them.

 

[powergo1]

I'd argue that Stantler wasn't even prominent inside it's own generation. In Gold and Silver it could be obtained at a 5% encounter rate on Route 36, or at a 30% encounter rate on Route 37 (changed to a 40% encounter rate at night in Crystal), and although I haven't used it, it is ok compared to other Normal types. Now lets look at obtaining Stantler post GSC:

• Emerald: Safari Zone extension (postgame)
• Pearl+Platinum: Route 207 PokeRadar (postgame)
• Black+White: Abundant Shrine (postgame)
• Omega Ruby+Alpha Sapphire: Mirage Mountain

And that's it. Stantler could only be obtained through transferring in Gen 7, and was then Dexited (I wonder why). This makes ORAS the only games outside of GSC+HGSS where Stantler is obtainable before getting into the Hall of Fame, but to do so requires you to get the right Mirage Mountain to spawn. Also, there is no notable trainer (that I am aware of) that has used a Stantler ingame. The only attention that Stantler has received recently was a costume in Pokemon Go lol.

LOA News

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1427987194115993601

Welp

 

[Pikachu315111]

I never played the DLC, primarily because I was disappointed with the base game. I did see it in the DLC on Bulbapedia though.

Hide

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1427987194115993601

SPOILERS! Put that in a spoiler tag!

 

[guys the ret]

LOA News

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1427987194115993601

Welp

Well, Well, how the tables turn.

 

[khlaylav]

I kinda like Mightyena, but the poor thing has been shafted since Gen 3. Its last appearance in Pokedex was Gen 6, put as a version exclusive with the Purrloin line. Even Purrloin got to return in Gen 8 DLC, while Mightyena is gone. It might have appeared in Gens 4 and 5, but that was through arcane methods like the PokeRadar, postgame or the Dream World.

 

[Wukong]

Went from having one of the most memorable cries ever upon introduction in the Sinnoh region...to never being seen again in a regional dex. It'll be good to see it again in BDSP (presumably). Even as a teenager its cry made a very nice impression on me.

 

[Samtendo09]

Who honestly thought that it is a good idea to make a pair of single-staged Bug-type with weak BST and whose Doubles “gimmick” is being gender counterparts where the Nido line did the execution better?

Volbeat did show up in Emerald intro… or was it Ruby / Sapphire? But other than that, Volbeat and Illumise are also extremely sparse in Gen 3, with the only Gen 3 Pokémon so far that no important NPCs using either. They might have uses in Contests, but their sparsity means, and Illumise’s Fluctuaring experience group, makes them middling for the Contests at best, except maybe Cuteness where they could be reasonably good choices.

Things does not get better for them. The Gen 4 physical / special split did favored Illumise’s higher Special Attack, but that stat is still too weak to seriously use. While they do partake in a scene of a beautiful spring in Explorers of Time / Darkness / Sky, the duo did not have their reception improved as not even Prankster saved them, although Volbeat‘s Tail Glow + Baton Pass is a thing, but still severely one-note.

The only other time Volbeat and Illumise appeared in another region through normal methods is Kalos, but the two are then dexitted in Gen 8 and never came back.

With how forgettable they are, they really fell down into obscurity.