(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[KalosianPorygon]

Dialga and Palkia are a weird duo though; they don't really have that much in common besides "powerful Dragon-type". Ironically the one time they actually do fight in the 12th movie Dialga gets the upper hand and wounds Palkia so that supports the idea that Dialga is the better half.

I have never tried to simulate a duel between Dialga and Palkia, but the latter might have the edge because of its higher base Speed (100>90).

And speaking of base stats, why the fuck do Xerneas and Yveltal have the same base stats!? The other game mascots don't have this trait!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I have never tried to simulate a duel between Dialga and Palkia, but the latter might have the edge because of its higher base Speed (100>90).

And speaking of base stats, why the fuck do Xerneas and Yveltal have the same base stats!? The other game mascots don't have this trait!

I actually quite like that; represents the "life and death are two sides of the same coin" thing quite well.

Even without that it was just a neat idea that hadn't been done before, for the sake of variety alone I liked it.

 

[Coronis]

I'm still amused by Zygarde allegedly being a counter to Xerneas and Yveltal despite the fact that even in Complete Forme it's still no match for either one of them.

But yes the asymmetry is weird for some of these. Kyogre having the advantage over Groudon makes a sort of sense because the land is bigger than the sea; Groudon is slower so would typically have its weather activate last in a straight battle, but as you say Kyogre still pretty much has the edge over it. So that one I can live with, even though it's another reason why Kyogre would have made a lot of sense going part-Electric in Primal Form.

Dialga and Palkia are a weird duo though; they don't really have that much in common besides "powerful Dragon-type". Ironically the one time they actually do fight in the 12th movie Dialga gets the upper hand and wounds Palkia so that supports the idea that Dialga is the better half.

eek

 

[pika pal]

I'm still amused by Zygarde allegedly being a counter to Xerneas and Yveltal despite the fact that even in Complete Forme it's still no match for either one of them.

But yes the asymmetry is weird for some of these. Kyogre having the advantage over Groudon makes a sort of sense because the land is bigger than the sea; Groudon is slower so would typically have its weather activate last in a straight battle, but as you say Kyogre still pretty much has the edge over it. So that one I can live with, even though it's another reason why Kyogre would have made a lot of sense going part-Electric in Primal Form.

Dialga and Palkia are a weird duo though; they don't really have that much in common besides "powerful Dragon-type". Ironically the one time they actually do fight in the 12th 10th movie Dialga gets the upper hand and wounds Palkia so that supports the idea that Dialga is the better half.

Insert "what's under the sea? More land" post

Groudon and Kyogre actually have the same Base 90 Speed, but Groudon is often specced to be slower for the reason noted and because it's a bit better as a bulky utility mon than Kyogre is by typing and Physical/Special stat alignment. I guess the big issue I have with them being designed in a way that one has such a distinct advantage is because unlike most other lore rivalries, these two fighting is supposed to be endless unless Ray breaks it up, vs Palkia and Dialga where it's less that the fight is endless than it would destroy us faster than they'd have a winner.

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

Koraidon and Miraidon. These two are some of my favorite Legendaries design-wise in a while, but my one issue is that their Field effects kind of go back to the Kyogre-Groudon issue in a more mild sense, since Miraidon and its Signature move matches its own Terrain but Koraidon has to use non-STAB coverage to benefit from Sun beyond the generic Orichalcum Pulse boost.

koraidon/miraidon's field effects seem intentionally designed to line up with different offensive uses of terastallisation (i.e. boosting a coverage move or powering up stab moves to nuclear levels)

 

[QuentinQuonce]

eek

Insert "what's under the sea? More land" post

Groudon and Kyogre actually have the same Base 90 Speed, but Groudon is often specced to be slower for the reason noted and because it's a bit better as a bulky utility mon than Kyogre is by typing and Physical/Special stat alignment. I guess the big issue I have with them being designed in a way that one has such a distinct advantage is because unlike most other lore rivalries, these two fighting is supposed to be endless unless Ray breaks it up, vs Palkia and Dialga where it's less that the fight is endless than it would destroy us faster than they'd have a winner.

The SEA. The SEA IS BIGGER THAN THE LAND.

Clearly I knew this and this is what I meant from the context of my post and am not a complete and total dumbass

Or maybe I am and we just won't tell anyone

 

[Coronis]

The SEA. The SEA IS BIGGER THAN THE LAND.

Clearly I knew this and this is what I meant from the context of my post and am not a complete and total dumbass

Or maybe I am and we just won't tell anyone

Heh I honestly wasn’t sure otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything. No harm, no foul.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

The SEA. The SEA IS BIGGER THAN THE LAND.

Clearly I knew this and this is what I meant from the context of my post and am not a complete and total dumbass

Or maybe I am and we just won't tell anyone

Yay, another person who misread the text and never noticed the blooper!
You know, this reminds me of Brock in the anime claiming Water is weak against Fire.

 

[Castersvarog]

Gamefreak's odd "asymmetrical only slightly" design on some of the Legendaries is annoying me on a very mild level, strictly in terms of the concept whether or not it impacts viability. Some of these instances go back a bit but feel like they've appeared more frequently since the 3DS era

• Groudon and Kyogre is the most infamous one, with the mirrored weathers benefitting Kyogre more of the respective users and Groudon still a leg-down even if Sun is up. The primals kind of swing this the opposite way, with Groudon gaining a 2nd type and an immunity from the form while Kyogre only gains stats and an immunity to something it already ate fine.
• Palkia and Dialga, strictly because Dialga's Steel-typing makes it neutral/resistant to both Palkia's STABs, while Palkia resists Steel but remains weak to Dragon. This one makes it a harder sell to me when media wants them to go up against each other as rivals: even in something like PLA, I see runs with Palkia vs Dialga-O end in the former fainting way sooner than the reverse scenario.
• Xerneas and Yveltal get identical stats but their typing gives advantage Xerneas. The main reason I find this odd is because if not a Life-Death duality, Life winning feels kind of funny to me with the weirdly pessimistic/nihilistic take on Kalos I get out of snippets of the Manga
• Zacian and Zamazenta. I don't think this one needs explaining on Balance, but I also find Zamazenta's building as a Defensive Mon bizarre, given it doesn't have any recovery and most of its kit is an ATK based mon that results in a worse version of Zacian. Behemoth Bash should have been DEF scaling like Body Press, which it ALSO didn't get despite being a defense based Pokemon in the Gen introducing the move with a body-slam fighting style vs Zacian carrying a weapon. The Typing I will give some credit for, because at least in Crowned form, Zacian and Zamazenta are both Neutral to each others' Dual STABs in a metaphorical "Unstoppable Force meets Immovable Object" idea, even if other mechanics don't quite bear it out as such.
• Koraidon and Miraidon. These two are some of my favorite Legendaries design-wise in a while, but my one issue is that their Field effects kind of go back to the Kyogre-Groudon issue in a more mild sense, since Miraidon and its Signature move matches its own Terrain but Koraidon has to use non-STAB coverage to benefit from Sun beyond the generic Orichalcum Pulse boost. Funnily enough the two still seem to have parity in viability overall because of their ridiculously min-maxed stat builds, but this does strike me, especially because in that sense it highlights how... "obvious" their secondary typings feel (Fighting = Primal Aggression, Electric = Machinery but not using Steel) and one just working better than the other with it causing them to be equally useful but way less comparable (Miraidon focuses on nuking or boosting, while Koraidon is a speed-demon that uses coverage to avoid resistant Walling)

A part of me wonders if it’s because there’s only so many ways the devs wanted to have the two counterparts stay balanced between one another. Like for Groudon vs Kyogre there’s really no type that would work for the two other then Ground/Fire and Water respectively without throwing out the whole land vs sea theme they have going on, so you’re forced into this awkward situation where Kyogre is explicitly better.

Same with Koraidon vs Miraidon where they wanted an element to have the two be counterparts to. Koraidon with its flames and Miraidon with its electricity sort of represent how the two forms of energy are used throughout history. Fire being used in the past to light homes via candle light and cook food that eventually was swapped out with electricity now lighting up one’s homes and powering our machines.
Actually now that I’ve written this it raises more questions like why not make Koraidon a Dragon/Fire type. Or even make Miraidon into a Dragon/Steel type because it’s still futuristic and makes a sort of progression from Great Tusk/Iron Treads into Koraidon/Miraidon plus old leaks calling the former two Miraidonphan/Koraidonphan.

 

[Esserise]

Actually now that I’ve written this it raises more questions like why not make Koraidon a Dragon/Fire type. Or even make Miraidon into a Dragon/Steel type because it’s still futuristic and makes a sort of progression from Great Tusk/Iron Treads into Koraidon/Miraidon plus old leaks calling the former two Miraidonphan/Koraidonphan.

My impression of Koraidon and Miraidon’s types is that it emphasizes their respective means of physical exertion. Koraidon does everything manually — sprinting, swimming, flying (using its unfurled wings), and attacking (it’s primarily a physical attacker, Collision Course involves it leaping up and ramming down) are all things that, for Koraidon, require raw muscular power, respiration, and so on. Meanwhile, Miraidon is powered by a “futuristic engine,” so its body consumes that engine’s electrical energy whenever it needs to perform an action.

 

[khlaylav]

The gym leader rematches in Scarlet and Violet tick me off, and it's mostly down to the decision to force their Tera mons to keep the move they had to show off their Tera type in the initial battle. It's mostly because I am a Bug type stan but it's ridiculous that Katy's Ursaring is forced to use Fury Cutter. Larry's Staraptor and Ryme's Toxtricity also get a bit screwed over with Facade and Hex respectively, but at least those moves aren't literally 40 base power.

 

[R_N]

The gym leader rematches in Scarlet and Violet tick me off, and it's mostly down to the decision to force their Tera mons to keep the move they had to show off their Tera type in the initial battle. It's mostly because I am a Bug type stan but it's ridiculous that Katy's Ursaring is forced to use Fury Cutter. Larry's Staraptor and Ryme's Toxtricity also get a bit screwed over with Facade and Hex respectively, but at least those moves aren't literally 40 base power.

Fury Cutter with tera gets an extra passive boost on that first hit at least
so it's not THAT bad, even before it gets rolling

 

[AztecCroc]

The gym leader rematches in Scarlet and Violet tick me off, and it's mostly down to the decision to force their Tera mons to keep the move they had to show off their Tera type in the initial battle. It's mostly because I am a Bug type stan but it's ridiculous that Katy's Ursaring is forced to use Fury Cutter. Larry's Staraptor and Ryme's Toxtricity also get a bit screwed over with Facade and Hex respectively, but at least those moves aren't literally 40 base power.

What other Bug moves does Ursaring even learn? Oh, right, nothing. Ever. Fury Cutter is literally the only Bug move the Teddiursa line has ever learned, and they literally had to add it to its Egg Move pool this Gen cause the last time it could actually learn it prior to this was Gen 4.

 

[Castersvarog]

What other Bug moves does Ursaring even learn? Oh, right, nothing. Ever. Fury Cutter is literally the only Bug move the Teddiursa line has ever learned, and they literally had to add it to its Egg Move pool this Gen cause the last time it could actually learn it prior to this was Gen 4.

I mean, they could give it Tera blast, would be a neat way to show off all the unique animations the move has, especially if you only stuck with on-type teras where Tera blast just doesn’t see use.

 

[Worldie]

It's not really a "little thing" honestly, but lately I've been playing raids with a friend while he streams, and holy shit I had never realized how actually bad the raids online was.

The desyncronization is absolutely atrocious, I see actions happening in different order on my screen and his, even sometimes things happening on his screen first (note: being a stream, I'm seeing it with 15 seconds delay, meaning that actions are happening on his side almost 20 secs before me).

Remember when the raid for example stops for a few seconds (sometimes 10-15 seconds) with nothing happening? That's often due to animations still going on another person's screen because on yours something like a shield break or field condition already played, but on his hadn't!
Also field effects happening at different times, moves hitting in different order (have you ever wondered why sometimes you'd throw a big nuke through a shield that had no business hitting that hard? Usually it's cause actually someone else broke the shield and the hit landed after shield broke, but on your screen they shown in reverse. This also can happen in opposite way).

It's really really awful... much worse than it seems while playing normally.

I really love the concept of these raids and it's much better done than the SwSh ones but jeez GameFreaks, if you really CANNOT manage to have proper online syncronization, just stop. Don't even try.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Can't believe I've never brought this up before but the littlest thing that annoys me the most is that Empoleon got Defiant as a hidden ability instead of Competitive

Came across this while searching for something I posted ages ago and I'd like to take this opportunity to formally congratulate you on getting your wish

 

[ant4456]

It's not really a "little thing" honestly, but lately I've been playing raids with a friend while he streams, and holy shit I had never realized how actually bad the raids online was.

The desyncronization is absolutely atrocious, I see actions happening in different order on my screen and his, even sometimes things happening on his screen first (note: being a stream, I'm seeing it with 15 seconds delay, meaning that actions are happening on his side almost 20 secs before me).

Remember when the raid for example stops for a few seconds (sometimes 10-15 seconds) with nothing happening? That's often due to animations still going on another person's screen because on yours something like a shield break or field condition already played, but on his hadn't!
Also field effects happening at different times, moves hitting in different order (have you ever wondered why sometimes you'd throw a big nuke through a shield that had no business hitting that hard? Usually it's cause actually someone else broke the shield and the hit landed after shield broke, but on your screen they shown in reverse. This also can happen in opposite way).

It's really really awful... much worse than it seems while playing normally.

I really love the concept of these raids and it's much better done than the SwSh ones but jeez GameFreaks, if you really CANNOT manage to have proper online syncronization, just stop. Don't even try.

I know a lot of people critique Pokemon as "always being the same" or "phoning it in" but if anything, Pokemon in Gen 9 has been extremely ambitious, with tons of new concepts, ideas, features that are actually pretty huge.

and they clearly couldn't do it to the quality they wanted to with the time they had

 

[R_N]

GameFreak is probably never going to get the time needed so I think they need less ambition at this point, honestly.

 

[Samtendo09]

GameFreak is probably never going to get the time needed so I think they need less ambition at this point, honestly.

I’m not sure how likely they’ll step back their ambition, considering that having more time doesn’t automatically resolve their current issues. It’ll take more than time to make a polished, quality product.

Remember, they have less manpower, technology advancement and competency in comparison to most Nintendo subdivisions. Arrogance is also abound according to some negative employee reviews, with the fact that the animators’ complaint are ignored at best despite the fans also feeling the same thing.

Patterz reacting to the “Game Freak exposed” video that shows some of those reviews in question.

 

[Nokocchi]

Remember, they have less manpower, technology advancement and competency in comparison to most Nintendo subdivisions.

I mean, Game Freak is not a part of Nintendo. They are a 3rd party company that has a three-way share of the Pokemon property alongside Nintendo and Creatures Inc. Which is why they have released non-Pokemon titles on Sega, Sony, and Microsoft systems before, some from the last console generation(Like Tembo the Badass Elephant that was on PC, PS4, and Xbox One but skipped the Wii U)

It's no excuse for their current situation, but I doubt that Nintendo would funnel money to them directly when they're been openly and publicly talking about wanting to create a non-Pokemon success they own full rights to so their finances aren't attached to Nintendo a the hip in its entirety since like 2013.

 

[R_N]

I’m not sure how likely they’ll step back their ambition, considering that having more time doesn’t automatically resolve their current issues. It’ll take more than time to make a polished, quality product.

Remember, they have less manpower, technology advancement and competency in comparison to most Nintendo subdivisions. Arrogance is also abound according to some negative employee reviews, with the fact that the animators’ complaint are ignored at best despite the fans also feeling the same thing.

Patterz reacting to the “Game Freak exposed” video that shows some of those reviews in question.

Less shooting for the moon & More time will likely resolve some of their issues. Yeah more time isn't a panacae for all problems (especially since in this case "more time" would likely be, like...an extra year where as something like an average big Nintendo title is probably in the oven for many years longer), but it sure would help if they also don't want to reach for stuff they have no hope of hitting.

I'd also say some of their technological advanacement aint bad anyway, they resolved their pipeline issues post-SWSH, are a company that seemingly handled the shift to work from home pretty well and some of their new tools seem fine.
What different companies actually have behind them is all a little vague anyway....nintendo in particular can feel really cagey.






Also why not just link the original "GAMEFREAK EXPOSED!" video instead of a react video? I never bothered watching it but I think there was even a follow up where he looked into the validity of the review claims (I assume at least most of them were real, anyway)

 

[Samtendo09]

Also why not just link the original "GAMEFREAK EXPOSED!" video instead of a react video? I never bothered watching it but I think there was even a follow up where he looked into the validity of the review claims (I assume at least most of them were real, anyway)

There’s two of those, actually, both by Gireum Red.

First one that are the reviews themselves (translated, too, since most are written in Japanese) and the second one that gives out clarifications if the site is trustworthy and other questions answered.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Every so often I see someone say "I thought Slugma/Skarmory/Chinchou was actually a Gen III Pokemon" or similar.

I rarely get Pokemon mixed up with the generation they're from, but every time I try and use the Time Capsule I always seem to get caught out with a move I forgot didn't exist in RBY. Fair enough, Outrage and Perish Song are Gen II moves, but there are a bunch of Gen II moves that feel so "basic" in concept (Protect, Safeguard, Encore, Foresight, Endure, Baton Pass*) you'd be forgiven for thinking that they originated in Gen I.



*Actually who am I kidding, Baton Pass would have been a horrendous glitchy mess if they'd tried it in Gen I so maybe that one's justified

 

[ant4456]

I’m not sure how likely they’ll step back their ambition, considering that having more time doesn’t automatically resolve their current issues. It’ll take more than time to make a polished, quality product.

Remember, they have less manpower, technology advancement and competency in comparison to most Nintendo subdivisions. Arrogance is also abound according to some negative employee reviews, with the fact that the animators’ complaint are ignored at best despite the fans also feeling the same thing.

Patterz reacting to the “Game Freak exposed” video that shows some of those reviews in question.

besides what other person said, people also always act like Game Freak just sucks at game development when really a lot of the issue is just a codebase not designed for open zone games, which they will never have the time to redo

also like "technological advancement" is just a bizarre thing to say honestly

someone brought up "arrogance" but I'ma be for real, Scarlet and Violet has fine animations

the character animations, idle animations, etc. are a big step up from prior Pokemon games, and the fully animated cutscenes are also just better than before. In-battle animations are worse because they have to be, with battles taking place at basically anywhere on the map. That's something you sacrifice for things like no transitions to a premade area for visuals.

Legends Arceus battles also have pretty shit animations in battle, it's just that 70% of the screen is covered in a filter with minor effects. Which I do wish were in SV, but also aren't really "animation" work, it's not like you're animating those scenes. It'd require different code. And with how rushed SV already is, I'm not surprised they just did that as usual.

 

[Yung Dramps]

And now for a rare aspect where Platinum is actually a downgrade over DP:

The recurring reporter NPC Kinsey uses Chatot in Diamond & Pearl. Not only is this fitting and cute but it's also a fun way to show off that Pokemon who is otherwise not associated with any other notable NPC. In Platinum this was changed to a series of multiple battles with Luxray and Drifblim, which are fine I guess but way more boring.