(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[KalosianPorygon]

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.

Protect in Generation I is probably my biggest Mandela Effect thingie in the games.

About animations, everyone clown on move animations in the mainline games, but I remember the Stadium-esque ones also have their fair share of wack animations.
Agility for example always looked bad, in fact Pokémon Battle Revolution might have my least favorite take of this move. I hate the blur this game gives on this move and others.
Seismic Toss, on the other hand, is perfection and I will not accept any other opinion.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Protect in Generation I is probably my biggest Mandela Effect thingie in the games.

Right???

About animations, everyone clown on move animations in the mainline games, but I remember the Stadium-esque ones also have their fair share of wack animations.
Agility for example always looked bad, in fact Pokémon Battle Revolution might have my least favorite take of this move. I hate the blur this game gives on this move and others.
Seismic Toss, on the other hand, is perfection and I will not accept any other opinion.

I can't believe I've never done a post about move animations, should really get on that. Double Team in Gen II is a longstanding favourite.

Quite fond of a lot of PBR's animations. I particularly like how the HP bar has a different animation depending on what move a Pokemon was hit with - if you lose HP to a Fire-type move, the depleting HP has a little flame effect, and if it's a Grass-type move, it looks like leaves.

 

[Coronis]

I remember loving Minimize’s animation (well not animation exactly but you get it) in Gen 1/2

 

[Arkm]

Not having a rock/Ice glass canon.

 

[MoonlightRose]

What genius thought that the best way to make Avalugg's Hisui form stand out was to make both of its massive, crippling flaws worse

 

[woodgoldtwo]

What genius thought that the best way to make Avalugg's Hisui form stand out was to make both of its massive, crippling flaws worse

(Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this post got progressively less related to the post i replied to as i kept writing and just turned into a bunch of unconnected sentences attempting to explain why hisuilugg is not that bad from a design perspective)

There isn’t a lot they could have done, avalugg is conceptually flawed due to being a defensive ice type and drastically changing its stats would require them to change it’s design as well to the point where it might as well just be a completely separate pokemon

Patching all its flaws would require a revision from the ground up which as i said (wrote?) above would make it ”not avalugg”

Making it more defensive just doesn’t work as long as it keeps the ice type and the ice type is so integral to the design (it’s an iceberg) that it cannot be discarded (not related to the post i replied to but i wanted to include it anyway so here you go)

Worsening an already bad defensive profile in exchange for increased offensive potential is a good way to make it stand out from regular avalugg while not making it too different to the point where it’s ”not avalugg” anymore (though i do agree that they could have done more but the lowered special defense doesn’t really matter when it was so low anyway)

It doesn’t invalidate the original while it has some small situationally preferable traits that still give it a niche in certain situations

There are two types of regional variants: Upgrades and Sidegrades and while i agree that avalugg needed the former the latter is what we got

 

[SwampySwampert]

Probably been mentioned before, but Walking Wake, Raging Bolt , Iron Crown, and Iron Leaves are in the game, but the OG legendary beasts and musketeers can't be transferred into Scarlet/Violet from Gen 8 because...reasons. GF had a chance to add them as transferrable in the DLC but just didn't. And this isn't a "present-day Pokemon coming face-to-face with future/past counterparts" issue, because every other base form of a Paradox can be obtainable in vanilla.

Guess my Suicune that I got from Max Raid will just be hanging out in HOME forever.

 

[R_N]

Probably been mentioned before, but Walking Wake, Raging Bolt , Iron Crown, and Iron Leaves are in the game, but the OG legendary beasts and musketeers can't be transferred into Scarlet/Violet from Gen 8 because...reasons. GF had a chance to add them as transferrable in the DLC but just didn't. And this isn't a "present-day Pokemon coming face-to-face with future/past counterparts" issue, because every other base form of a Paradox can be obtainable in vanilla.

Guess my Suicune that I got from Max Raid will just be hanging out in HOME forever.

I mean, Wake & Leaves are in the game mostly just as a preview for their DLC appearence & the other 2 aren't available anywhere.

Part 2, where they will be actually available alongside Bolt & Crown, is still not out yet and if any DLC is going to add the beasts/musketeers to the game it's that one

 

[Esserise]

I just checked on Bulbapedia that each mochi gives 10 EVs in the respective stat, so they pretty much have the same effect as vitamins (protein, carbos, etc.). What is the point of adding six more items to clutter our bags? They could have just introduced a EV-resetting vitamin and then reward vitamins for the ogre mini-game. Other than flavor, I don't see the point of adding this new item that we will probably not see again.

I had to dip into my mochi reserves the other day, which caused me to remember this post. I started thinking about the matter, and I feel like if I had to guess, there may be a reason for adding mochi as seperate items besides just flavor: the game’s economy. Mochi can be acquired for free in large amounts pretty easily through Oger Oustin’, which makes mochi arguably more valuable than vitamins (which cost 10,000 P for a single bottle).

But by the same token, because vitamins are so expensive, they have a relatively high sell price (2,500 P). If Ogre Oustin’ just handed out bottles of vitamins at the same rate that it dispenses mochi (and naturally they would want the minigame to have a decent drop rate for mochi/vitamins in order to incentivize repeated engagement), you could just resell the excess vitamins and make ludicrous amounts of money very quickly. Having mochi be a separate item, however, means they can assign it its own sell price, which in this case is the far more meager yield of 125 P.

 

[Fracterra]

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.

You didn’t have an effect spore breloom that paralyzed the bastard, but yeah, they need to add a ghost type sound move, maybe called song of the dead, and many sound based pokemon, ie Kommo-o, Meloetta, Skeledirge, Toxtricity, etc

 

[Fracterra]

Probably been mentioned before, but Walking Wake, Raging Bolt , Iron Crown, and Iron Leaves are in the game, but the OG legendary beasts and musketeers can't be transferred into Scarlet/Violet from Gen 8 because...reasons. GF had a chance to add them as transferrable in the DLC but just didn't. And this isn't a "present-day Pokemon coming face-to-face with future/past counterparts" issue, because every other base form of a Paradox can be obtainable in vanilla.

Guess my Suicune that I got from Max Raid will just be hanging out in HOME forever.

Just because they haven’t been added yet, doesn’t mean they wont be added. Also, Genesect would be a perfect pokemon, as its a pokemon from the past, revived in the present, using futuristic technology.

 

[Coronis]

Just because they haven’t been added yet, doesn’t mean they wont be added. Also, Genesect would be a perfect pokemon, as its a pokemon from the past, revived in the present, using futuristic technology.

Yeah it does seem the perfect Pokemon to get a Paradox in the DLC. So it probs won’t happen :)

 

[Karxrida]

Almost posted the following in the "little things you like" thread by accident.

I really don't like how capturing Legendary Pokémon is so similar to capturing normal ones, except with stupidly low catch rates that do nothing but waste your time. Even with optimal setups you're dealing with crap odds until the game decides to stop fucking with you. It's not fun. I'd rather have a boss you just need to KO so I can engage with an actual threat to live up to the lore. Or be allowed to cheese with Lock On Sheer Cold Smeargle or something. That could also work.

 

[woodgoldtwo]

Almost posted the following in the "little things you like" thread by accident.

I really don't like how capturing Legendary Pokémon is so similar to capturing normal ones, except with stupidly low catch rates that do nothing but waste your time. Even with optimal setups you're dealing with crap odds until the game decides to stop fucking with you. It's not fun. I'd rather have a boss you just need to KO so I can either engage with an actual threat to live up to the lore. Or be allowed to cheese them with Lock On Sheer Cold Smeargle or something. That could also work.

As someone who spent multiple hours trying to catch Wo-Chien in a Nest Ball for color coordination i second this

 

[bdt2002]

Here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team data in Pokémon FireRed that I found on Bulbapedia. And here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team in Pokémon LeafGreen that I also found on Bulbapedia.

Leader Misty Cerulean Gym FireRed and LeafGreen Reward: 2100

https://www.smogon.com/forums/javascript:void(0);

Hide

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[TD]

Type: Water Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Staryu Lv.18 Tackle Normal Harden Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

Types: Water Psychic Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Starmie Lv.21 Rapid Spin Normal Swift Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]

Hide

Notice how there's only one team composition here. Yes, that's to be expected that NPC Trainers all have their teams made well in advance. So, what's the problem here? The problem, as I see it, is that several of them will use version-exclusive Pokémon on their teams even if you can't find this Pokémon in the wild in the version you're playing. From a gameplay perspective, I would imagine this was most often done for the sake of allowing players to have these Pokémon registered as "Seen" in the PokéDex regardless of if they can actually be obtained. Somewhat similarly, we have Pokémon such as Cynthia's Spiritomb in the Sinnoh games, who I'd be willing to bet was the only reason most players could eventually get that PokéDex sighting logged if they didn't have access to people to play in the Underground with. From a world-building perspective, however, this is where things start to fall apart. We know because of several datamines as well as the GameCube Pokémon games that NPC Trainers also have their own OT designations, meaning that we can naturally assume the Pokémon used by NPC Trainers were not specifically traded to them unless otherwise specified.

So with that in mind, using RBY/FRLG Misty as an example again, in the versions where Staryu and Starmie can't be obtained... where the heck did she get these Pokémon from? They couldn't have been found in the wild, as we've established, but they also couldn't have been traded to her since they're still internally recognized in the games as Misty's own Pokémon. I'm not asking for these games to be as realistic as possible, but from an in-universe perspective, there should be absolutely no reason Trainers do this so often. What's even more stupid to me is that the vast majority of the examples I could think of off of memory have other Pokémon that they could be replaced with for those versions. The most recent example I can think of where a game did this right was with Milo's rematch team in Sword & Shield, where two of his team members are actually different in each version which includes his G-Max Flapple/Appletun respectively.

(Disclaimer: If you try and cheat and catch an NPC's Pokémon during a battle, more often than not the game will try and treat it like a wild Pokémon encounter as a sort of failsafe. I know this because I've tried it before with Action Replay codes as a kid.)

(The first tab has the team data, and the second tab has the rest of the actual post. Also yes, that link does say Smogon and not Bulbapedia for some reason, I don't know why it did that.)

 

[pika pal]

Almost posted the following in the "little things you like" thread by accident.

I really don't like how capturing Legendary Pokémon is so similar to capturing normal ones, except with stupidly low catch rates that do nothing but waste your time. Even with optimal setups you're dealing with crap odds until the game decides to stop fucking with you. It's not fun. I'd rather have a boss you just need to KO so I can engage with an actual threat to live up to the lore. Or be allowed to cheese with Lock On Sheer Cold Smeargle or something. That could also work.

I am becoming very appreciative of Pokemon games that do away with this in favor of something like Eternamax Eternatus (Zacian carry not withstanding), Raid bosses, or Ogerpon in the Teal Mask. Besides the tedium of lobbing Pokeballs once you lock it down, I also share your issue with them not feeling up to the Lore, usually because Gamefreak has to reign them in or pick levels/moves that will prevent them from mauling your team during the capture (only major exception being RBY Mewtwo who they basically scream "use the Master Ball" for because it's as powerful as advertised).

Some Teal Mask Talk

I think it also plays better with battles like, again, Ogerpon, where it's a test of your and their ability to prove the Pokemon wants to come with, also reminiscent of Arceus in PLA essentially "gifting" you its Avatar as a team member. That lack of narrative context to standard captures is the subject of jokes for things like making the Loyal 3 have a Picnic with Ogerpon who literally beat them to death on very aggressive terms last time they fought.

 

[R_N]

Here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team data in Pokémon FireRed that I found on Bulbapedia. And here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team in Pokémon LeafGreen that I also found on Bulbapedia.

Leader Misty Cerulean Gym FireRed and LeafGreen Reward: 2100

https://www.smogon.com/forums/javascript:void(0);

Hide

[TR]
[TD]

Type: Water Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Staryu Lv.18 Tackle Normal Harden Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

Types: Water Psychic Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Starmie Lv.21 Rapid Spin Normal Swift Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]

Hide

Notice how there's only one team composition here. Yes, that's to be expected that NPC Trainers all have their teams made well in advance. So, what's the problem here? The problem, as I see it, is that several of them will use version-exclusive Pokémon on their teams even if you can't find this Pokémon in the wild in the version you're playing. From a gameplay perspective, I would imagine this was most often done for the sake of allowing players to have these Pokémon registered as "Seen" in the PokéDex regardless of if they can actually be obtained. Somewhat similarly, we have Pokémon such as Cynthia's Spiritomb in the Sinnoh games, who I'd be willing to bet was the only reason most players could eventually get that PokéDex sighting logged if they didn't have access to people to play in the Underground with. From a world-building perspective, however, this is where things start to fall apart. We know because of several datamines as well as the GameCube Pokémon games that NPC Trainers also have their own OT designations, meaning that we can naturally assume the Pokémon used by NPC Trainers were not specifically traded to them unless otherwise specified.

So with that in mind, using RBY/FRLG Misty as an example again, in the versions where Staryu and Starmie can't be obtained... where the heck did she get these Pokémon from? They couldn't have been found in the wild, as we've established, but they also couldn't have been traded to her since they're still internally recognized in the games as Misty's own Pokémon. I'm not asking for these games to be as realistic as possible, but from an in-universe perspective, there should be absolutely no reason Trainers do this so often. What's even more stupid to me is that the vast majority of the examples I could think of off of memory have other Pokémon that they could be replaced with for those versions. The most recent example I can think of where a game did this right was with Milo's rematch team in Sword & Shield, where two of his team members are actually different in each version which includes his G-Max Flapple/Appletun respectively.

(Disclaimer: If you try and cheat and catch an NPC's Pokémon during a battle, more often than not the game will try and treat it like a wild Pokémon encounter as a sort of failsafe. I know this because I've tried it before with Action Replay codes as a kid.)

(The first tab has the team data, and the second tab has the rest of the actual post. Also yes, that link does say Smogon and not Bulbapedia for some reason, I don't know why it did that.)

from an in-universe perspective the pokemon presumably still exists we just don't run into them

See also: any time a one-off Pokemon is on someone's team or in their possession. You must accept that no the starters aren't one offs, they're likely found somewhere in the region we just don't run into it for game play purposes. Something laid the Togepi egg Elm comes into posession of, but we never find any wild Togepi/Togetic in Johto; but that doesn't mean the egg came from another region or out of the ether, it just means the Pokemon must exist in the region and we just don't encounter them because its a gameplay contrivance. And if you can accept that, then you can accept that Misty caught her Staryu/Starmie normally within the region and we just happen to not find them ourselves.

 

[Esserise]

Even if you were to interpret version-exclusives as being literally completely absent from the region the game is set in (which I think would probably be taking it too far to begin with); that surely doesn’t mean they’re absent from the entire planet. Misty could have just gone over to Johto and caught a Staryu.

 

[Worldie]

There is also the fact that pokemon trading exists...

 

[Sonikku A]

The Ultrabeasts were a perfect opportunity to have none catchable boss battles. Possessed Lusamine similarly
Imagine my severe disappoinment

 

[R_N]

If Beast-Lusamine had been conceptualized even just a generation later, I could see it be a battle against her specifically either on her own or as the final "member" of her team

They experimented a little with the Totems, but Gen 8 took it a step further with Eternamax and Gen 9 has the Starmobiles (in addition to the Titans but that's more the Totem wheelhouse). So treating it as a "special Nihilego" would definitely be something they would have done. Maybe in the SM remakes in like 6 years (<- your reminder that SM will be 13 years old in 2029)

Though maybe that battle had them consider experimenting with it moving forward too.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team data in Pokémon FireRed that I found on Bulbapedia. And here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team in Pokémon LeafGreen that I also found on Bulbapedia.

Leader Misty Cerulean Gym FireRed and LeafGreen Reward: 2100

https://www.smogon.com/forums/javascript:void(0);

Hide

[TR]
[TD]

Type: Water Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Staryu Lv.18 Tackle Normal Harden Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

Types: Water Psychic Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Starmie Lv.21 Rapid Spin Normal Swift Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]

Hide

Notice how there's only one team composition here. Yes, that's to be expected that NPC Trainers all have their teams made well in advance. So, what's the problem here? The problem, as I see it, is that several of them will use version-exclusive Pokémon on their teams even if you can't find this Pokémon in the wild in the version you're playing. From a gameplay perspective, I would imagine this was most often done for the sake of allowing players to have these Pokémon registered as "Seen" in the PokéDex regardless of if they can actually be obtained. Somewhat similarly, we have Pokémon such as Cynthia's Spiritomb in the Sinnoh games, who I'd be willing to bet was the only reason most players could eventually get that PokéDex sighting logged if they didn't have access to people to play in the Underground with. From a world-building perspective, however, this is where things start to fall apart. We know because of several datamines as well as the GameCube Pokémon games that NPC Trainers also have their own OT designations, meaning that we can naturally assume the Pokémon used by NPC Trainers were not specifically traded to them unless otherwise specified.

So with that in mind, using RBY/FRLG Misty as an example again, in the versions where Staryu and Starmie can't be obtained... where the heck did she get these Pokémon from? They couldn't have been found in the wild, as we've established, but they also couldn't have been traded to her since they're still internally recognized in the games as Misty's own Pokémon. I'm not asking for these games to be as realistic as possible, but from an in-universe perspective, there should be absolutely no reason Trainers do this so often. What's even more stupid to me is that the vast majority of the examples I could think of off of memory have other Pokémon that they could be replaced with for those versions. The most recent example I can think of where a game did this right was with Milo's rematch team in Sword & Shield, where two of his team members are actually different in each version which includes his G-Max Flapple/Appletun respectively.

(Disclaimer: If you try and cheat and catch an NPC's Pokémon during a battle, more often than not the game will try and treat it like a wild Pokémon encounter as a sort of failsafe. I know this because I've tried it before with Action Replay codes as a kid.)

(The first tab has the team data, and the second tab has the rest of the actual post. Also yes, that link does say Smogon and not Bulbapedia for some reason, I don't know why it did that.)

I get where you're coming from, but the only thing that would make version exclusives more annoying than they are now is if they also functioned as a blanket restriction on NPC teambuilding

 

[Ironmage]

I think that single-entity battles (raids included) are inherently a misuse use of the combat mechanics and they should stop focusing on them.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team data in Pokémon FireRed that I found on Bulbapedia. And here's a direct copy-paste of Gym Leader Misty's team in Pokémon LeafGreen that I also found on Bulbapedia.

Leader Misty Cerulean Gym FireRed and LeafGreen Reward: 2100

https://www.smogon.com/forums/javascript:void(0);

Hide

[TR]
[TD]

Type: Water Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Staryu Lv.18 Tackle Normal Harden Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

Types: Water Psychic Ability: Natural Cure Held item: None Starmie Lv.21 Rapid Spin Normal Swift Normal Recover Normal Water Pulse Water

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]

Hide

Notice how there's only one team composition here. Yes, that's to be expected that NPC Trainers all have their teams made well in advance. So, what's the problem here? The problem, as I see it, is that several of them will use version-exclusive Pokémon on their teams even if you can't find this Pokémon in the wild in the version you're playing. From a gameplay perspective, I would imagine this was most often done for the sake of allowing players to have these Pokémon registered as "Seen" in the PokéDex regardless of if they can actually be obtained. Somewhat similarly, we have Pokémon such as Cynthia's Spiritomb in the Sinnoh games, who I'd be willing to bet was the only reason most players could eventually get that PokéDex sighting logged if they didn't have access to people to play in the Underground with. From a world-building perspective, however, this is where things start to fall apart. We know because of several datamines as well as the GameCube Pokémon games that NPC Trainers also have their own OT designations, meaning that we can naturally assume the Pokémon used by NPC Trainers were not specifically traded to them unless otherwise specified.

So with that in mind, using RBY/FRLG Misty as an example again, in the versions where Staryu and Starmie can't be obtained... where the heck did she get these Pokémon from? They couldn't have been found in the wild, as we've established, but they also couldn't have been traded to her since they're still internally recognized in the games as Misty's own Pokémon. I'm not asking for these games to be as realistic as possible, but from an in-universe perspective, there should be absolutely no reason Trainers do this so often. What's even more stupid to me is that the vast majority of the examples I could think of off of memory have other Pokémon that they could be replaced with for those versions. The most recent example I can think of where a game did this right was with Milo's rematch team in Sword & Shield, where two of his team members are actually different in each version which includes his G-Max Flapple/Appletun respectively.

(Disclaimer: If you try and cheat and catch an NPC's Pokémon during a battle, more often than not the game will try and treat it like a wild Pokémon encounter as a sort of failsafe. I know this because I've tried it before with Action Replay codes as a kid.)

(The first tab has the team data, and the second tab has the rest of the actual post. Also yes, that link does say Smogon and not Bulbapedia for some reason, I don't know why it did that.)

How useful that I literally posted about this the other week and can regurgitate my thoughts on this verbatim

[...] There's no indication anywhere that version-exclusive Pokemon are version-exclusive to anyone but you, the player. This is admittedly one of those things where you make your own mind up, but my take has always been that version-exclusivity is simply a case of gameplay/story segregation. It's not that you literally live in a universe where Bellsprout never appears, it's just a way of representing that you're never lucky enough to find one and need to resort to trading for it. Other trainers use Pokemon that aren't in the wild: Blue catches and uses a Growlithe in both Red and Blue, and there's a collector in RS who uses either a Zangoose or Seviper depending on which version he's encountered in, calling it a "rare" Pokemon. So in the Ruby universe, Seviper is incredibly uncommon - that's all. There's no in-universe reason that a player of LeafGreen couldn't catch an Electabuzz or a player of Ruby can't catch a Lotad; they just don't because of a gameplay contrivance. Hell, the amount of NPCs who ask for Pokemon found right outside their city for something rare has always made this more plausible - some people can't get away from Spearow, other people can't find one no matter how hard they try.

 

[Esserise]

There is also the fact that pokemon trading exists...

Well, I think the annoyance being discussed is that Misty’s Pokémon are coded to have her own OT, but in FireRed, this (theoretically, depending on your interpretation) wouldn’t be possible since Staryu can’t be caught in FireRed Kanto.