Research What's your least favorite gen 8 pokemon?

[Bull Of Heaven]

I'm going with Indeedee, and I'm surprised that I haven't seen it mentioned already.

They already did Psychic-types that detect and respond to emotions with the Ralts line. They already did a Psychic-type with battle-relevant gender differences in Meowstic. Almost every gen 8 design has something going for it, but there's just nothing that I find interesting about Indeedee.

 

[Magcargo]

G-Max Eevee really undersells what made Eevee so appealing in the first place - the ability to evolve from three to eight Pokémon so far - and if that trend continues, people will ends up getting tired of Eevee, or worse, unfairly the whole Eeveelution line. I mean, yikes, that is a Gigantamax that just screams “wasted opportunity”!

I like GMax Eevee's design, but I wish they just gave in an item like Light Ball for Pikachu or let us use starter Eevee from LGPE since it would actually be usable then.

Most of the Pokemon introduced in SwSh are fine design-wise. Some like Spectrier and Grimsnarl are a bit too bland or weird for me, but I don't dislike them. That being said, there is one Pokemon that really disappoints me.

Grapploct is one of the most bland mono-Fighting-types around. Its got worse stats to Machamp in every relevant stat, 2 abilities that are mostly useless, and a signature move that's OK, but nothing to write home about. I really wish it was Water / Fighting since that would at least let it stand out from the crowd more, but alas.

 

[Hugin]

Most of the Pokemon introduced in SwSh are fine design-wise. Some like Spectrier and Grimsnarl are a bit too bland or weird for me, but I don't dislike them. That being said, there is one Pokemon that really disappoints me.

Grapploct is one of the most bland mono-Fighting-types around. Its got worse stats to Machamp in every relevant stat, 2 abilities that are mostly useless, and a signature move that's OK, but nothing to write home about. I really wish it was Water / Fighting since that would at least let it stand out from the crowd more, but alas.

Grapploct, Farfetch'd/Sirfetch'd, Falinks. VIII introduced 3 pure fighting pokemon, which are all some combo of poor stats, available late, or just boring. They even added 3 fighting type legendaries just to make sure you never use one of these on your team

 

[Gaboswampert]

Thievul by far its one of my least favorite mons, and in my opinion, the worst mon of gen 8

Nickit was perfect, i love nickit, its like adorable, and idk but i love the design of nickit, and, in a blink, it becomes a weird hoodini stealer with his tail/bag that now it has like nothing???, its just so weird, its plain, it ruins a perfect preevo, the only good things about thievul is the shiny and his red color, but nickit already has those things

 

[pokemon4eva]

I think the only Galar mon that I can safely say I don't like is Galarian Rapidash, it just looks so plain compared to other regional forms, and arguably less majestic that its Fire counterpart. Not to mention Pastel Veil is garbage while it could've had a cooler effect like being 100% immune to the Poison type.

Also, there was potential for a cool new and stronger evolution like Linoone and Mr Mime got, since Rapidash stats are kinda mediocre, but we didn't get one. All this horse means to me is wasted potential...

 

[VikavoltIsEpik]

is my least favourite pokemon. It’s so ugly and I hate the fact it’s wearing a football shirt when it’s a bunny they took the football idea WAY too far

 

[Chadlad50]

is my least favourite pokemon. It’s so ugly and I hate the fact it’s wearing a football shirt when it’s a bunny they took the football idea WAY too far

I'd like Cinderace a lot more if it wasn't "wearing pants"

Like I'm fine Pokemon "wearing clothes" if it looks natural enough, stuff like Gardevoir, Obstagoon, etc. But Cinderace just looks like a mascot's costume

 

[Eeveeto]

Calyrex has to be the ugliest shit ever. And the weakest too when not riding a considerably stronger horse.

 

[tondas]

eiscue is an abomination at least everything else questionable is par for the course ie single stage gimmick mons, generic early routes, etc. both forms are hideous, its main gimmick was done better last gen, bland movepool outside of belly drum deliberately handed to it to make it not a complete waste, dumb pokemon dumb game pokemon sucks

pincurchin is a close #2 for similar reasons but at least it's cute

 

[VikavoltIsEpik]

I'd like Cinderace a lot more if it wasn't "wearing pants"

Like I'm fine Pokemon "wearing clothes" if it looks natural enough, stuff like Gardevoir, Obstagoon, etc. But Cinderace just looks like a mascot's costume

Yeah it looks slapped on it as a last minute detail and it's why it is my least favourite mon

 

[Sonikku A]

This is a toughie since I don't like a good chunk of 8 mons design wise

I'll just spitball it

Impidimp: It's so blatant modern "yokai" it defeats the more monstrous or whimsical point of mon design (past Yokai mons at least feel like beasts or weird denizens, not kid cartoons). It feels lazy, is color wise outrageous, and if it wasn't for Grimmsnarl this line is garbage
Chewtle: Big head syndrome already affected most base/cute mons after FRLG, but Chewtle not only takes that to the extreme, it has that dumb as hell tooth that's a trope in modern "simplified" anime
Toxel: It's an ugly baby with a blatant diaper for no reason, which is saying something given Smoochum or Vullaby generally is thought as that
Greedent: It's somehow more lame than Bibarel (screw your Bidoof memes, Kecleon is the true God)
Dottler: Not a fan of the blatantly geometric look
Yamper/Boltund: The entire line is beyond generic human pet. Especially Yamper
Carkol: I get it's a minecart, but the stump legs and the freaking eyes feel like a joke. Coalassal doesn't make things better, but it doesn't feel so much of a joke in comparison
Appletun: Contemporary food mon is an idea I'm not happy with. Applin and Flapple at least are unique with the concept (camouflage, literal wyvern), but Appletun is blatantly a pie. The eyes are also creepy (no they're not ears)
Milcury/Alcremie: Just...WHY ARE THERE SO MANY VARIATIONS!? And it's another contemporary food mon
makes Arbok's dex entries seem even more of a joke
Eiscue/Morpeko: Lazy (and latter is such a garbage trope)
Regidrago: I like Regeleki's design, so seeing....a Charizard head on a plain ball with stumps was massively disappointing
at the very least, it keeps the nuclear theme
Kubfu: it feels extremely try hard for "aspiring fighter" 1st mon. The upside down U mouth makes it worse

I have more dislikes, but these are the ones I feel most strongly about

 

[Samtendo09]

I got a round-out of “most frequently disliked” Gen 8 Pokémon so far with them being mentioned plentiful. I won’t include least favorites that got mentioned only once or twice in this thread. If I missed some, be my guest.

• and were mentioned a lot, due to being way too humanoid overall. They do look great in action, but that’s not enough for them from perpetual vitriol. , though not without its own share of detractors, fares a lot better in comparison in term of general reception, though you won’t like it if you play VGC.
  • I want to add that the blatant favoritism toward Cinderace since the beginning of Gen 8 doesn’t help its case, either.
• came under fire due to awful design, being too silly in a bad way. Competitive success doesn’t offset it completely either, as Ice Face is easily avoidable by throwing Special Attackers on it’s face.
• is similar, with not much thought put into it.
• is considered as a severe disappointment of an evolution. also got cold reception for similar reason.
• By contrast, got a sappy reputation due to unappealingly big head and overall odd proportions.
• and might as well be the most unpopular Galarian forms and regional evolution respectively. did get criticized a lot for wasted potential for sure.
• is overlooked a lot, suffering the very same problems you’d expect from the likes of original Corsola and Luvdisc.

 

[tondas]

also perrserker is rad as hell i dont get the hate nor the idea of a galarian persian being this thing with huge expectations

 

[khlaylav]

Cinderace is a Digimon and is a crappy attempt at getting the Greninja hype back with its knockoff (pun not intended) of Protean.

 

[Samtendo09]

also perrserker is rad as hell i dont get the hate nor the idea of a galarian persian being this thing with huge expectations

I dunno, but just because they are “unpopular” that they aren’t overall hated, per se. It’s just the fact that Galarian Meowth line isn’t as popular as, say, the Galarian Zigzagoon line.

I do think the fact that they essentially have beard instead of being scuffy furballs does a thing against them.

 

[bdt2002]

How's this for a searing hot take?



The fact that a mascot Legendary was screwed up this much is absolutely baffling. Realistically, I don't think Zacian in either of its formes is an inherently bad Pokémon. It takes a lot for me to give a Pokémon that tag, believe me. Rather, I really only dislike Zacian from a competitive standpoint. Anyone who has played literally any Gen 8 format knows how oppressive Zacian is in both Formes. Each one has its niche over the other (Zacian-Hero can notably hold an item) and both were the next Pokémon to be banned from Ubers after Mega Rayquaza's onslaught of the ORAS metagame.

You guys wanna know how many times counterpart mascot Legendaries have been in different tiers because one is just that much stronger than the other? Only twice. It first happened with Black Kyurem in BW2 being released into OU since it was just that bad of an Uber and honestly not that great in Gen 5 OU, a streak that lasted all the way until Kyurem's buffs in the Crown Tundra DLC of Generation 8. Zamazenta, Zacian's Shield counterpart, isn't nearly as bad as pre-buff Kyurem-Black, but is still stuck in Ubers while Zacian rules over Anything Goes. Heck, Zamazenta actually got BETTER in Ubers in both of its Formes because Zacian was banned from the format.

This whole time I've been talking about Singles, but what about Doubles Ubers? As it turns out, Zacian-Crowned is unquestionably the top Pokémon in that metagame, made even better by the fact that Dynamax remains unbanned in the format unlike in Singles Ubers, allowing Zacian's Behemoth Blade to slice through the terrifyingly strong and bulky metagame with little effort.

Here's a full list of reasons why Zacian might be the most broken individual species of Pokémon in history. Finishing up this post, I'm entirely convinced that Zacian was purposely designed to be as overpowered as possible, "Brawl Meta Knight" style.

-Intrepid Sword is basically an anti-Intimidate that affects its own Pokémon
-Fairy typing often merged with Steel has so, so many good matchups
-Iron Head turned Behemoth Blade is a base 100 power Steel-Type STAB with no drawbacks
-130 base Attack plus a held item, or 170 base Attack with no item
-Ridiculous 138 Speed tier in its base form, increased to an oppressive 148 when Crowned
-92/115/115 bulk spread is absolutely incredible given Zacian's supposed to be the offensive one

 

[Hugin]

For some reason, GF, especially in Gen VIII, seems to consider all stat mods to be roughly the same in power, and they aren't. A guaranteed Atk+ is much more useful than a Def+, both because offense is generally better than defense, and because you can guarantee that you'll be using physical attacks while there's no way to keep your oppt from having random Overheat for coverage. I'm a little surprised they were dumb enough to make Intrepid Sword an ability, honestly. After Download, Moxie, Soul Heart, and Beast Boost have run roughshod over the competitive scene for so long, they should have learned their lesson.

 

[Chadlad50]

How's this for a searing hot take?



The fact that a mascot Legendary was screwed up this much is absolutely baffling. Realistically, I don't think Zacian in either of its formes is an inherently bad Pokémon. It takes a lot for me to give a Pokémon that tag, believe me. Rather, I really only dislike Zacian from a competitive standpoint. Anyone who has played literally any Gen 8 format knows how oppressive Zacian is in both Formes. Each one has its niche over the other (Zacian-Hero can notably hold an item) and both were the next Pokémon to be banned from Ubers after Mega Rayquaza's onslaught of the ORAS metagame.

You guys wanna know how many times counterpart mascot Legendaries have been in different tiers because one is just that much stronger than the other? Only twice. It first happened with Black Kyurem in BW2 being released into OU since it was just that bad of an Uber and honestly not that great in Gen 5 OU, a streak that lasted all the way until Kyurem's buffs in the Crown Tundra DLC of Generation 8. Zamazenta, Zacian's Shield counterpart, isn't nearly as bad as pre-buff Kyurem-Black, but is still stuck in Ubers while Zacian rules over Anything Goes. Heck, Zamazenta actually got BETTER in Ubers in both of its Formes because Zacian was banned from the format.

This whole time I've been talking about Singles, but what about Doubles Ubers? As it turns out, Zacian-Crowned is unquestionably the top Pokémon in that metagame, made even better by the fact that Dynamax remains unbanned in the format unlike in Singles Ubers, allowing Zacian's Behemoth Blade to slice through the terrifyingly strong and bulky metagame with little effort.

Here's a full list of reasons why Zacian might be the most broken individual species of Pokémon in history. Finishing up this post, I'm entirely convinced that Zacian was purposely designed to be as overpowered as possible, "Brawl Meta Knight" style.

-Intrepid Sword is basically an anti-Intimidate that affects its own Pokémon
-Fairy typing often merged with Steel has so, so many good matchups
-Iron Head turned Behemoth Blade is a base 100 power Steel-Type STAB with no drawbacks
-130 base Attack plus a held item, or 170 base Attack with no item
-Ridiculous 138 Speed tier in its base form, increased to an oppressive 148 when Crowned
-92/115/115 bulk spread is absolutely incredible given Zacian's supposed to be the offensive one

If Zacian-C doesn't get Intimidated, you can switch in and have 723 attack with Max investment and an Adamant nature. That's even more than Mega Mawile, who has 105 attack and HUGE POWER. And don't forget Zacian-C isn't slow as balls like Mega Mawile.

And Zacian-H can switch in with 539 attack, which is lower than both, but can hold an item. Give it a Choice Band and suddenly it has 807 attack. All because it switched in. "Luckily" it's completely hard countered by Zacian-C so it never sees usage when both are allowed, but still.

All of this is made worse by, like you said, their ridiculous speed tiers. Zacian-C should've been slower than it's Hero form similar to Zamazenta-C being slower than Zamazenta-H. It's wearing armor, why did it gain 10 speed??

 

[Samtendo09]

How's this for a searing hot take?



The fact that a mascot Legendary was screwed up this much is absolutely baffling. Realistically, I don't think Zacian in either of its formes is an inherently bad Pokémon. It takes a lot for me to give a Pokémon that tag, believe me. Rather, I really only dislike Zacian from a competitive standpoint. Anyone who has played literally any Gen 8 format knows how oppressive Zacian is in both Formes. Each one has its niche over the other (Zacian-Hero can notably hold an item) and both were the next Pokémon to be banned from Ubers after Mega Rayquaza's onslaught of the ORAS metagame.

You guys wanna know how many times counterpart mascot Legendaries have been in different tiers because one is just that much stronger than the other? Only twice. It first happened with Black Kyurem in BW2 being released into OU since it was just that bad of an Uber and honestly not that great in Gen 5 OU, a streak that lasted all the way until Kyurem's buffs in the Crown Tundra DLC of Generation 8. Zamazenta, Zacian's Shield counterpart, isn't nearly as bad as pre-buff Kyurem-Black, but is still stuck in Ubers while Zacian rules over Anything Goes. Heck, Zamazenta actually got BETTER in Ubers in both of its Formes because Zacian was banned from the format.

This whole time I've been talking about Singles, but what about Doubles Ubers? As it turns out, Zacian-Crowned is unquestionably the top Pokémon in that metagame, made even better by the fact that Dynamax remains unbanned in the format unlike in Singles Ubers, allowing Zacian's Behemoth Blade to slice through the terrifyingly strong and bulky metagame with little effort.

Here's a full list of reasons why Zacian might be the most broken individual species of Pokémon in history. Finishing up this post, I'm entirely convinced that Zacian was purposely designed to be as overpowered as possible, "Brawl Meta Knight" style.

-Intrepid Sword is basically an anti-Intimidate that affects its own Pokémon
-Fairy typing often merged with Steel has so, so many good matchups
-Iron Head turned Behemoth Blade is a base 100 power Steel-Type STAB with no drawbacks
-130 base Attack plus a held item, or 170 base Attack with no item
-Ridiculous 138 Speed tier in its base form, increased to an oppressive 148 when Crowned
-92/115/115 bulk spread is absolutely incredible given Zacian's supposed to be the offensive one

For some reason, GF, especially in Gen VIII, seems to consider all stat mods to be roughly the same in power, and they aren't. A guaranteed Atk+ is much more useful than a Def+, both because offense is generally better than defense, and because you can guarantee that you'll be using physical attacks while there's no way to keep your oppt from having random Overheat for coverage. I'm a little surprised they were dumb enough to make Intrepid Sword an ability, honestly. After Download, Moxie, Soul Heart, and Beast Boost have run roughshod over the competitive scene for so long, they should have learned their lesson.

If Zacian-C doesn't get Intimidated, you can switch in and have 723 attack with Max investment and an Adamant nature. That's even more than Mega Mawile, who has 105 attack and HUGE POWER. And don't forget Zacian-C isn't slow as balls like Mega Mawile.

And Zacian-H can switch in with 539 attack, which is lower than both, but can hold an item. Give it a Choice Band and suddenly it has 807 attack. All because it switched in. "Luckily" it's completely hard countered by Zacian-C so it never sees usage when both are allowed, but still.

All of this is made worse by, like you said, their ridiculous speed tiers. Zacian-C should've been slower than it's Hero form similar to Zamazenta-C being slower than Zamazenta-H. It's wearing armor, why did it gain 10 speed??

I’ve seen some cynics / pessimists saying that GF didn’t cared about balance, at least not all that much. One can say that stuff like Heavy-Duty Boots and the Aegislash nerf won’t mean much ultimately if the balance issues are still running rampant.

Now, perfect balance isn’t possible and there will still be mediocre and poor Pokémon introduced each generation. But when more and more Pokémon that are both overpowered and uninteresting, or interesting but so bad or so gimmicky it loops back to uninteresting, they can quickly pile up to the point it becomes its own problem.

 

[Chadlad50]

I’ve seen some cynics / pessimists saying that GF didn’t cared about balance, at least not all that much. One can say that stuff like Heavy-Duty Boots and the Aegislash nerf won’t mean much ultimately if the balance issues are still running rampant.

Now, perfect balance isn’t possible and there will still be mediocre and poor Pokémon introduced each generation. But when more and more Pokémon that are both overpowered and uninteresting, or interesting but so bad or so gimmicky it loops back to uninteresting, they can quickly pile up to the point it becomes its own problem.

That's why Eternatus is my favorite Gen 8 Legendary

It's really good, like a top tier Pokemon, but not like how Calyrex-S and Zacian-C are. It has good stats, but nothing insane like 170 attack or 165 Special Attack. It has a good movepool, but no insane moves like Zacian-C having Close Combat or Astral Bullshit. It's typing is good, but not the best in the game like Zacian-C. It's ability is decent, but nowhere near as good as either Zacian or Rexes.

I'd argue it's the most balanced top tier Uber Pokemon. Yveltal is also close, but one of the reasons it's so ubiquitous is because it's one of the only checks to Calyrex-S.

 

[bdt2002]

I’ve seen some cynics / pessimists saying that GF didn’t cared about balance, at least not all that much. One can say that stuff like Heavy-Duty Boots and the Aegislash nerf won’t mean much ultimately if the balance issues are still running rampant.

Now, perfect balance isn’t possible and there will still be mediocre and poor Pokémon introduced each generation. But when more and more Pokémon that are both overpowered and uninteresting, or interesting but so bad or so gimmicky it loops back to uninteresting, they can quickly pile up to the point it becomes its own problem.

That's why Eternatus is my favorite Gen 8 Legendary

It's really good, like a top tier Pokemon, but not like how Calyrex-S and Zacian-C are. It has good stats, but nothing insane like 170 attack or 165 Special Attack. It has a good movepool, but no insane moves like Zacian-C having Close Combat or Astral Bullshit. It's typing is good, but not the best in the game like Zacian-C. It's ability is decent, but nowhere near as good as either Zacian or Rexes.

I'd argue it's the most balanced top tier Uber Pokemon. Yveltal is also close, but one of the reasons it's so ubiquitous is because it's one of the only checks to Calyrex-S.

Game Freak's always used generational power creep to its advantage. If newer Pokémon didn't get stronger each Generation, the metagame would get stale over time. Does their approach to fixing this actually work? No, of course not.

 

[Samtendo09]

Game Freak's always used generational power creep to its advantage. If newer Pokémon didn't get stronger each Generation, the metagame would get stale over time. Does their approach to fixing this actually work? No, of course not.

I do not think it’s necessarily the newer Pokémon being stronger overall as it’s more about the non-legendaries being more useful (even then, not always true), and how poorly GF attempted to buff several weaker of the older gens Pokémon in Gen 7 and 8.

Gen 2, 4 to an extent, 6 and 7 falls victim of too many of their Pokémon being either difficult to access or having overall poor performances despite looking promises. That don’t 100% applied to competitive VGC which started at Gen 5, and even then, variety started to become a bare minimum during Gen 6 and especially Gen 7, likely due to power creep caused by Gen 6, but not with the new Pokémon, but with the Mega Evolution’s middling-to-bad execution in hindsight.

Plus the metagame can still become stale if the returnees remained hyper dominant, or if the new mechanic ends up making the metagame even more linear with same-old strategies seen so often.

Specialization creep is the better way to put it. A Pokémon that is excellent at too many things, or is hyper-specialized but also somehow have other great qualities, is always going to be more hated than a Pokémon who happens to be overall great all-around as it simply happens to be good, but not excellent, at many things.

 

[Bakugames]

A Pokémon that is excellent at too many things, or is hyper-specialized but also somehow have other great qualities, is always going to be more hated than a Pokémon who happens to be overall great all-around as it simply happens to be good, but not excellent, at many things.

Idk man people still want landorus t to be banned in our god given year of 2022

 

[Chadlad50]

Idk man people still want landorus t to be banned in our god given year of 2022

That's just cause he's everywhere

Landorus T in OU is actually a net positive but man he's so ugly I hate seeing him everywhere

 

[Original Dragon Arkvelza]

I had a very hard time deciding, especially since most of the Pokemon I don't think enough about, but for now I think I'll go with
When I look at I see pure laziness. It doesn't help that I don't like the Bulbasaur line. However, the GMax is much more than lazy to me. It looks downright stupid and I have a hard time taking it seriously. I get not everybody can be a winner, especially when your competition is and (Sorry I'm not showing the 3D models, which look awesome, but it won't let me show the models of Blastoise and Venusaur's GMax and it would feel unfair to compare 2 sprites with one model), but now I'm starting to pity Venusaur more than anything.