Critical Hits; Good or Bad for Pokémon?

Are Critical Hits Needed?

  • Yes; they balance the game.

    Votes: 73 27.3%

  • Fuck no, they make me want to rip my D/S in half.

    Votes: 44 16.5%

  • Its a love-hate relationship...

    Votes: 150 56.2%
  • Total voters
    267

1337

I'm sure someone has made this discussion some time or another, but I haven't seen it. What is your opinion on Critical Hits? Do you think they are a necessary component of the game or just something Nintendo made to infuriate millions of gamers? I really don't see the point in them; I always wonder what game play without CHs would be like...

What do you think?
 
I voted love-hate. In all honesty though, I hate it when I get a critical hit because I feel like I don't deserve the victory. And obviously, I hate it when the opponent scores a crit against me. So I guess it's a hate-hate relationship.

But it's just tradition and I'm so accustomed to them after all these years. It's a part of the game now. If it was possible to turn them off, I'd definately do so though.
 
I see them as a necessary evil to keep battles between closely matched opponents much more exciting. Sure it sucks if you're on the receiving end of a CH but I'd rather play chess than hax-free Pokemon.
 
Love-hate, easy to answer. I just wish they kicked in more and at the crucial times I really needed them. My Battle Frontier Gengar has Scope Lens (Latios has Lum, and Snorlax has Lefties, and there's no Scarf/Specs) but it never kicks in when I want it to. All I needed it was to critical that TB so it could OHKO Aggron...nevermind. I'm eternally thankful for the critical hit Return that quickly ended a nasty Curse war between my Snorlax and the AI's one, one that could ahve ended easily in my defeat. Yet it was a critical hit from a Hariyama that killed Snorlax in the second round, two battles away from facing Tucker for the Gold symbol...
 
they make or break a game

like other things (like snow veil glaceon at 27%, dodging a shadow ball and then killing the opponent, odds are against you but everything went your way)

so, love-hate
 
I'll be honest... I'm usually not one to complain about "hax", as I am a supporter of the idea that "if you are pushing the RNG into your favour, it isn't simply hax anymore". But in terms of critical hits, being able to use that same strategy is few and far between. You can rarely ever reliably make use of them, and thus they are only ever there for the soul purpose of your wall dying sooner by chance, or you winning on the last stretch because you were lucky. It's much different than slapping that Brightpowder on your Garchomp and having a ball, because you know you're going to get some benefits on the occasion from it. I've never thought twice about my opponent complaining that Stone Edge missed my Froslass in the Hail-- that's their problem. But if I took out a vital part of their strategy just because of one measly CH, it isn't very satisfying personally. In a game as competetive as Pokemon, no one likes random monkey wrenches.
 
I personally hate them, they screw over so many strategies that would have worked otherwise, bring too much luck into the game and take away from the strategy.
 
I said I love them. Luck factors into many games and sports even. It's absolutely true that critical hits are devastating and seem (on shoddy) to come at the absolute worst of times and ruin your day.

However, they are essential to the game. Without them the game might become routine. I know the calculations for them is routine, but if/when they appear is what makes things interesting.

If you turn this off, turn off flinching or any move with secondary effects, like freeze on ice beam. Lets just remove all the 'h4x' from the game, watch how much less rich it actually becomes.
 
The main thing I hate about CHs are that they disregard all stat-ups, which really fucks shit over. I don't mind the damage boost, but it seems like every three battles, my opponent gets a Critical Hit on my Curse-Lax. :-\
 
Critical hits can be annoying when they happen to you, but like any form of hax you have to use them to your advantage. Besides the obvious things like Super Luck Absol using Night Slash and the whatnot, there is also making sure you don't take too many hits.

Some people think that they can just Slack Off/Softboiled/Recover all the damage off that they've taken and wall endlessly if it isn't a OHKO. Then a crit happens and they cry hax. Well, if you let your poke get hit 10 times+ with a move it's probably going to crit before they run out of PP. This happens even more with moves that have an added effect (Ice Beam etc.)

Moral of the story: Don't get greedy with defensive statups and always be prepared for the worst.
 
A lot of people say that they are needed to prevent stuff like Curselax from sweeping. This is pretty much hogwash, especially in DP. However, I wouldn't be opposed to a critical hit that doesn't double damage, but rather, simply ignores all -Atk / -SpAtk and +Def / +SpDef stat changes.

So no, I don't like them. I also don't buy into the "It would make Pokemon boring!!!" arguments. For me, Pokemon isn't interesting because of luck. In fact, luck is generally the cause of me losing interest. The "random" (from the player's perspective) part of the opponent being a thinking human is what makes the game interesting.
 
Moreso of a love-hate relationship. However, in the Rain there is nothing more fun to use than a Focus Energy + Scope Lens + Sniper Kingdra. Fucking monstrous!

However, I hate how Critical Hits can essentially screw up a strategy to the limits of loosing. Sometimes I don't like them myself, as I feel like I didn't gain a "fair win", but nevertheless thankful for them at times.
 
That's actually part of the reason TO have them, really. It adds some decision-making to stat-boosting strategies and leaving your Pokemon exposed. It's not too hard to figure out when you can safely use a boost, but now you have a real decision to make whether it's worth it to be able to severely cripple their team or go the one more turn and risk the crit with the reward being a full sweep.

It ticks me off a bit when people leave something in for 6 CMs with recovery move turns thrown in there and then cry when there's a crit. "Waaaah, it's only a 6.25% chance? Well, maybe you shouldn't have left your guy in there 10 turns without doing anything to make me stop hammering with the same attacks."
 
1337 said:
The main thing I hate about CHs are that they disregard all stat-ups, which really fucks shit over. I don't mind the damage boost, but it seems like every three battles, my opponent gets a Critical Hit on my Curse-Lax. :-\
Click to expand...

I'm the other way around; I wish they didn't do extra damage, but am grateful that they punch through stat boosts in the opponent/stat reduction in the user.
Earlier today I was battling someone's Gyarados whose attacks where presumably Waterfall and Earthquake with my Dragonite (one that knew roost, BTW); my opponent's Gyarados that DDed on the switch waterfalled for a critical hit doing ~56%; it then waterfalled me again, getting a second critical hit scoring the KO...
:chaos:
I wasn't particularly grateful that my opponent had to get these crits twice in a row; if either one wasn't a crit, my Dragonite would have survived (and as it didn't taunt presumably would have been able to roost/t-wave) easily.
Oh well...

However, in the case of defense boosters-they give the opponent a chance to still win, can end stall wars, and really in my opinion balance the game. This is a statement coming from me despite myself constantly using Curselax in the online battle tower, and getting frustrated whenever the AI gets a crit breaking through my defense boosts for the KO... In situations like this I really believe that critical hits might be helpful, although most teams run (p)hazers.
I guess I agree with Obi, although he states that even without them defense boosts wouldn't be an issue.

EDIT: about my story where the Gyarados scored two crits in a row letting it take out a pokemon that otherwise would have walled it; I was otherwise losing the game if I remember correctly so it didn't necessarily cost me the game, however, assuming the rest of my team was better an incident such as this could have been quite critical, and obviously extremely "hax".
 
I love them.

If i get a CH, I never feel bad about winning or whether or not I "deserved" it. I'm saying "Hell fucking yeah!"

If my oppoenent gets a crit hit, I do not get upset. I just shrug my shoulders and move on to the next match. After all, I'm not the greatest player there is.

Two factors though that influence my decision, is 1) the fact that I have few Calm Minders/Cursers on my teams. Crit hits benefit me more then they hurt, and 2) i've never been in a tourney; therefore, I have never seen a CH ruin my tournament. Maybe if that happened my attitude would be way different, but as of right now I've only played in regular matches.

Also, if one side gets too many crits, then I think it gets unfair.
 
I really feel like it balances the game. I do care if I lose to a crital hit but thats life. Sometimes it just likes to fuck with you. You both have a chance for a critcal hit so its not like it was an uneven playing field. It is part of the game. So if I lose because of a critcal hit of course I will be pissed but then I remeber that I could have done that do. I also don't disaprove of strategies that try to increase the chance of a critical hit.
 
I think this q is connected to the debate-- "Is pokemon an RPG or Strategy Game?"

In RPGs, randomness (and critical hits) are part of the dice-rolling tradition. They make up part of the excitement of the game.

For Smogoners though, since we're a battle community, we tend to think not at all of the in-game experience, but focus completely on the battling/strategy. So for us, CHs take a way some of the pure-skill mentality.

Overall, I think I'd agree with Yoda. While Pokemon is a battle/strategy game (especially the way smogoners play it), pokemon wouldn't be pokemon if it didn't also have the added randomness and identity as a great RPG.
 
For everyone who hates critical hits, I demand you stop using Stone Edge, Cross Chop, Night Slash, Psycho Cut, and Crabhammer. Especially on Honchkrow and Absol. You're contributing to the problem!

Critical hits are a part of the game and they serve as a balance on unfettered defensive statups.

If Critical Hits didn't exist, bet your bottom dollar Cosmic Power Clefable shoots up to OU in a heartbeat.

My Mence got criticalled twice in a row by Jirachi Thunderbolts. Funny thing was it still survived (My Mence is very Fat.) I don't hate my opponent for it and I'm not about to whine haxation.

Pokemon would be a pretty lame game without its myriad percentage effects.

You've got a better chance of getting full para than to CH. Nobody wants to ban Glare and Thunder Wave, even though their effect activates 4 times as often as a CH and drops speed by 3/4 to boot.

CH's are an integral part of the game, and they do more good than harm. If you REALLY hate them, there are 5 or 6 pokemon (and decent one's too) with some variant of Battle/Shell Armor and Lucky Chant.
 
Who cares?

Take the critical whether it goes your way or not and move on. Bitching about one thing will only lead to bitching about another thing.
 
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