(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[CPU]

I actually like Max Raid Battles; they're definitely flawed but a fun concept. The rewards/capture mechanics are pretty bad, though, and it's not good that you cant reset the dens unless you beat all the current ones (looks at you, Mewtwo).

I so rarely have any trouble with raids unless it's an event raid at this point. As long as you have a good team with decent coverage, you should be okay to solo most in the postgame. Of course, that does come down partly to your partners/AI but you get unlucky sometimes.

I don't think I've seen a single normal Raid Boss do more than 3 (maybe 4) attacks in a single turn, btw.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Hydro Pump Magikarp has genuinely been helpful

This says more about the other partners than it does the Magikarp

Exactly my point. lmao

We all know who the worse Max Raid NPC partner is...

STOP USING COSMIC POWER IT CAN RESET YOUR STATS!

==========

==========

=========

=========

(FUN FACT: His Solrock also knows PSYCHIC)

 

[DrPumpkinz]

We all know who the worse Max Raid NPC partner is...

STOP USING COSMIC POWER IT CAN RESET YOUR STATS!

==========

==========

=========

=========

(FUN FACT: His Solrock also knows PSYCHIC)

Something I learned when scrolling through Martin's Solrock memes: the official strategy tips page for max raid battles specifically acknowledges the bullshit of Martin and max raids in general.

If you're looking for a reason to engage in Max Raid Battles beyond having fun with your friends (or with game-controlled Trainers, like Martin and that darn Solrock that won't stop using Cosmic Power), there are quite a few.

You can only use one of your own Pokémon in each Max Raid Battle. If it gets knocked out, you'll be able to cheer for your team for a turn before your Pokémon returns to the action. Your cheering will have one of several effects, like restoring your teammates' HP, reducing the Dynamax Pokemon's barrier, or—in seemingly all the most crucial moments—doing nothing at all.

If you go with game-controlled teammates, we strongly suggest valuing defense over offense with your own Pokémon choice. You of course want a partner that can dish out some damage, but simply avoiding being knocked out so that you can attack each turn can be the best strategy. Game-controlled Trainers tend to make some strange choices, and there'll typically be some fainting on your side, so it's important to keep the battle moving forward. Your team will lose if four Pokémon on your side are knocked out. Don't add to that count.

Fighting against Dynamax Pokémon in Max Raid Battles can be quite tricky, as the rules your team operates under are a little different from the rules Dynamax Pokémon use. In addition to your side losing when four Pokémon have been knocked out (even if it's the same Pokémon four times, Martin), there are additional factors to keep in mind.

If you're ever unsure what to do in a Max Raid Battle, just attack. Don't be like Martin and his Solrock...

 

[Pikachu315111]

If you go with game-controlled teammates, we strongly suggest valuing defense over offense with your own Pokémon choice. You of course want a partner that can dish out some damage, but simply avoiding being knocked out so that you can attack each turn can be the best strategy. Game-controlled Trainers tend to make some strange choices, and there'll typically be some fainting on your side, so it's important to keep the battle moving forward. Your team will lose if four Pokémon on your side are knocked out. Don't add to that count.

LOL, NO! You want to go all out offense cause that's the only way you're going to win solo Raids! Infact going defensive is the worst thing you can do. The best advice is focusing on Type effectiveness, having a Pokemon that can both do super effective damage and also resist/immune to moves the Raid Pokemon will have. Oh, and that in solo you're the only one who will Dynamax so do that on your first turn cause if you don't you'll have to wait 4 turns to do so again as the game still insists on giving other NPCs the option even though they never take it.

That said, the fact the OFFICIAL SITE even addresses Martin and his Cosmic Power Solrock is making me worried a theory of mine might be true: the solo Raids NPCs were not only meant to be bad but they were made to be memes. Seriously with some of these options: Qwilfish, Togepi, Combee, Mudbray, Magikarp, Wobbuffet, Clefairy, Pikachu, & Eevee (note many of them holding Focus Sash so they'r not OHKO if targeted). And even the ones which could be decent/good have some odd move choices: Solrock famously with Cosmic Power, Dhelmise using Special Attacks, Torkoal with Clear Smog and having both Flame Wheel & Flamethrower, Jolteon with Physical moves, Hawlucha with Feather Dance, and Salazzle only having 3 moves and one of them is Fire Lash. WHO MADE THESE TRAINERS?

Like, I get it, you want to encourage players to do multiplayer. But, instead of just giving us alright NPC trainers if we solo, since solo isn't their attention that gave them carte blanche to try and make at least some NPCs into memes.

 

[R_N]

LOL, NO! You want to go all out offense cause that's the only way you're going to win solo Raids! Infact going defensive is the worst thing you can do. The best advice is focusing on Type effectiveness, having a Pokemon that can both do super effective damage and also resist/immune to moves the Raid Pokemon will have. Oh, and that in solo you're the only one who will Dynamax so do that on your first turn cause if you don't you'll have to wait 4 turns to do so again as the game still insists on giving other NPCs the option even though they never take it.

That said, the fact the OFFICIAL SITE even addresses Martin and his Cosmic Power Solrock is making me worried a theory of mine might be true: the solo Raids NPCs were not only meant to be bad but they were made to be memes. Seriously with some of these options: Qwilfish, Togepi, Combee, Mudbray, Magikarp, Wobbuffet, Clefairy, Pikachu, & Eevee (note many of them holding Focus Sash so they'r not OHKO if targeted). And even the ones which could be decent/good have some odd move choices: Solrock famously with Cosmic Power, Dhelmise using Special Attacks, Torkoal with Clear Smog and having both Flame Wheel & Flamethrower, Jolteon with Physical moves, Hawlucha with Feather Dance, and Salazzle only having 3 moves and one of them is Fire Lash. WHO MADE THESE TRAINERS?

Like, I get it, you want to encourage players to do multiplayer. But, instead of just giving us alright NPC trainers if we solo, since solo isn't their attention that gave them carte blanche to try and make at least some NPCs into memes.

While Meme Theory issss possible I should go ahead and mention that while it is official, the website still uses an assortment of writers who are (obviously) free to pepper in their own fun into their articles since these aren't designed as a press release like normal information is. And it's also the american site specifically. They like to let's just say "cheekily" lean into memes as part of their social media presence (their twitter is just...constantly memes); so mroe casually written and the occasional joke thrown in. The american website also had like a full week dragging Ash for his decades of failures at the Pokemon League in the time between Ash winning the Alola League in Japan and joining the league in America.
Or this chuckle from their training article

While building a team full of powerful Pokémon previously required wearing a track into the ground from cycling around Pokémon Nurseries, you can now take a Pokémon straight from a Max Raid Battle into competitive play just by leveling it up, using a mint, and Hyper Training with a Bottle Cap or two.

 

[flyinfilipino]

Torkoal with Clear Smog

Hey...Torkoal's Clear Smog has been pretty clutch for me in a few raids. Sometimes the Dynamax Pokemons' stat boosts get a little out of hand!

 

[CPU]

That said, the fact the OFFICIAL SITE even addresses Martin and his Cosmic Power Solrock is making me worried a theory of mine might be true: the solo Raids NPCs were not only meant to be bad but they were made to be memes. Seriously with some of these options: Qwilfish, Togepi, Combee, Mudbray, Magikarp, Wobbuffet, Clefairy, Pikachu, & Eevee (note many of them holding Focus Sash so they'r not OHKO if targeted). And even the ones which could be decent/good have some odd move choices: Solrock famously with Cosmic Power, Dhelmise using Special Attacks, Torkoal with Clear Smog and having both Flame Wheel & Flamethrower, Jolteon with Physical moves, Hawlucha with Feather Dance, and Salazzle only having 3 moves and one of them is Fire Lash. WHO MADE THESE TRAINERS?

Like, I get it, you want to encourage players to do multiplayer. But, instead of just giving us alright NPC trainers if we solo, since solo isn't their attention that gave them carte blanche to try and make at least some NPCs into memes.

Opinions on these trainers listed:
Qwilfish: fine, reasonably fast and decently powerful
Togepi: pretty bad but it attacks more than Clefairy
Combee: haven't seen this one??? maybe it stops appearing after a while or my game is bugged.
Mudbray: don't diss Mudbray, it's got decent bulk, and a nice immunity, and it attacks.
Magikarp: it only has attacking moves and respectable speed, so... not the worst. It wears down barriers at least.
Wobbuffet: IMO the worst partner. Safeguard and Amnesia are usually useless, and even when it gets attacked it picks the wrong counterattack.
Clefairy: generally bad, mostly because of Life Dew/Follow Me, but they are occasionally useful and I do like Magic Guard + Focus Sash.
Pikachu: fine, frail, but it attacks.
Eevee: Helping Hand. That's the problem. Can be fun but I'd prefer it to just attack the barriers.

Solrock: if it didn't spam Cosmic Power (and to a lesser extent Rock Polish) it would be great.
Dhelmise: yeah, its Attack is significantly better than its Special Attack, but its SA is perfectly usable.
Torkoal: can't defend Flame Wheel but Clear Smog is actually really good because it works through barriers. Between its bulk and good moves i think it's one of the best partners.
Jolteon: the only real "Physical" move it has is Double Kick; Quick Attack is priority so I give it a pass.
Hawlucha: yeah Feather Dance is bad lol
Salazzle: Fire Lash at least is guaranteed to lower the target's defense, it's fine.

At the end of the day I'm looking for my AI partners to attack barriers and/or survive, if they can do that I'm usually okay with them.

 

[DreamPrince]

Something that really bothered me is that they never bothered to make the Lake Guardians Fairy type when the type was introduced. Its quite obvious that they are based on pixies and fairies, with Uxie and Azelf having references to the pixies and gnomes, both of which are connected to the fey.

 

[Codraroll]

We're getting hit by this double whammy of games with abysmal replayability due to excess cutscenes (Shoutouts to Melemele) and extremely lackluster post-games for a while now.

Yeah, I think this is the reason why Gen V is commonly seen as the best generation for Pokémon these days. It's simply the most recent generation that even tried to give you a postgame. The games of the 3DS generation were a little lackluster, although X and Y have great replayability.

As for Sword and Shield... I'm sorry, but they are awful in my opinion, to the point that I count them as the worst main series Pokémon games to date. The Raid Battles are completely BS, for reasons outlined in the past few posts above, and there's not just a lot else to do in terms of gameplay. The games are so awfully linear and hand-holdy throughout they are hardly fun to play once, and with all the issues with graphics and restrictive gameplay I just don't see the appeal in them at all. I think I reached Wyndon before I put Shield away, some time in December. Haven't touched it since, and don't feel tempted to either. Maybe I'll pick up the DLC, but gotta wait for reviews first. SwSh have definitely been minimum-effort games from GF's part, or at least they really feel like it. I'm genuinely curious about what went wrong, and I hope some game journalist will try to uncover that story one day.

 

[DreamPrince]

Yeah, I think this is the reason why Gen V is commonly seen as the best generation for Pokémon these days. It's simply the most recent generation that even tried to give you a postgame. The games of the 3DS generation were a little lackluster, although X and Y have great replayability.

As for Sword and Shield... I'm sorry, but they are awful in my opinion, to the point that I count them as the worst main series Pokémon games to date. The Raid Battles are completely BS, for reasons outlined in the past few posts above, and there's not just a lot else to do in terms of gameplay. The games are so awfully linear and hand-holdy throughout they are hardly fun to play once, and with all the issues with graphics and restrictive gameplay I just don't see the appeal in them at all. I think I reached Wyndon before I put Shield away, some time in December. Haven't touched it since, and don't feel tempted to either. Maybe I'll pick up the DLC, but gotta wait for reviews first. SwSh have definitely been minimum-effort games from GF's part, or at least they really feel like it. I'm genuinely curious about what went wrong, and I hope some game journalist will try to uncover that story one day.

Arlo's review is probably the best review for addressing honestly all the pros and cons of the games. He provides a lot of details and explains the benefits of each pro and con.

My biggest SwSh gripe with SwSh is that we lost half the National Dex for this? People call me out on being too hard on SwSh, but losing half the National Dex for gameplay that makes DP looks fantastic in terms of gameplay ( Funnily DP were also considered the Ultimate Pokemon game ) so I expected something something brilliant. I'm not going to address the problems since everyone addressed them in previous posts, but I expected some sense of ambition to this game- Breath of the Wild is a stretch- But something on par with Fire Emblem: 3 Houses and Dragon Quest 11S- games that have their flaws, like poor visuals for 3 Houses and a traditional Battle System for 11S, but they have a sense of ambition that you can tell took a lot of work and planning: 3 Houses has the new Gambit Mechanic and is literally fulled voice, while 11S has a gigantic region that is separated into two acts while having a postgame long enough to be considered a third act. SwSh does not have that ambition.

And with Dexit, I'm sorry to say, but I'm fully convinced that was: 1) To save time development time and 2) To make money off the fact that every Pokemon has a cult following, considering the DLC adding new Pokemon, and Home's ridiculous pricing.
Arlo mentions that as long Pokemon uses the traditional core formula, Pokemon will always to be fun. And that's true. But just because it's Pokemon is not good enough for making me recommend this game. If you dislike the core formula and are not interested in serious battling, this game will not change your mind.

 

[earl]

I was with you until you said it made DP look good in terms of gameplay

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

My biggest SwSh gripe with SwSh is that we lost half the National Dex for this?

Dexit was inevitable at some point. There are too many mons and more importantly, too much clutter regarding items that change forms. And you gotta keep adding all that junk to the games. So to avoid a clearly rushed product like XY, they needed Dexit to work on the animations.

If only that actually happened...

It's ridiculous how GF cut every possible corner they could with this game.

 

[Hematite]

I was with you until you said it made DP look good in terms of gameplay

Mmm, I know DP are extremely slow and had poor regional 'dex choices for the main campaign, and Platinum is significantly better in every respect, but there's a lot going for them that Sword and Shield can't hope to match.

First of all, Sinnoh really went all in on making absolutely every normal Pokémon available except Legendary/Mythical/starter Pokémon, and also DP missed Tangela and Tropius but Platinum added them as well - and it wasn't even all through one singular, repetitive centralized feature, nor by cramming them all in with low encounter rates, but by adding a ton of different ways to discover Pokémon in familiar places.
They had three different ways to change encounter methods (swarms, dual slot mode, the Poké Radar which is still the most engaging Shiny hunting feature in the series don't @ me), two areas with their own unique sets of changing encounters (Trophy Garden, Safari Zone), a totally new mini game to get a thematically related set of Pokémon (the Underground... fun fact also-- this was the first time fossils weren't one-time key items) and another seven routes and several more dungeons to explore with their own unique encounters.
On top of that, old Pokémon that had special gimmicks all to themselves - Unown, Feebas, Deoxys - were fully done justice, with Unown and Feebas both getting completely uniquely dedicated areas (Unown a sidequest on top of that) and Deoxys's awkwardly handled form mechanics being replaced with something new (how many people knew that it was Gen IV and not Gen III that set the precedent for being able to choose its form or having more than one form in a game?).
Obviously, the National Pokédex was much smaller at the time, and I can understand why something quite like this wasn't feasible again - in fact, I think the cut Pokédex is the least of Sword and Shield's problems don't @ me on this either and I don't really find transfers to be important to my own experience. But this isn't about how many Pokémon were available - it's about the lengths they went all so they could justify squeezing all of them in. As a kid, I literally filled my PC in this game and didn't notice... I finally found that Skarmory I wanted to catch and then couldn't throw a Poké Ball ;-; because there were so many things to do in the process of catching every Pokémon - and I wasn't even trying to fill the Pokédex, just thoroughly playing the postgame.

And then once you did get those old Pokémon, they also had new evolutions! Most of these weren't used for advertising (people were still discovering them after DP came out!). For that matter, they weren't even part of the campaign - which is obviously a bad thing in practice, and I'm glad Platinum fixed it, but it really goes to show that it wasn't by necessity or perceived obligation or to fill a quota or to suit the needs of the story... they just wanted them to be there, so they made them.
I've already talked about why I miss crossgens and Mega Evolutions and why I really don't think Sword and Shield's approach is a valid alternative.

They also refined systems that needed polishing, like roaming Pokémon and the physical/special split; they completely overhauled Contests, Secret Bases and the Safari Zone to take full advantage of new technological advancements; they brought back day and night cycles even though those were supposed to be a one-off gimmick for Gen II only; and they introduced the Wi-Fi connectivity features that defined the franchise for the next four Generations (may they rest in peace).

And that's not even to mention how utterly massive Sinnoh was as a region and how well most of its areas were mapped (compared to Galar... whew).
Diamond and Pearl were extremely unpolished games held back by slow speed to be honest I think the people who complain about this specifically are overblowing it a little, but I'm pretty patient in general, a poorly executed story do I need to do my Sword and Shield story rant, too? because I will make that post, and, yes, a terribly selected regional Pokédex yeah I'm not gonna argue this one... this is very correct and on a visual level, Sinnoh didn't look all that great before Platinum revamped it, either. But they had ambition in spades - exactly the kind of ambition that's completely missing from Sword and Shield - and they delivered on it.
It's true that Platinum was very necessary to improve Sinnoh's main campaign, and I can understand why Diamond and Pearl are so unpopular in that area without the improvements Platinum brought. But honestly, I think even Diamond and Pearl had one of the most impressive postgames in the series by a great margin, and while they admittedly do deserve a good amount of the flak they get (and Platinum deserves all of the credit it gets for "saving" them), I think you're giving them too little credit - they give Sword and Shield much steeper competition than you think!

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Mmm, I know DP are extremely slow and had poor regional 'dex choices for the main campaign, and Platinum is significantly better in every respect, but there's a lot going for them that Sword and Shield can't hope to match.

It's true. The same applies to XY to a lesser extent.

You can recognize that they're flawed games, but they had real ambition.
Coincidentally both actually tried to tackle certain balance issues.

XY added the Fairy-Type to stop the buffed Dragons from running rampant in the meta and DP was arguably the biggest milestone balance-wise in Pokémon history.

Physical-Special Split and actual reliable STAB moves for pretty much *all* types.

The difference between mons before and after DP is staggering. Bug, Grass and Flying stopped needing to run Hidden Power for STAB.

Contrast that to SnS. SnS marks another console transition and adds NOTHING to the table.

Every single console change brought significant changes except this one.

 

[earl]

XY added the Fairy-Type to stop the buffed Dragons from running rampant in the meta

The fairies then proceeded to run rampant through the meta

But I'm not sure if the lack of a large balance change is really a point against SwSh (compared to more legitimate ones). Making a large balance change for the sake of change is never a good look (like what is really needed in doubles outside of the Intimidate nerf, which they did), and SwSh instead decided to make building for competitive the easiest it has ever been in the series by a large margin, best illustrated by nature mints and the removal of Hidden Power virtually eliminating the need to breed intensively.

That and Heavy Duty Boots. Finally, rock weak types can function defensively. This item alone is pretty big overhaul the effective type balance in singles


Unrelated but I'd still rather replay SwSh over DP. Scope and ambition means nothing when the game just isn't fun, mainly due to speed and the pokemon selection

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

The fairies then proceeded to run rampant through the meta

Hey, at least they tried.

But I'm not sure if the lack of a large balance change is really a point against SwSh

It didn't need to be balance changes. In fact, I didn't want them.

What I wanted were better animations and more dynamic camera angles. The fixed camera angles both for battles and for the overworld are terrible.

SnS might as well be an upscaled 3DS game.

 

[earl]

Hey, at least they tried.




It didn't need to be balance changes. In fact, I didn't want them.

What I wanted were better animations and more dynamic camera angles. The fixed camera angles both for battles and for the overworld are terrible.

SnS might as well be an upscaled 3DS game.

You phrased it as if a console change mandated a large balance overhaul, sorry

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

You phrased it as if a console change mandated a large balance overhaul, sorry

Probably my mistake, English isn't my primary language. Sorry.

 

[Nuclearstomp]

Dexit was inevitable at some point. There are too many mons and more importantly, too much clutter regarding items that change forms. And you gotta keep adding all that junk to the games. So to avoid a clearly rushed product like XY, they needed Dexit to work on the animations.

If only that actually happened...

It's ridiculous how GF cut every possible corner they could with this game.

This is going to sound dumb, but if dexit was "inevitable" they should've just stopped making new mons.
I get that from a marketing standpoint that's a horrible idea, but honestly it's just so unfair to all the old pokemon that got kicked out, plus the fans of those pokemon.
Besides, if they keep making games and keep cutting pokemon, what about all the new galar pokemon? What about future pokemon? What's going to get cut in future generations? Are they going to remove even more moves and stuff like that? Not to mention stuff like the dynamax forms, which'll probably take a hike like megas did.

 

[earl]

This is going to sound dumb, but if dexit was "inevitable" they should've just stopped making new mons.
I get that from a marketing standpoint that's a horrible idea, but honestly it's just so unfair to all the old pokemon that got kicked out, plus the fans of those pokemon.
Besides, if they keep making games and keep cutting pokemon, what about all the new galar pokemon? What about future pokemon? What's going to get cut in future generations? Are they going to remove even more moves and stuff like that? Not to mention stuff like the dynamax forms, which'll probably take a hike like megas did.

They made it pretty clear that future games are going to pick and choose from the complete library of pokemon for each title. I wouldn't be surprised if mechanics like mega evolution returned and then left for future entries too, given the precedent set by Let's Go.

Plus if you put a gun to my head and said "dexit or no more new pokemon", I'd choose new pokemon in a heartbeat. New pokemon are the best part of each generation's hype cycle. On the other hand, my favorite Pokemon Xurkitree has not ceased to exist because I can't have it sit in a box in SwSh. It still exists in various other facets of the franchise, just not in the most current game. I'm not losing any sleep over it

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

This is going to sound dumb, but if dexit was "inevitable" they should've just stopped making new mons.

New gens with no new mons just doesn't really work.

What they need to do is stretch out the gens for longer so they don't need to make new mons all the time and make the problem worse.

Dexit should actually be a temporary measure while they actually update the animations, but now we got neither.

We got reused 3DS animations, an absolutely cluttered Regional Dex (Personal problem), and a gutted National Dex.

Dexit was necessary, but not in the way it was done.

 

[Nuclearstomp]

New gens with no new mons just doesn't really work.

What they need to do is stretch out the gens for longer so they don't need to make new mons all the time and make the problem worse.

Dexit should actually be a temporary measure while they actually update the animations, but now we got neither.

We got reused 3DS animations, an absolutely cluttered Regional Dex (Personal problem), and a gutted National Dex.

Dexit was necessary, but not in the way it was done.

I would be fine with this honestly. I spoke out of my butt for a moment there with my post. I realize that not making new pokemon is not an acceptable solution, I'm just salty and disappointed in the direction pokemon has been taking.

 

[Adou]

Toxicroak, the fighting type Pokemon based off of a frog, a creature known almost entirely for its ability to jump, does not ever get High Jump Kick, the fighting type move which primarily involves jumping

 

[DreamPrince]

Dexit was inevitable at some point. There are too many mons and more importantly, too much clutter regarding items that change forms. And you gotta keep adding all that junk to the games. So to avoid a clearly rushed product like XY, they needed Dexit to work on the animations.

If only that actually happened...

It's ridiculous how GF cut every possible corner they could with this game.

My problem is not Dexit though. The reasons GF gave for Dexit have been proven to be false or questionable at worst. New Models? That's already been proven to be false. Animations? The starter cutscene and how characters Dynamax Pokemon like Raihan and Olena are actually quite entertaining as well. Dynamax Moves as well the Starter and Legendary Signature Moves seem to be the only one with special Move animations. Every other Pokemon does not get Special Animations for moves. Not to mention they have still have two animations for attacking. Balance? Dynamax was clearly intended for VGC, though even among the Doubles crowd, a lot of players aren't really fond of it. As for Singles, well, we know that story from Smogon, but I have spoken to players from Battle Stadium Singles Discord, and even they don't like mechanics.

I also find it hard to believe that the 3DS could support 800+ Pokemon, but the Switch, the most powerful console Pokemon has ever been on, can't have a regional dex bigger than XY.

They made it pretty clear that future games are going to pick and choose from the complete library of pokemon for each title. I wouldn't be surprised if mechanics like mega evolution returned and then left for future entries too, given the precedent set by Let's Go.

Plus if you put a gun to my head and said "dexit or no more new pokemon", I'd choose new pokemon in a heartbeat. New pokemon are the best part of each generation's hype cycle. On the other hand, my favorite Pokemon Xurkitree has not ceased to exist because I can't have it sit in a box in SwSh. It still exists in various other facets of the franchise, just not in the most current game. I'm not losing any sleep over it

Honestly, I'm on the no more new Pokemon bandwagon. Pokemon has almost 900 creatures at this point, and pretty every much has a cult following. Alright, fine maybe no new Pokemon whatsoever is a bit overstatement, but I would not be against the notion of a new generation not having any new Pokemon. By not introducing new Pokemon, they could save some development time and have focus on rebalancing the older Pokemon, or improving some mechanics like the type chart or maybe focus on the story.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think why Pokemon fails to advance gameplay at a rate of most other videogames is because it relies far too much on the Pokemon themselves. If we remove the Pokemon, what exactly does the game have going for it? Story? Pokemon's story has always taken a back seat, and SwSh has done nothing to change it. Battles? Battles are held back in-game by the lack of intelligence in the AI, and no difficulty settings does nothing to address it. Multiplayer is the only way to get a full feel of complex battles. Characters ( Human Characters ) ? With the exception of BW and SM, characters don't get enough time to be fleshed out, with SwSh's Marnie and Bede having development off screen. And don't get me started on programming, Models, and Animations, which are reused from XY for more than half a decade, with only minor adjustments to the splash effects.

 

[Ironmage]

I would also say that, regardless of personal preference for any single mon, Dexit was poorly optimized i.e. given a limit of 400 mons, they did not attempt to fit in as many unique concepts as they could have. I could have conceivably accepted the loss of my boy Aggron, since it's not the only rock head/head smash/rock polish user. But then I look at something like pidove. It exists to be an introduction to pokemon in general: no unavoidable gimmicks, weak enough to be placed early, and a lot closer to what people think of as pets than many other mons. That's an important role, probably actually more important than a niche combination like Aggron has (though not to me. I play games primarily for niche combinations), but it's redundant. Rookidee checks all of those boxes, and manages to fit a more mechanic-heavy role through its evolutions (since "early-game introduction" was never going to apply to corviknight to begin with). If we are to claim there is some limit on a number of mons that can be brought, than pidove's 'slots' would be much better served on mons that something less redundant, such as an aerialate/refrigerate/galvanize user.

As for my personal preferences on the mons kept/cut, I'll consider accepting when they cut that f***ing rat.