(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Thinking about mon retention rate for a new region
This will factor US mainline, however, will not include remakes as they generally don't rep new mons/region well
Gen 1: 1998-2000, roughly 2 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 2: 2000-2003, roughly 3 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 3: 2003-2007, roughly 4 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years until 2005
Gen 4: 2007-2011, roughly 4 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years until 2009
Gen 5: 2011-2013, roughly 2 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 6: 2013-2016, roughly 3 years, only mattered until 2014
Gen 7: 2016-2019, roughly 3 years, only mattered until 2017
Gen 8: 2019-2022, roughly 3 years, DLCs lasting till 2020

From this noticeably
-Gens after Gen 6 start having less and less 3rd versions. This contributes to less retention of the newer region/mons
-Gen 5 is incredibly short
-XY retention is one of the worst, and this is largely due to scrapping Z for SM, and the start of GF churning out Biyearly other mainline releases
-Gen 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 had immediate 3rd versions a year after the base game. For 5 it was a sequel, 8 was DLC expansions

Quite literally if not for the anime, mon rep for later regions wouldn't last. Even then, the anime is currently meeting issues internally...

What's annoying is that IF we factor an old gen reappearing either in remakes or sequels...

Gen 1: GSC, FRLG, HGSS, Lets Go
Gen 2: HGSS
Gen 3: ORAS
Gen 4: BDSP, Legend Arceus

This effectively means most things after Gen 5 won't last much in casual minds given sidelining of the current Gen. Gen 8s over and I STILL don't know all mons names that region, despite it being 3 years...

It's likely what led to GF doing less mons for newer regions, in addition to reducing workload. The immediate demand of sequels if barely giving regions times to last in our minds
 
Sonikku A said:
Thinking about mon retention rate for a new region
This will factor US mainline, however, will not include remakes as they generally don't rep new mons/region well
Gen 1: 1998-2000, roughly 2 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 2: 2000-2003, roughly 3 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 3: 2003-2007, roughly 4 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years until 2005
Gen 4: 2007-2011, roughly 4 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years until 2009
Gen 5: 2011-2013, roughly 2 years, mainline split evenly throughout the years
Gen 6: 2013-2016, roughly 3 years, only mattered until 2014
Gen 7: 2016-2019, roughly 3 years, only mattered until 2017
Gen 8: 2019-2022, roughly 3 years, DLCs lasting till 2020

From this noticeably
-Gens after Gen 6 start having less and less 3rd versions. This contributes to less retention of the newer region/mons
-Gen 5 is incredibly short
-XY retention is one of the worst, and this is largely due to scrapping Z for SM, and the start of GF churning out Biyearly other mainline releases
-Gen 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 had immediate 3rd versions a year after the base game. For 5 it was a sequel, 8 was DLC expansions

Quite literally if not for the anime, mon rep for later regions wouldn't last. Even then, the anime is currently meeting issues internally...

What's annoying is that IF we factor an old gen reappearing either in remakes or sequels...

Gen 1: GSC, FRLG, HGSS, Lets Go
Gen 2: HGSS
Gen 3: ORAS
Gen 4: BDSP, Legend Arceus

This effectively means most things after Gen 5 won't last much in casual minds given sidelining of the current Gen. Gen 8s over and I STILL don't know all mons names that region, despite it being 3 years...

It's likely what led to GF doing less mons for newer regions, in addition to reducing workload. The immediate demand of sequels if barely giving regions times to last in our minds
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Christ, I didn't realise Gen V was that short but looking back yes, it really flew by.

Even then, they still managed to promote their Pokemon well in that timespan and the Unova mons have held up in later games fairly well, generally having the largest chunk of mons in regional dexes alongside Kanto (which makes sense since Unova is proportionally the biggest region).

It strikes me as bizarre that PLA came out almost a year ago and we're still yet to see all the following Gen 8 Pokemon:

Nitro Indigo said:
  • Hisuian Arcanine
  • Hisuian Voltorb
  • Hisuian Electrode
  • Hisuian Typhlosion
  • Hisuian Samurott
  • White-Striped Basculin
  • Hisuian Sliggoo
  • Hisuian Goodra
  • Hisuian Avalugg
  • Hisuian Decidueye
  • Glastrier
  • Spectrier
  • Calyrex
  • Kleavor
  • Ursaluna
  • Hisuian Sneasel
  • Sneasler
  • Hisuian Qwilfish
  • Overqwil
  • Lilligant
  • Enamorus
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Though Calyrex and its steeds strike me as the sort of Pokemon that should have had a movie dedicated to them - of course, there wasn't one this year, but I could very easily picture a Calyrex/Enamorus-themed movie.
 
"Hmmm what should we do with our new and fancy Pokemon Scarlet and Violet title screen?"

"Let's go different and have some ambient sounds usher it in."

"Um, okay?"

"No really, it'll be perfect. You'll barely hear the main theme over all the atmospheric sounds."

"I don't think it'll work that way-"

"Oh come on, it's not like someone is literally going to beat the game before they realize the music is there-"

"And to top it off let's put some generic classroom there instead of the actual box art legendary, which we've been doing since late 1999"

"GENIUS"

In all seriousness, while Scarlet and Violet might be in my opinion the best game in the series, the title screen is easily the worst in the series. And yes, I'm pretty sure I did beat the game before I realized the title screen had music.

There's so many oddball choices that it fails to get you excited for the game and instead leaves you feeling confused. This goes double when you realize one of SWSH's few good points was its evolving title screen. And it's not like you can't go abstract with title screens and still succeed, I love DPPT's title screens because they are off-kilter / different from the norm.
 
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ILikeKirbys said:
I like Scarlet & Violet, but this bugs me:

The Paradox Pokémon all have the same Ability (one Ability per version, granted, but still) and next to nothing in the Pokédex.

The former annoys me because I don’t get how all these Pokémon that don’t really look like they’d all live in the same biome/area have only one Ability between all of them, and this bugs me with the Ultra Beasts too, but I could write it off for the Paradoxes as being due to time travel or something.

The latter, though… Wasn’t there a professor with at least one other person researching these guys? Did they not write anything down before biting the dust? Why is the best info in either Pokédex pure speculation?

Not dealbreaking or anything, and maybe this is just a stupid thing to be annoyed by, but it just bugs me.
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One other thing I can point out

Some of the Paradox Pokemon have slightly more detail in the Dex entry for the other version, like Iron Jugulis.

I also think it's reasonable that the Pokedex would lack data on them because depending on the timespan between present and the Paradoxes' native eras (and they could even come from several different points therein), there probably isn't a lot to go on for non-speculative info besides the odd sighting like the Titan Donphan. Most of the Area Zero info wasn't widely available for obvious reason, so whether the dex is recording info on your part or filling out with existing Databases, Paradox Pokemon lack much to go on.

Even with the Ultra Beasts, there was research into them by Aether Foundation, the International Police, and USUM's Ultra Recon Squad, so there was still more info to draw on for the UB's than Paradoxes for the present time. This is without any speculation about if the Paradoxes are natural Past/Future relatives of existing Pokemon vs being weird corruptions or straight-up Robots in the Iron set's case.
 
khlaylav said:
Spidops. Just... Spidops.

Neat design. Chance for a unique Bug/Normal type. And they made it probably the worst fully evolved Pokemon in a loooooong time. It's like they forgot an evolution somewhere.
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It is basically the throwaway early game fodder Bug-type akin to the likes of Butterfree/Beedril, Kricketune, or Vivillon. It evolves early, the earliest of any Gen 9 mon, at Level 15, from a low 210 BST Tarountula, and has good stats for the point where it first evolves, which is very early game around the first Gym, but then it struggles to keep up and starts falling behind as the power level of the game increases and your available options increase, and is ultimately meant to be replaced with better Pokemon later on.

They went back to the old school "early game crutch" Bug design quota that they used to make for early game Bugs back in the day, and Spidops is just that. An early game Bug-type who evolves early, becomes a reliable and strong ally for the early game, but falls off and is meant to be rotated out for stronger Pokemon as the game's power level goes up and your available options increase.
 
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
It is basically the throwaway early game fodder Bug-type akin to the likes of Butterfree/Beedril, Kricketune, or Vivillon. It evolves early, the earliest of any Gen 9 mon, at Level 15, from a low 210 BST Tarountula, and has good stats for the point where it first evolves, which is very early game around the first Gym, but then it struggles to keep up and starts falling behind as the power level of the game increases and your available options increase, and is ultimately meant to be replaced with better Pokemon later on.

They went back to the old school "early game crutch" Bug design quota that they used to make for early game Bugs back in the day, and Spidops is just that. An early game Bug-type who evolves early, becomes a reliable and strong ally for the early game, but falls off and is meant to be rotated out for stronger Pokemon as the game's power level goes up and your available options increase.
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it does not evolve nearly soon enough to be a reliable early game crutch ally so they really dropped the ball if they REALLY wanted to return to this concept.
 
The layout of the regions has been odd for a while and I'm kind of just now noticing it. Specifically, why did they start running you into an extremely large city right out the gate?
Kalos: Lumiose, which was largest in the region and poorly laid out, even though it was only partly opened when you get there.
Alola: Hau'Oli, again largest in the region, though not as large as the other entries on this list and pretty well laid-out.
Galar: Motostoke, not the largest but very big, and...not badly laid out but definitely not intuitive.
Paldea: Mesagoza, which is MASSIVE and has a ton of stuff going on.

Compare to earlier gens. Kanto the large city is Celadon, Johto it's Goldenrod, Hoenn's Mauville maybe counts, though Lilycove is larger. All of those come midgame-ish.

And this is minor, but I do think it matters. If they're trying to make the games approachable, why throw a new player directly into a massive city with a bunch of doors, NPCs, nooks and crannies, tons of things to spend money on...it's a lot, and I don't think it makes sense. If they move the large cities later(as they did in earlier gens) they can fill them with actual good items, pokemon trades, a department store, etc. And the player can enter the city knowing how things tend to be hidden, how to recognize an NPC worth talking to, where they want to go, etc. Instead the game gives us a massive city to explore right off the bat and they have to fill the area with repeated shops and heal balls, because they can't give players access to anything better that early.
 
1669551903471.png
Why is Volkner on 'Friends from Sinnoh' card? You're telling me he's a higher priority than Professor Rowan? Did he pull an Emmnet and Ingo and became popular in Japan without anywhere else noticing until now?
 
Imperial Magala said:
View attachment 468747
Why is Volkner on 'Friends from Sinnoh' card? You're telling me he's a higher priority than Professor Rowan? Did he pull an Emmnet and Ingo and became popular in Japan without anywhere else noticing until now?
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Hasn't Volkner always been popular though? He's a broody, soul-searching hottie who uses Electric-types and has a friendship with a male friend that people definitely ship
 
Haven’t looked into this at all myself, still not completed SV, but are there any Pokemon that were excluded from both SwSh and SV?
 
green_typhlosion said:
Hasn't Volkner always been popular though? He's a broody, soul-searching hottie who uses Electric-types and has a friendship with a male friend that people definitely ship
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Yeah Volkner's always been pretty popular, I definitely remember loads of Volkner stuff back during gen 4 and I think he was brought back in Journeys likely because he still had lingering popularity. So if you wanted another character alongside Cynthia to go with the main trio, he's a pretty good pick

Coronis said:
Haven’t looked into this at all myself, still not completed SV, but are there any Pokemon that were excluded from both SwSh and SV?
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There's a handful of gen 5 pokemon (the other 2 starters, the monkeys, watchog, a few others) that missed SWSH, BDSP, LA and SV but I will decide to focus on Glameow instead. We brought that cat out for the Sinnoh revisits and now they are banished to the abyss once more.
 
R_N said:
Yeah Volkner's always been pretty popular, I definitely remember loads of Volkner stuff back during gen 4 and I think he was brought back in Journeys likely because he still had lingering popularity. So if you wanted another character alongside Cynthia to go with the main trio, he's a pretty good pick


There's a handful of gen 5 pokemon (the other 2 starters, the monkeys, watchog, a few others) that missed SWSH, BDSP, LA and SV but I will decide to focus on Glameow instead. We brought that cat out for the Sinnoh revisits and now they are banished to the abyss once more.
Click to expand...

I really hope everyone else agrees with me and GF that the monkeys should never return.
 
Iron Hands and Pawmot? Why two electric fighting types?

Why not just give Electivire an electric/fighting regional form
 
Arkm said:
Iron Hands and Pawmot? Why two electric fighting types?

Why not just give Electivire an electric/fighting regional form
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Pawmot and Iron Hands have very different roles both as ingame encounters and during PvP battles, so I think it's reasonable to have them both.

Honestly, I think a regional Electivire probably shouldn't be Fighting. The mon's current problem is that it's too straightforward: the only thing it ever runs is 4-attack sets. It desperately needs more of an identity than "attempts to hit things," and Fighting doesn't seem like a good way to provide that.
 
I'm the guy who at one point typed up a post about how I'm glad Megas are gone and more recently have been dancing on the grave of in-game Ash-Greninja. I bring that up to apologize for what I'm about to say next possibly scanning as hypocritical.

Because I've done a little thinking about it, and truth be told for all my numerous reservations with how Mega Evolution was handled I can't help but be increasingly discontent with what became of them. More specifically, how they were scrapped with absolutely no fanfare or warning. These were fully-fleshed out alternate combat states for these Pokemon with their own designs, mechanical intricacies and even movepool extensions designed specifically for them compared to the more expendable, one-size-fits-all approach of the gimmicks that came after. They were heavily marketed, they were popular, and now they're just gone with absolutely no timetable as to when they'll return. There is a genuine non-zero chance that we may never see them in a mainline game again until a Kalos revisit at some indeterminate point in the future. And once I set aside my own personal feelings, I can't help but feel that's kind of horseshit?

Just take a look at something like Lopunny, who after being resurrected for 2 gens straight is now back in the gutter. Except wait, it's for some inscrutable reason still getting new tools that the Mega would go absolutely crazy for: Close Combat, U-Turn, Quick Attack. It's a bizarre limbo and it's not the only one trapped in it.

When I lay it out like this, it's frankly kind of shocking. Was there nobody in the marketing or merchandising arms of TPC who heard the news of Megas being dumpstered and wasn't at least a little irritated that one of their money faucets had been sealed shut? Did none of them ever have a conversation with a Game Freak staffer and at some point say "Hey, Go and the anime are still making people go wild off these things, pretty cool, huh? wink wink nudge nudge" I'm absolutely not advocating for game mechanics to be maintained solely off of cynical profit motives, don't get me wrong. I just wouldn't expect them to show this sort of restraint, and am a bit unsure as to whether they should've for other reasons.
 
Arkm said:
Iron Hands and Pawmot? Why two electric fighting types?

Why not just give Electivire an electric/fighting regional form
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Ironmage said:
Pawmot and Iron Hands have very different roles both as ingame encounters and during PvP battles, so I think it's reasonable to have them both.

Honestly, I think a regional Electivire probably shouldn't be Fighting. The mon's current problem is that it's too straightforward: the only thing it ever runs is 4-attack sets. It desperately needs more of an identity than "attempts to hit things," and Fighting doesn't seem like a good way to provide that.
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In fact I would add, if anything, it needs to lose the electric type or become specially oriented if it ever gets a regional form.
Phisical Electric types are a disaster due to Electric not having a good phisical move, and always have to rely on signature ones.
 
That could easily be fixed by just making a solid physical Electric move that isn't a signature and isn't limited by arbitrary flavor conditions.

I mean really just do an 80 BP minimum for every attack type plus physical/special spectrum, it's not that hard and it sure as hell wouldn't be imbalanced to make a better Physical Electric move than Thunder Punch. Wild Charge ain't it, that recoil is just not necessary.
 
LonelyGaruga said:
That could easily be fixed by just making a solid physical Electric move that isn't a signature and isn't limited by arbitrary flavor conditions.

I mean really just do an 80 BP minimum for every attack type plus physical/special spectrum, it's not that hard and it sure as hell wouldn't be imbalanced to make a better Physical Electric move than Thunder Punch. Wild Charge ain't it, that recoil is just not necessary.
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Worldie said:
Something something "if all types have same tools what is even the point of the type chart?"
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I mean, they basically already have that.

The only contentious ones are physical Electric (I maintain that Wild Charge is an above average move, if only slightly; minor recoil isn't enough to ruin 90 power and perfect accuracy), physical non-bird Flying, and physical Ghost whenever Poltergeist isn't around (and even then, Shadow Claw is below average but it's not horrible).

Everything else has a widely distributed move that's at least average, assuming you define average as stuff like Dragon Claw, Power Gem, Strength, etc.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
I mean, they basically already have that.

The only contentious ones are physical Electric (I maintain that Wild Charge is an above average move, if only slightly; minor recoil isn't enough to ruin 90 power and perfect accuracy), physical non-bird Flying, and physical Ghost whenever Poltergeist isn't around (and even then, Shadow Claw is below average but it's not horrible).

Everything else has a widely distributed move that's at least average, assuming you define average as stuff like Dragon Claw, Power Gem, Strength, etc.
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To be fair, phisical is exactly where the "generic 80 bp move with no drawback" isn't a thing.

Now, I don't know exactly why GF opted to make phisical way more punishable than special in general, but phisical attacks above 75 BP that aren't signature moves almost always have some kind of drawback. Either massive recoil, bad accuracy (rock says hello), bad offensive typing (iron head / x-scissor / dragon claw).
In fact the only notable exception I can think of as "widely distributed high BP no drawback" are Waterfall (which inherently is almost exclusively learned as Stab), Earthquake (which on its own is severely hurt by being a spread move in VGC) and Crunch.
Also rest in pepperoni Return.
 
Yung Dramps said:
Just take a look at something like Lopunny, who after being resurrected for 2 gens straight is now back in the gutter. Except wait, it's for some inscrutable reason still getting new tools that the Mega would go absolutely crazy for: Close Combat, U-Turn, Quick Attack. It's a bizarre limbo and it's not the only one trapped in it.
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The kicker about this disconnect for me is especially evident with the Gen 8 transfer mechanics and rumors about Gen 9. It's entirely possible that if the Megas come back in a Gen 14 remake of XY or something, they could elect not to even give these moves to Lopunny or whoever the subject is due to move data being tweaked, transfer moves or tutors not coming back, etc.

Pokemon's design ethos is becoming more and more obviously about being a Generational thing, games more willing to cut or cull stuff to do a specific experience for this entry without hard-committing to that being a thing next Gen. This isn't an issue objectively speaking, but it's annoying because it means a Pokemon isn't necessarily "on its way" to getting better if it's close-but-not-there in a Gen, as things can shift radically and undermine those gains by the next big thing. You could lose your Mega, a valuable move could get cut, maybe stuff that gets excluded creates a very favorable/unfavorable environment for you, etc.

The thing that irritates me about the Mega cut is that it's effectively designed as a long term mechanic, a few new Megas every Gen to buff some of the old Pokemon if they need something more dramatic than a few stat points or a couple moves. The simplest explanation I can think of is that Megas weren't compatible with the spaghetti code they do for new gimmicks and the Marketing Machine insists of the Mechanic rather than the users being the "new toy" to sell people on. I feel these stick out the most among the Generational gimmicks because Z-moves and Dynamax being specific to a region also means the lore is mostly in the gimmick as a concept. Megas meanwhile are tied intrinsically to individual Pokemon with Lore about the particular form and getting unique designs, so it's a lot more work to ditch and to just accept not existing literally anywhere else in the world somehow.

A lot of the Paradoxes feel like they're functionally Megas for old Pokemon in the same vein, even a couple NFE Pokemon like Scream Tail for Jigglypuff despite that being a concern about "capping off" evolution chains, to the point that the two "Ace" ones are very blatantly drawing on Mega Design elements if not referencing the forms in their Dex Entries.

Much as I like and in some ways prefer the handling of Paradoxes lore-wise, they still create a similar pitfall in that you have to explain their presence in any game where they appear by a means other than transfer. And if they aren't to be explained and simply are there for gameplay, we come back to asking why Megas can't be handled the same
 
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