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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Flareon learning Smog so late is — believe it or not — probably a good, conscientious decision in some ways.
Fire-Type Pokémon randomly learning Smog is a design choice they’re clearly quite tied to, but you have to imagine it’s only ever been intended as a cute flavour pick. In Gen I Poison-Type was only supereffective on Grass- and Bug-Type, both of which Fire-Type is too. After Gen I it’s only Grass-Type until Fairy-Type’s introduction much later, but we’ll focus on 1-5 (because new Fire-Type Pokémon don’t really get the move).
The real trouble comes when the odd Fire-Type is stuck with Smog as a move it kind of has to use. IIRC Gen IV Slugma, which you can get from the Primo egg in HGSS and I once used, was stuck with Tackle / Rock Throw / Smog for an incredibly long time. Ember came at something like level 17 off the top of my head, the same level as Bugsy’s Scyther. It makes sense to make the movepool that way, because Ember is a lot stronger than the other attacks so you should put it later in the learnset, but it also makes for an awful play experience.
Late Smog is the same as those mostly flavourful status moves that are often put late in a Pokémon’s learnset, IMO. The likes of Gastro Acid, Gravity, Magnet Rise are often put in learnsets late if they’re put there, and they fulfil the same role of “this Pokémon should learn this by level up but our options are level 1 for flavour most players won’t really see, in the middle of the game where the Pokémon needs a real upgrade, or way later as an Easter egg for dedicated trainers of the Pokémon who clearly like them”. The last option is the best one, particularly since that’s when players start caring about battle facilities, a context where in theory these niche moves are most useful.
Smog has a small niche on Fire-Type Pokémon, that being a worse Toxic. Against most Pokémon you’d use a move like Lava Plume if you want to status spread, but Fire-Type Pokémon (and like, Water Veil) are immune to burn, so if you’re really dedicated to status spreading, carrying a move to spread poison is a valid backup. It’s not a backup anyone would actually use in a battle facility unless it’s Toxic, but it’s not totally crazy to consider. This puts it in line with the other niche late game status moves Pokémon learn sometimes.
Particularly on Flareon, who can evolve at any point and doesn’t learn any STAB in its pre-evolved form, using a level up slot during the actual main game portion on Smog of all things is a downgrade. If you evolve at the wrong level, you can be put out from it actually being a Fire-Type for an even longer time.
Fire-Type Pokémon randomly learning Smog is a design choice they’re clearly quite tied to, but you have to imagine it’s only ever been intended as a cute flavour pick. In Gen I Poison-Type was only supereffective on Grass- and Bug-Type, both of which Fire-Type is too. After Gen I it’s only Grass-Type until Fairy-Type’s introduction much later, but we’ll focus on 1-5 (because new Fire-Type Pokémon don’t really get the move).
The real trouble comes when the odd Fire-Type is stuck with Smog as a move it kind of has to use. IIRC Gen IV Slugma, which you can get from the Primo egg in HGSS and I once used, was stuck with Tackle / Rock Throw / Smog for an incredibly long time. Ember came at something like level 17 off the top of my head, the same level as Bugsy’s Scyther. It makes sense to make the movepool that way, because Ember is a lot stronger than the other attacks so you should put it later in the learnset, but it also makes for an awful play experience.
Late Smog is the same as those mostly flavourful status moves that are often put late in a Pokémon’s learnset, IMO. The likes of Gastro Acid, Gravity, Magnet Rise are often put in learnsets late if they’re put there, and they fulfil the same role of “this Pokémon should learn this by level up but our options are level 1 for flavour most players won’t really see, in the middle of the game where the Pokémon needs a real upgrade, or way later as an Easter egg for dedicated trainers of the Pokémon who clearly like them”. The last option is the best one, particularly since that’s when players start caring about battle facilities, a context where in theory these niche moves are most useful.
Smog has a small niche on Fire-Type Pokémon, that being a worse Toxic. Against most Pokémon you’d use a move like Lava Plume if you want to status spread, but Fire-Type Pokémon (and like, Water Veil) are immune to burn, so if you’re really dedicated to status spreading, carrying a move to spread poison is a valid backup. It’s not a backup anyone would actually use in a battle facility unless it’s Toxic, but it’s not totally crazy to consider. This puts it in line with the other niche late game status moves Pokémon learn sometimes.
Particularly on Flareon, who can evolve at any point and doesn’t learn any STAB in its pre-evolved form, using a level up slot during the actual main game portion on Smog of all things is a downgrade. If you evolve at the wrong level, you can be put out from it actually being a Fire-Type for an even longer time.
How about entire types that just seem half-baked?
The only Steel-type move Mawile learns in 3rd gen is Iron Defense, and that's including TMs and egg moves. And it's less about Mawile's terrible move pool specifically and more that there are 7 total Steel type moves in the game, 5 of which do damage, and 1 of which is Jirachi-exclusive.
I was browsing through the RS moveset suggestions out of curiosity, saw "Hidden Power Steel" listed in a bunch of them and thought, no, it couldn't have been this bad.
There were like, 5 types that needed Hidden Power for STAB before Gen 4. It was a mess
I think types as a mostly flavor aspect (at least for secondary types) can be fun, though it does feel bad when you don't have a good (or even moderately useful) STAB option to use for it.
Honestly why is Mawile even Steel to begin with? It seems mostly like a Pokédex excuse that it had metal horns that morphed into jaws. As far as I can tell it's got nothing to do with its futakuchi onna inspiration. Really just feels like they wanted another Steel type for Gen 3, and specifically one to place in Granite Cave. Even before Fairy existed, it felt like it could have been Dark (it gets a LOT of Dark moves and always has, for one).
It was definitely a "we want a pure-steel with middling stats" decision. It's the counterpart to Sableye(the single type with the best defenses and the dual-type with no weaknesses, both based on monsters), so they were probably very constrained on how much they could deviate the flavor or the design.
Mawile could’ve / should’ve been Steel/Dark for sure, but imagine if one version got a Granite Cave encounter who was immune to all of Brawly’s (the next gym leader’s) attacks and the other was quad weak lol. Bad optics.
Mawile being Steel-Type never stood out to me as strange, but the version exclusiveness always did. The more reasonable parallel would’ve been Mawile and Aron, as they’re both Steel-Type, but a 3-stage evolutionary line contrasted with a single stage mon as version exclusive parallels would be wilder than what we got.
I don’t question the Steel-Type being on Mawile. The fact that the Futakuchi-Onna has nothing to do with anything mineral is kind of what makes Mawile a Pokémon, because they adapted it to make sense for the type (just as they do with real animals). But Mawile is absolutely one of the Gen III Pokémon whose game data is difficult to justify, because it really does mostly suck to use. It is also one of many, though, and Gen III is a great example of what happens when powercreep doesn’t happen — the hype around new mons is kinda short-lived.
Mawile also was far from the only Steel-Type Pokémon to have to use Hidden Power Steel for STAB. It may feel more notable because it’s monotype Steel-Type, but also part of why Mawile was interesting at the time was because of that. The only other monotype Steel-Type upon introduction was the far more difficult to obtain Registeel, so Mawile was most players’ chance to experience Steel-Type in its pure form. And before Gen IV introduced Iron Head, Steel-Type’s pure form was relying on Hidden Power Steel for STAB; that was the strongest Steel-Type attacks in the game, because Steel-Type was supposed to be defensive rather than offensive.
Mawile being Steel-Type never stood out to me as strange, but the version exclusiveness always did. The more reasonable parallel would’ve been Mawile and Aron, as they’re both Steel-Type, but a 3-stage evolutionary line contrasted with a single stage mon as version exclusive parallels would be wilder than what we got.
I don’t question the Steel-Type being on Mawile. The fact that the Futakuchi-Onna has nothing to do with anything mineral is kind of what makes Mawile a Pokémon, because they adapted it to make sense for the type (just as they do with real animals). But Mawile is absolutely one of the Gen III Pokémon whose game data is difficult to justify, because it really does mostly suck to use. It is also one of many, though, and Gen III is a great example of what happens when powercreep doesn’t happen — the hype around new mons is kinda short-lived.
Mawile also was far from the only Steel-Type Pokémon to have to use Hidden Power Steel for STAB. It may feel more notable because it’s monotype Steel-Type, but also part of why Mawile was interesting at the time was because of that. The only other monotype Steel-Type upon introduction was the far more difficult to obtain Registeel, so Mawile was most players’ chance to experience Steel-Type in its pure form. And before Gen IV introduced Iron Head, Steel-Type’s pure form was relying on Hidden Power Steel for STAB; that was the strongest Steel-Type attacks in the game, because Steel-Type was supposed to be defensive rather than offensive.
I wonder if anyone's done a deep analysis on all of the Pokemon who were likely crippled due to their placement in the quest.
Like, Onix is more or less the poster child of this phenomenon by virtue of being the "first boss" of gen 1.
You can easily look at Gens 1 and 5 for something like that because they were planned as RPGs first, multiplayer games second.
For example, Vileplume is a straight-up worse Venusaur to give players a Grass mon to use against Misty while maintaining the starter's value.
Gen 5 has the infamous evolution level debacle specifically because of where certain mons are placed in the story, which leads to hilariously sad things like USUM Rufflet/Vullaby.
That also explains why many of the Pokémon of those generation were easily power crept, with what’s with type overlap issues and a lot of pure Normal-type and pure Water-type.
That did not excuse on the very high amount of single-stage “dex fillers” that are just there to collect. Those only pleases collectors, those who only cares about physical designs, and no one else. Even later generations suffered that, even if to a lesser extent.
Gen 1 was actually for the most part very good about making single stage Pokemon stand out. Most of them actually stood out just as much as three-stage lines because they were unique for not being part of an evolutionary line, and they often made up for it by being much rarer, in many cases only one being available to catch and use.
Three-stage lines and single-stage Pokemon stood out relatively equally in the Gen 1 roster, because they made themselves rare and standout in different ways. The two-stage lines were often the blandest because they were average at best and often "common spawns" in the wild.
There were some obviously bad ones like Lickitung, but Farfetch'd was a good early game crutch who doubled as a Cut user, Onix was a great first boss Pokemon, and Porygon was unique in lore and in obtaining. Mr. Mime was also a good alternative to Alakazam for those who couldn't find people to trade with to evolve Kadabra.
The other Gen 1 single stage Pokemon were quite usable in-game in RBY as mid-late game strong teammates who were hard to find and catch, but would make valid additions to your team around the mid-game if you needed extra firepower and would serve you well until the end. Snorlax appeared only twice as a roadblock, and if you caught it you had a great tank in your hands. In the Safari Zone there are several single stage Normal-types like Tauros, Kangaskhan, and Chansey, who all are very hard to catch which is doubled down on by the Safari Zone game mechanics, and also rare, but you were rewarded with a strong powerhouse off the bat should you be able to catch one of them. The same goes for Pinsir and Scyther who were also there. Lapras was a nice gift from Silph Co. who is *really* good.
Then post-Surf you could go to some dungeons and pick up Jynx, Electabuzz, or Magmar who were good elemental users. The Fighting Dojo has Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan who would make acceptable alternatives to Machamp for those who couldn't trade a Machoke. Aerodactyl could be revived from a fossil and be a good Pokemon. And last but not least there were the three legendary birds who were scaled for end-game use and would be great if you needed some more power to add to your team. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres were strong off the bat even with no training and save you the effort of training something up at that point if you haven't.
You get the jist but Gen 1 was pretty good about using single stage Pokemon right for in-game use as valid pre-promotes, whether as a crutch or as a mid-late game already good team member who can give your team more oomph if you were in need of one. They made up for their lack of evolutionary progression by generally being much harder to find and catch, but if you did, you were rewarded nicely.
I think later generations, on the other hand, were much more inconsistent with the value of single stage Pokemon.
Three-stage lines and single-stage Pokemon stood out relatively equally in the Gen 1 roster, because they made themselves rare and standout in different ways. The two-stage lines were often the blandest because they were average at best and often "common spawns" in the wild.
There were some obviously bad ones like Lickitung, but Farfetch'd was a good early game crutch who doubled as a Cut user, Onix was a great first boss Pokemon, and Porygon was unique in lore and in obtaining. Mr. Mime was also a good alternative to Alakazam for those who couldn't find people to trade with to evolve Kadabra.
The other Gen 1 single stage Pokemon were quite usable in-game in RBY as mid-late game strong teammates who were hard to find and catch, but would make valid additions to your team around the mid-game if you needed extra firepower and would serve you well until the end. Snorlax appeared only twice as a roadblock, and if you caught it you had a great tank in your hands. In the Safari Zone there are several single stage Normal-types like Tauros, Kangaskhan, and Chansey, who all are very hard to catch which is doubled down on by the Safari Zone game mechanics, and also rare, but you were rewarded with a strong powerhouse off the bat should you be able to catch one of them. The same goes for Pinsir and Scyther who were also there. Lapras was a nice gift from Silph Co. who is *really* good.
Then post-Surf you could go to some dungeons and pick up Jynx, Electabuzz, or Magmar who were good elemental users. The Fighting Dojo has Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan who would make acceptable alternatives to Machamp for those who couldn't trade a Machoke. Aerodactyl could be revived from a fossil and be a good Pokemon. And last but not least there were the three legendary birds who were scaled for end-game use and would be great if you needed some more power to add to your team. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres were strong off the bat even with no training and save you the effort of training something up at that point if you haven't.
You get the jist but Gen 1 was pretty good about using single stage Pokemon right for in-game use as valid pre-promotes, whether as a crutch or as a mid-late game already good team member who can give your team more oomph if you were in need of one. They made up for their lack of evolutionary progression by generally being much harder to find and catch, but if you did, you were rewarded nicely.
I think later generations, on the other hand, were much more inconsistent with the value of single stage Pokemon.
Single-stage mons, in theory, are essentially Fire Emblem prepromotes.
Immediate power at the cost of plateauing later. Just like prepromotes, they're usually broken af or immediately benched with little to no middle ground. It's pretty hard to balance those, y'know?
Gen 1 had a lot of those, and barring some who were so late/rare in the game that you really might as well not bother, they were all trash.
Come to think of it, besides maybe Mr. Mime and Jynx, were there any legit good single-stage evos in RBY before the mid-game?
Dux, Pinsir, and Scyther were straight trash. Electabuzz was in the same building as Zapdos lmao. Tauros might as well have been under that truck with those awful spawn rates and Safari mechanics. Also, it's more of a late-mid game pick tbh, so your mons should've been at least getting close to their final stage.
I don't think any good single-stage mons were available around Lavender/Celadon...
Extending the analogy a little further, pokemon seems to be pretty averse to the equivalent of a unit that joins promoted not for the early power spike, but because the player is likely running nothing but promoted units by that point already. There are Legendaries sometimes, I guess, but Gen 5 would have been a lot more future-proofed if they let there be wild Bisharp, you know?Single-stage mons, in theory, are essentially Fire Emblem prepromotes.
Immediate power at the cost of plateauing later. Just like prepromotes, they're usually broken af or immediately benched with little to no middle ground. It's pretty hard to balance those, y'know?
Gen 1 had a lot of those, and barring some who were so late/rare in the game that you really might as well not bother, they were all trash.
Come to think of it, besides maybe Mr. Mime and Jynx, were there any legit good single-stage evos in RBY before the mid-game?
Dux, Pinsir, and Scyther were straight trash. Electabuzz was in the same building as Zapdos lmao. Tauros might as well have been under that truck with those awful spawn rates and Safari mechanics. Also, it's more of a late-mid game pick tbh, so your mons should've been at least getting close to their final stage.
I don't think any good single-stage mons were available around Lavender/Celadon...
It's always struck me as kind of pathetic that Zangoose and Seviper's 3rd gen Pokedex entries dedicate the bulk of their wordcount to their opposite.
Come on, guys. Be your own person. This is just sad.
Come on, guys. Be your own person. This is just sad.
LaprasSingle-stage mons, in theory, are essentially Fire Emblem prepromotes.
Immediate power at the cost of plateauing later. Just like prepromotes, they're usually broken af or immediately benched with little to no middle ground. It's pretty hard to balance those, y'know?
Gen 1 had a lot of those, and barring some who were so late/rare in the game that you really might as well not bother, they were all trash.
Come to think of it, besides maybe Mr. Mime and Jynx, were there any legit good single-stage evos in RBY before the mid-game?
Dux, Pinsir, and Scyther were straight trash. Electabuzz was in the same building as Zapdos lmao. Tauros might as well have been under that truck with those awful spawn rates and Safari mechanics. Also, it's more of a late-mid game pick tbh, so your mons should've been at least getting close to their final stage.
I don't think any good single-stage mons were available around Lavender/Celadon...
There are wild Bisharp though? Just only in the end game.
The main appeal of the duo is their rivalry akin to real life mangooses and vipers though, so it’s a good idea to let both veterans and newcomers know about their nature. A violent rivalry like that was unheard off, since both present and previous rivalries were either Legendaries or some of the simple competitive types.
The fact that every Pokédex entries talk about their rivalries in both version, leaving little room for their other characteristics, does make it repetitive after the 3rd generation though.
The two above seems to have opposite views. Definitely divisive back in the first generation.Single-stage mons, in theory, are essentially Fire Emblem prepromotes.
Immediate power at the cost of plateauing later. Just like prepromotes, they're usually broken af or immediately benched with little to no middle ground. It's pretty hard to balance those, y'know?
Gen 1 had a lot of those, and barring some who were so late/rare in the game that you really might as well not bother, they were all trash.
Come to think of it, besides maybe Mr. Mime and Jynx, were there any legit good single-stage evos in RBY before the mid-game?
Dux, Pinsir, and Scyther were straight trash. Electabuzz was in the same building as Zapdos lmao. Tauros might as well have been under that truck with those awful spawn rates and Safari mechanics. Also, it's more of a late-mid game pick tbh, so your mons should've been at least getting close to their final stage.
I don't think any good single-stage mons were available around Lavender/Celadon...
I do agree that single-stages were handled a lot more inconsistently in later generations. This is part of why I tend to have a low opinion on single-staged Pokémon, likely due to how poorly executed most of them are, I feel. As XY proved, weak single-staged Pokémon like Plusle and Minun works miles better for early game instead of being shoved into midgame or worse, lategame.
And to any fangame dev out there, if you want to create weak single-stage Pokémon, do us potential players a favor and not make them too rare and make sure they are available early on. In other words, don’t do gimmick mons just for sake of it. Masgot from Xenoverse got this issue by being a 1% encounter Pokémon yet pretty weak for what’s supposed to be a midgame Pokémon.
Yes, we know that “Pokémon are baby easy with nearly any Pokémon able to solo the game” but that doesn’t stop some doing it better than others. In-game tiers and Nuzlockes tiers exists for a reason.
Giving an evolution or pre-evolution is more blessing than a curse, as it don’t just buff a single-stage Pokémon or making it easier to access respectively; it also allows developers to balance them more easily without having to stick them to one place of another, especially if the single-staged Pokémon failed to make an impact in their debuting game.
Now, a certain single-stage Pokémon with 535 BST - the same that the likes of Crobat, Rhyperior and Swampert have in common - have managed to shock the world in Scarlet and Violet. Duraludon, out of all Pokémon at that gets an evolution, pushes it to endgame territory that matches pseudo-legendaries in terms of being power, down to Archaludon’s 600 BST. Even in-game, Archaludon is a veritable threat comparable to pseudo-legendary Pokémon, if not surpassing them in a way thanks to Stamina, helped by the fact that you just need an item to evolve Duraludon vs needing to level up a lot for a pseudo-legendary.
Speaking off 600 BST, cross-gen evolutions with exactly 600 BST are not something you give like candies, as much as it is unheard off in official Pokémon games until the Indigo Disk. In fact, treat them as something special, something that are rare, powerful but not exactly a single specimen, just like pseudos. If another cross-gen evolution have 600 BST or two, we’d best have a new category, something like those;
- Pseudo-Mythicals (akin to mythicals being distinct to legendaries, even if abritrary, like how Archaludon is not considered a pseudo-legendary despite the 600 BST due to not being three-staged yet and have a different EXP Group from real pseudos)
- Exceptional Evolutions (a term I use for Archaludon and the fanmade cross-gen evos with 600 BST)
- Super Cross-Generational Evolutions (indicate that it’s much stronger than an average cross-gen evo)
- Cross-Gen 600 Club (a subset of 600 Club, and refers to how Archaludon is considered as part of Japanese fans’ 600 Club due to evolving at least once, whereas mythicals and legends with 600 BST in any form aren’t included due to not being part of any evolutionary line)
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I'm finally giving SV a fair shot since modding it is just more trouble than it's worth.
Catching Experience + Exp. All = A Complete Disaster.
I'm pretty sure I'm already overleveled for the first real Nemona fight and all I've done is run around a bit and catch some mons. Gonna have to skip the trainers before fighting her.
I can't call this anything but bad design, honestly.
Catching Experience + Exp. All = A Complete Disaster.
I'm pretty sure I'm already overleveled for the first real Nemona fight and all I've done is run around a bit and catch some mons. Gonna have to skip the trainers before fighting her.
I can't call this anything but bad design, honestly.
I had a blast with SV but because I ignored most of the trainers in the base game. I was lucky enough to face that one student who mentions the academy staff changed from one year to another which is very nice build up...I have to wonder what other interesting dialogue I may have missed. It's understandable to have them be optional in an open world but it's kind of a shame too.
Another thing that can easily overlevel you is the let's go feature (is that the English name?)- while looking for the Tauros breeds I accidentally overleveled my Tinkaton because of it being able to defeat the Hariyamas near the lake zone which should be way tougher in normal battles.
SV was an instance where I think the always-on Exp All system really worked
I caught a fair amount but not everything I saw (which is how I usually play these games). I fought trainers as I ran around but I actually wound up missing a bunch just due to how I explored the world; even hours and hours after beating the whole game I kept stumbling into new spots that had a few trainers I didn't even know where there like oh!
And since every trainer was something you had to initiate, there were times where I thought "oh I'll save that one for later" or "ah, I just want to move on with the story right now I'll skip this".
It didn't feel like BDSP where its a freight train that can't be stopped or SWSH where you really have to go out of your way to avoid doing things for a result you're effectively only putting off for a couple gyms. Everything felt natural for the systems the game had and the way I wanted to play. The level curve also had a few jumps here & there, especially at the end of each route, so it felt like there was just enough friction in place as I was running around.
Legends Arceus also kind of worked with the system but everything about that game is fundamentally different so it's not really a good comparison
I caught a fair amount but not everything I saw (which is how I usually play these games). I fought trainers as I ran around but I actually wound up missing a bunch just due to how I explored the world; even hours and hours after beating the whole game I kept stumbling into new spots that had a few trainers I didn't even know where there like oh!
And since every trainer was something you had to initiate, there were times where I thought "oh I'll save that one for later" or "ah, I just want to move on with the story right now I'll skip this".
It didn't feel like BDSP where its a freight train that can't be stopped or SWSH where you really have to go out of your way to avoid doing things for a result you're effectively only putting off for a couple gyms. Everything felt natural for the systems the game had and the way I wanted to play. The level curve also had a few jumps here & there, especially at the end of each route, so it felt like there was just enough friction in place as I was running around.
Legends Arceus also kind of worked with the system but everything about that game is fundamentally different so it's not really a good comparison
It's bothering me so much that I'm looking for a way to disable all of that right now.
It doesn't feel right to be punished for playing the game. Simple as that.
This game already has severe difficulty issues, but we've known that since day 1. It is what it is. But this is too much. A lot of open-world games fall into this weird pitfall of diluting the difficulty because players can take multiple routes to get to a goal. This is not what happens in this game.
Anything you do builds momentum to your inevitable steamrolling of the game.
If you walk around a little, you'll find a TON of items, including many TMs. If you catch wild mons to build your team, you're getting experience for the whole party. Mind you, by the time you beat Arven's first battle, you're staring down Lv. 6 and up wilds. That experience adds up fast if you're team building. Trainers are all over the place, including mini-bosses and rewards for beating a certain amount of trainers.
Doing Raids? 1-Star mons are pretty much ready for the first gym on their own. Going to Kitakami for the DLC side-story? Hoo boy.
Even doing the bare minimum of exploration will leave you grossly overleveled and primed to just run through the game like a freight train. It's impossible to play like this.
I did more than the bare minimum of exploration and was not grossly overleveled and did not run through the game like a freight train. I had just enough friction, personally.
I'm also not going to give the game crap about the raids, a lot of the games tend to have Pokemon of similar level to the near by gyms; at least it throws all the exp into candies too rather than dumping it on you.
The DLC, however, absolutely does throw a wrench into it. It's more trainers, forced battles, opportunities to catch pokemon and
sigh
the exp charm you can't turn off
Like I think it's nice that the DLC has more to do if you want to integrate it into your playthrough, and that's always going to cause a different kind of friction in terms of game design, but at least let you SKIP the stupid charm
Cheryl.
Celesteela is Life
Started doing this in Gen 7 and it is actually such a huge improvement getting to play with a variety of mons you like even if some of them are only gonna last a little while before getting boxed. Gave me that Gen 1 Ash Ketchum feeling lol
it's definitely one of those YMMV type things
I tried it in my run of Moon (Sun was a regular run) and it was just kind of annoying and I didn't feel any real attachment, to the point where I just went back to the usual way in Ultra Sun.
I then kind of wound up doing this in LA (I think literally the only consistent Pokemon was my starter and even then...)but, again, that's a pretty different beast in general.
The Let's Go-on are a little less annoying since you can do it at any time, but having made liberal usage of it in SV for raid purposes constantly going into the PC is still just...annoying. I'm glad the option is there and Exp All can help play into it but it's a pretty different play style that isn't going to mesh well with everyone
It's why I liked the SV style because it felt a lot more natural to play with my squad of 6 and then the game experience kind of warped passively around how I was playing it. I still did some exploration, some captures, many trainers, but I didn't feel like I was actively avoiding things just to have the friction I liked. Even when I did get higher leveled, it was often not by very much.
But also at the same time, offered extra incentive to let people play with multiple teams if they wanted. That's nice!But seriously can we just have the option to turn it off again?
Oh SV also making it so the Star Bases and Titans don't give any exp was also a good decision in that regard
I tried it in my run of Moon (Sun was a regular run) and it was just kind of annoying and I didn't feel any real attachment, to the point where I just went back to the usual way in Ultra Sun.
I then kind of wound up doing this in LA (I think literally the only consistent Pokemon was my starter and even then...)but, again, that's a pretty different beast in general.
The Let's Go-on are a little less annoying since you can do it at any time, but having made liberal usage of it in SV for raid purposes constantly going into the PC is still just...annoying. I'm glad the option is there and Exp All can help play into it but it's a pretty different play style that isn't going to mesh well with everyone
It's why I liked the SV style because it felt a lot more natural to play with my squad of 6 and then the game experience kind of warped passively around how I was playing it. I still did some exploration, some captures, many trainers, but I didn't feel like I was actively avoiding things just to have the friction I liked. Even when I did get higher leveled, it was often not by very much.
But also at the same time, offered extra incentive to let people play with multiple teams if they wanted. That's nice!
Oh SV also making it so the Star Bases and Titans don't give any exp was also a good decision in that regard