Japan only, and it also seems to have required a completed Colosseum save file.
US version had Jirachi instead.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
US version had Jirachi instead.
I thought there was one so double checking against Serebii's database it seems there was a giveaway in 2006 for the 10th Anniversary...but only in the US & Taiwan (& Japan, of course)
Europe getting the short end as was usual for the era.
You're right. So I guess we can add a couple dozen cities to the list, on one specific day each.
Kind of surprised I forgot about this in retrospect, as I'm certain that I have a Celebi with a 10ANIV trainer ID sitting in one of my boxes somewhere that I'm pretty sure was cloned from somebody who went.
I checked through Bulbapedia and Celebi was obtainable through Journey Across America event distribution that took place during Gen 3.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Funnily enough, in the Prima Guide for FRLG there's a full Pokedex for the first 251 Pokemon detailing their movesets and locations, except for Mew, Lugia, and Celebi which all had blank entries with "this Pokemon is not available in the United States" in them. Which of course was true at the time... except for the fact that Lugia is obtainable within FRLG, something the guide does not in any way acknowledge. Wonder if the guide's writer actually knew of the event's existence, or if they knew but weren't allowed to reveal its existence before the event ticket was officially distributed.
I’m pretty sure colosseum was released before FRLG, and Ho-oh was catchable in that.
Something that irks me a little about Megas and Z-moves (and Eternamax Eternatus specifically) is how they affect stat and move trivia. It's annoying that almost every list of the strongest moves by type needs a little "*excluding Z-moves" disclaimer, and while there's nothing strictly wrong with having Megas and/or Eternamax at the top of almost every ranking by individual stat, something about it bothers me.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
I did not mention Ho-oh in that post, and in fact Ho-oh's location in the listing in question is literally "trade from Colosseum"
Yes I’m pretty sure the point was being made that being event exclusive at that time (which Ho-oh was not) was why they didn’t receive an entry, which makes sense.
It's definitely the latter. "Official" Guidebooks do to an extent work with the company. While a thing might slip through here & there they're not allow to acknowledge things that are in the game but might come later, even if they might be revealed elsewhere. Especially during that era of the franchise, where they kept holding back reveals of things worldwide even if they were already announced, shown, released in Japan.
You can see this more obviously with Prima's Ruby & Sapphire guide book. It doesn't mention Jirachi, Deoxys, their moves, any of the berries past Leichi, the Eon Ticket, or the Soul Dew (& likewise shows Latias/Latios as purely Version Exclusive).
Even an earlier guide book i have, from Versus for Gold & Silver, will mention Mew but not Celebi.
e: & also obviously the prima RS guide didn'ts how off all the non-hoenn dex Pokemon
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Yeah I think this is it. I've also got the Prime R&S guide and never really registered how it stops at 200, but this makes sense.
Interestingly, though, a few of the Altering Cave Pokemon like Shuckle and Houndour have "Cave of Origin" as their location in the FRLG guide, which would seem to be someone getting confused and mixing up that location with Altering Cave - but the fact it's there seems to indicate that the planned events for those Pokemon were scrapped extremely late. Presumably Emerald was well on its way by the time FRLG were out and they knew it'd have all those species available in it - no sense taking away one of its selling points.
I'd look at the scrapped aspect in a slightly different light. The games only came out 8 months apart in Japan, they were likely developed partially concurrently and Emerald also has Altering Cave with all the same Pokemon despite the extension.
To me it seems like they scrapped the event entirely, maybe they thought it would be too cumbersome to get these Pokemon through event or the GC games, and then placed those Pokemon in the Safari Zone Extension instead. Less of a "scrap it because it will be an emerald selling point" situation and more of a "let's make these Pokemon more available" situation.
In fact...most areas of the Safari Zone had 6 Pokemon in their grass normally, with one having 7
Both extensions have 8...there'd be less than 6 without the extension Pokemon but I can easily see a situation where the AC pokemon were just added to the Extensions at the last minute after deciding they wouldn't do Altering Cave after all.
50/50 on if Smeargle and the Artisan Cave were also late additions; it does pair well with Ditto in the underpass at least.
Also while double checking the encounters, I saw a note on Bulbapedia that apparently the Emerald version of the cave would have had specifically designated Held Items rates which is interesting. Shuckle & Aipom would have had 5% chance to hold Berry Juice, I assume there's others but they don't list them.
What a weird little bit of content.
Bloodmoon Ursaluna has a 555 BST vs normal Ursaluna's 550.
Why such a tiny change? They rearranged virtually all of its stats such that it doesn't share a single BST number with the base form, even in a different category, but why the 5 extra points? If they wanted to make it stronger why not go to something like 570 for the Paradoxes, or stick to the respectable 550 Ursaluna already used? The only other Pokemon with a 555 BST are the Loyal Three (minor Legendaries with little relation besides also being migrants/visitors to Kitikami), Arcanine, and Mega Banette.
The change just bothers me because I can't see why they wouldn't just take 5 points out of a dump stat like ATK, or Speed to make it better in Trick Room, and it's such a minor difference on top of the total Stat redistribution that I can't pick out an intent to buff, while not spotting a theme behind the upgraded stat.
Why such a tiny change? They rearranged virtually all of its stats such that it doesn't share a single BST number with the base form, even in a different category, but why the 5 extra points? If they wanted to make it stronger why not go to something like 570 for the Paradoxes, or stick to the respectable 550 Ursaluna already used? The only other Pokemon with a 555 BST are the Loyal Three (minor Legendaries with little relation besides also being migrants/visitors to Kitikami), Arcanine, and Mega Banette.
The change just bothers me because I can't see why they wouldn't just take 5 points out of a dump stat like ATK, or Speed to make it better in Trick Room, and it's such a minor difference on top of the total Stat redistribution that I can't pick out an intent to buff, while not spotting a theme behind the upgraded stat.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
It probably was done to show that it's surpassed other Ursaluna in capability, albeit only a very little. A jump of 20 points would be too much because it only got that way from living so long, rather than any external source of power.
There are a few other instances of BSTs being used this way: Eternal Flower Floette has a BST (551) exactly one point lower than Florges (552), for instance. Pokebeach's take was that this was done to indicate that it had reached its fullest potential as a Floette - it was as powerful as that species could ever possibly be, and yet that total was still inferior to its evolved form. Similarly, Rayquaza is nominally the third member of the weather trio but has a very slightly higher BST (680 vs Kyogre and Groudon's 670) to indicate its seniority.
Most alternate forms or counterpart Pokemon have the same BST to indicate that they're all equal in capability, such as Zangoose and Seviper or Tauros and Miltank (though not all do - Vileplume and Bellossom, for example, or Poliwrath and Politoed). Attack Forme Deoxys is no more powerful than Defence Forme (in terms of its total strength), they just have that power redirected in different optimisations. On the other hand, there's some like Zen Mode Darmanitan where the increase in BST indicates a rise in power. I would say Bloodmoon Ursaluna is supposed to be seen as a little above the rest of its species.
Interestingly, it's actually Groudon and Kyogre that are the weird ones here. Rayquaza's 680 is shared by a majority of big legendaries, while 670 was only recently repeated within the group with the 'Raidons. I'm guessing that setting a major field condition is considered enough of a power boost that they take a BST hit to compensate (though the 'Raidons might also get it because most generic Paradox mons get 570).
A Pokemon's HP bar goes from green to yellow when it dips below 50%. There are plenty of situations where whether or not a Pokemon is above or below exactly 50% HP is extremely important, and this does an excellent job at disambiguating those situations.
A Pokemon's HP bar goes from yellow to red when it dips below 20%. This information is near useless.
A Pokemon's HP bar goes from yellow to red when it dips below 20%. This information is near useless.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Grass was never my favourite type, and indeed was a decidedly uncool type back in my youth. Ain't no-one winning cool points for picking Bulbasaur or Chikorita as their starter (that changed a very little bit from Treecko onwards, though).
I don't think it's helped by the fact we've had so few Grass-type legendaries - by which I mean purely Grass-type legendaries. Part of me thinks this is because pure Grass is generally considered a fairly underwhelming type, so whenever we do get a legendary of that typing it almost has to be dual-typed to compensate - pure Grass struggles against Dragon, Flying, and Fire, all of which are relatively common typings for other legendaries.
We have obviously had a handful of Grass-type legendaries already, but - and this is only my view - for most of them, their Grass-typing often plays second fiddle to their other type. Tapu Bulu and Virizion are part of larger groups, and so the Fairy element is the core aspect that links all four Tapus while the Fighting element is the commonality between the Swords of Justice. That's not to say Grass isn't central to their design, especially in Tapu Bulu's case - but it is, ultimately, secondary.
I like Calyrex a lot, and its Grass-type is certainly important to it as it plays strongly into the harvest legend around it, but its Psychic-typing ultimately has a greater prominence - and it's the Grass-type it loses when it merges with its steeds.
There is, of course, Shaymin! But it gains a secondary type when transforming into the objectively better Sky Forme, so the pure Grass-type it has in Land Forme ends up feeling like a starting point instead of its own thing.
I almost forgot to include Zarude on this list, which I think is quite telling. But... yeah, Zarude exists. Nice, isn't it?
Likewise Wo-Chien.
I'll finish on Celebi, which is probably my favourite mythical overall for its lore and general uniqueness. Celebi actually does go in pretty hard on its Grass-typing - it's concerned with the preservation and protection of old forests, with plants and grassland. It's one of a few legendaries where the Psychic-typing feels a bit tacked-on, as IMO it's to justify it having time-travel powers. Like I think Grass/Psychic was a pretty great typing for Celebi and definitely helps in some regards but I think it absolutely could have been pure Grass and it would have worked fine conceptually.
But it, unlike Shaymin Land Forme, is pretty badass. I've always liked it a lot.
All this is to say that I wish we could get a pure Grass-type legendary as part of a game mascot trio/duo, instead of the lower trios or a mythical. Something Kyogre-level, unashamedly Grass and nothing else - and, crucially, strong. Impressive and fearsome and cool enough to make people want to use it. I actually always thought a legendary mascot trio of pure Fire/Water/Grass would be neat, as it'd be a neat parallel to the starter trio. Sadly, such a thing has never materialised.
I don't think it's helped by the fact we've had so few Grass-type legendaries - by which I mean purely Grass-type legendaries. Part of me thinks this is because pure Grass is generally considered a fairly underwhelming type, so whenever we do get a legendary of that typing it almost has to be dual-typed to compensate - pure Grass struggles against Dragon, Flying, and Fire, all of which are relatively common typings for other legendaries.
We have obviously had a handful of Grass-type legendaries already, but - and this is only my view - for most of them, their Grass-typing often plays second fiddle to their other type. Tapu Bulu and Virizion are part of larger groups, and so the Fairy element is the core aspect that links all four Tapus while the Fighting element is the commonality between the Swords of Justice. That's not to say Grass isn't central to their design, especially in Tapu Bulu's case - but it is, ultimately, secondary.
I like Calyrex a lot, and its Grass-type is certainly important to it as it plays strongly into the harvest legend around it, but its Psychic-typing ultimately has a greater prominence - and it's the Grass-type it loses when it merges with its steeds.
There is, of course, Shaymin! But it gains a secondary type when transforming into the objectively better Sky Forme, so the pure Grass-type it has in Land Forme ends up feeling like a starting point instead of its own thing.
I almost forgot to include Zarude on this list, which I think is quite telling. But... yeah, Zarude exists. Nice, isn't it?
Likewise Wo-Chien.
I'll finish on Celebi, which is probably my favourite mythical overall for its lore and general uniqueness. Celebi actually does go in pretty hard on its Grass-typing - it's concerned with the preservation and protection of old forests, with plants and grassland. It's one of a few legendaries where the Psychic-typing feels a bit tacked-on, as IMO it's to justify it having time-travel powers. Like I think Grass/Psychic was a pretty great typing for Celebi and definitely helps in some regards but I think it absolutely could have been pure Grass and it would have worked fine conceptually.
But it, unlike Shaymin Land Forme, is pretty badass. I've always liked it a lot.
All this is to say that I wish we could get a pure Grass-type legendary as part of a game mascot trio/duo, instead of the lower trios or a mythical. Something Kyogre-level, unashamedly Grass and nothing else - and, crucially, strong. Impressive and fearsome and cool enough to make people want to use it. I actually always thought a legendary mascot trio of pure Fire/Water/Grass would be neat, as it'd be a neat parallel to the starter trio. Sadly, such a thing has never materialised.
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How did you list every Grass-type legendary but somehow forget Ogerpon? She's even pure Grass by default.
If it was 25%, that'd actually be pretty important...
Except Ogerpon also goes from Grass to Grass / Fire, Grass / Water or Grass / Rock depending in the mask she’s wearing. Her mask forms aren’t strictly superior in statistics and whatnot, except Hearthflame Mask where Mold Breaker is pretty strong with Fire Ivy Cudgel and Grass STAB, and Attack-boosting Empath upon Terastalization.
Although it did help that Ogerpon’s Grass also made her weak to the Loyal Trio and Pecharunt’s Poison STAB, so her Grass-type is emphasized if more indirectly.
Ok but grass is the common denominator. You disqualified other legendaries for being in groups where grass is the second additional type, but Ogerpon in all forms is Grass, and has a pure Grass form.
Be fr
Zacian and Zamazenta’s Hero forms had 670 BSTs back in Gen 8, but were tweaked down to 660 in SV
On a similar note, I don’t think I’ve ever really understood why Blaze, Torrent, Overgrow, and Swarm don’t have a proc alert. Defeatist too, for that matter.
It's probably because these abilities are meant to be a comeback mechanic for new players (on the starters) and it may cause new players to try low HP strats when they really shouldn't if it's more in their face.
That is just a guess though.
The Pokemon Across America Event celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Pokemon. You trade with a staff member to get a level 70 Celebi, and 5 other level 70 events chosen from a list(that all have 10Anniv as the OT). Various European countries and Australia had their own variations of the celebration, complete with the Celebi event. Source: I went to it when it was in the major city closest to me, since it was an event that moved from city to city.
No no, that's a good thing!
People complain of the games being too easy with simply solo'ing with starter. Let them try Danger Mario strats for shits and giggles