(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

One thing I want to add as an annoyance: All 3 Paldean Tauros sharing the same shiny. Their Breed traits are already borderline magic eye small depending on your screen resolution, would have been nice to play on those for the Shiny as well, like maybe give them colored horns or something or a tinge for Blaze/Aqua?
 
One thing I want to add as an annoyance: All 3 Paldean Tauros sharing the same shiny. Their Breed traits are already borderline magic eye small depending on your screen resolution, would have been nice to play on those for the Shiny as well, like maybe give them colored horns or something or a tinge for Blaze/Aqua?
The horns light up when they attack, no Pokémon introduced after the switch to 3D has parts the light up change color while shiny. And the ones that were introduced pre-gen 6 (Gigalith and Dialga) didn't have those correctly change to the new color until SwSh.
 
The horns light up when they attack, no Pokémon introduced after the switch to 3D has parts the light up change color while shiny. And the ones that were introduced pre-gen 6 (Gigalith and Dialga) didn't have those correctly change to the new color until SwSh.
I was talking as much about the visual design, which you're mostly going to spot while looking for them before they do an attack animation if you're shiny hunting, as well as the overall lack of detail difference in their idle elements.

Do you ever post in this section of the Forum for any reason besides to "um Acksually" people? That seems to be the bulk of your quote replies I receive at least.
 
I think you two (as in, you and DaRotomMachine that you quoted) have never played a gacha before, as these numbers are still on the generous side..

Simple example, in the two most popular current gachas (Star Rail and Genshin Impact) from Hoyoverse, the amount of irl money you have to spend to "guarantee" a 5* banner (aka hit the pity after failing the 50/50) is on the line of 400€, up to 1500-2000€ if you want a fully upgraded character which requires pulling it 7 times. The droprates are public, way lower than 1%, until you reach 75-ish pulls where they quickly upgrade to 100% within 4-5 pulls (so called "pity").
Pure F2P player in either games are barely provided enough currency to hit a single pity per month, meaning that bar extreme luck you are able to get at 1 banner character per 2 months, anything more will require real money investment (much worse in Genshin iirc but I don't play it enough to notice).

Gachas are made to steal money from people, a lot of it in fact, and they work, both because there's a lot of people incapable of controlling themselves like me for example, and a bunch of rich oilers for which 2000€ are basically spare change, toghether with a lot of youtuber/twitch streamers who basically invest a significant chunk of their monthly earning into pulls because if they don't their channel dies.
You are correct, I haven't played any other gachas, though I have friends who do (and I think most of them are also F2P?). I know full well they're meant to steal money from people, and that's why I haven't spent anything on the game. I have, however, spent small amounts of money a handful of times for other F2P mobile games with playtime limitations that can be bypassed by money. I've learned that that's kind of a waste of funds, though.

Pokémon Masters only gives you enough gems to pity pull after over a month (they've been stingier with gems lately tbh), though the rates on most banners (if they're not a super-diluted seasonal scout, the focus is always at least 1%) will mean you'll probably get at least one copy of the focus unit before you get to the pity point.
 
You are correct, I haven't played any other gachas, though I have friends who do (and I think most of them are also F2P?). I know full well they're meant to steal money from people, and that's why I haven't spent anything on the game. I have, however, spent small amounts of money a handful of times for other F2P mobile games with playtime limitations that can be bypassed by money. I've learned that that's kind of a waste of funds, though.
Honestly, I don't think spending money on gachas per se is "wrong", kinda like one's willing to pay 60-70€ for even subpar games they enjoy (cough cough imagine wasting 180€ for SV + both dlcs, can't be me surely), it's just a matter of moderation.

Obviously the problem arises for people who have self-control issues, but for sardines and dolphins (kinda funny names i learned go toghether with whales as the lesser spenders) it's just a matter of investing in playing what one enjoys, and it's never really wasted if one's having fun.

(No i'm not encouraging to go waste a million dollars on gachas, I'm just saying I don't think there's ever to consider the money "wasted" if you're having fun and not overdoing it)
 
Honestly, I don't think spending money on gachas per se is "wrong", kinda like one's willing to pay 60-70€ for even subpar games they enjoy (cough cough imagine wasting 180€ for SV + both dlcs, can't be me surely), it's just a matter of moderation.

Obviously the problem arises for people who have self-control issues, but for sardines and dolphins (kinda funny names i learned go toghether with whales as the lesser spenders) it's just a matter of investing in playing what one enjoys, and it's never really wasted if one's having fun.

(No i'm not encouraging to go waste a million dollars on gachas, I'm just saying I don't think there's ever to consider the money "wasted" if you're having fun and not overdoing it)
One of my friends told me his perspective that spending money on gachas is probably really only worth it if you are guaranteed to get what you're pulling for, and I think that's relatively smart. Just putting in some money for a handful of extra pulls is probably not the best use of money, but to each their own.

I did go into Masters with the intention of playing it F2P and so far I've succeeded. It helps that I've been playing almost since launch and have enough limited and/or properly invested units to not worry too much about not being able to clear most content. Really the only battles that can be troublesome are the Extreme (and now the Ultimate) Battles that exist mainly to be unit checks/to get people to pay for specific units, so I'm not overly concerned with paying to get stuff at this point.

Gacha systems are definitely a predatory business model but yeah, if you're careful with your spending, investing money in them isn't the worst thing in the world. Definitely don't be like that person who organized a Persona fanzine, collected over $20k, then skedaddled with the money to use it on Genshin.
 
Normalize and Stall. Seriously, Normalize is a gimmick that just makes Delcatty's only saving grace (massive movepool) useless, while Stall... Seriously, just give it an upside!

They are outright hindering abilities for meh Pokemon. I can understand Slaking, Regigigas and even Archeops, but those? What the shit?
 
Normalize and Stall. Seriously, Normalize is a gimmick that just makes Delcatty's only saving grace (massive movepool) useless, while Stall... Seriously, just give it an upside!

They are outright hindering abilities for meh Pokemon. I can understand Slaking, Regigigas and even Archeops, but those? What the shit?
Normalize should at least have picked up the 20%/30% power boost when gen 6 introduced all those variants. Like it's Delcatty and the normal type, it's the least you can do.

At least it has some vague form of use case, even if it's weird it exists. Stall meanwhile continues to be the most baffling ability I think I've brought it up a few times in this thread alone!
 
Why are important Trainer rematches in this franchise consistently terrible?

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Emerald: Prerequisites the game never tells you about, and even then, they don't use their strongest teams right away. You are the Champion: why do they go easy on you?
Platinum: Four Trainers generated randomly. This sounds like fun variety in theory, but in practice, I hope you aren't hunting for a specific Gym Leader because lol. Why couldn't they just all be there in a slightly bigger room, rematchable daily? They've been putting multiple important Trainers in a room since like...the Kimono Girls in the Ecruteak Dance Center in Gen II, but can't put 13 Trainers in a room in a DS game?
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
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Scour the world to find these people at specific times in specific locations (granted, most places are related to them in some fashion, but I have no idea how you'd figure out the specific times without a guide), then you have to call them at specific times on specific days again to rematch them (which the game thankfully does tell you about, but it's needlessly complicated). Did you beat them and want to rematch them again for easy EXP? Well you better do that in the same play session because they arbitrarily have limited availability. This rematch system is so half-baked for otherwise fun teams.

Black 2 / White 2: PWT is obviously one of the better ones because of the specific leaders tournaments. It's hard to give a meaningful complaint here other than the possibility a competitive team may help...oh wait, you have to beat the extremely luck-based (by virtue of having 40+ opponents) World Leaders Tournament ten times to unlock the Champion's Tournament. I've done this before: it's tedious and not super fun. Why couldn't they just require you to beat the World Leaders Tournament once to unlock Champion's Tournament when you only have to beat the other regional tournaments once? This game is otherwise phenomenal with daily rematches too! Three battles may not take that long, but getting through World Leaders 10 times is just so unecessary.

X and Y: Absolutely terrible about this. You can only rematch important Trainers in the Battle Chateau in the higher ranks. Duke / Duchess requires 300 points, though you can at least start rematching Gym Leaders at Marquis / Marchioness... but there are several problems. Trainers are added every six minutes: you have 9 available as Marquis / Marchioness, but if you want to rise in rank with any efficiency you need to pay for the Silver Writ of Invitation to make them add every minute...which is $100,000... in a game that already breaks the bank with the boutique in Lumiose City. Granted, the writs expire at midnight so you'd likely earn back your cash (especially if you use the Gold Writ of Invitation - Increases battle winnings by 50% - combined with the Amulet Coin) but why should I need to do all this crap in the first place? Just put the Gym Leaders / Elite Four / Champion in there after you beat the game, have them respawn when you leave / refresh the next game. The nobility stuff is so unnecessary!

The problems don't even end there either.
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Ah yes, let me battle the Elite Four with lower levels and less Pokemon than they have in their story fights (discounting Writs to increase levels). The Gym Leaders only have two Pokemon, like what is even the point of this feature by that metric? Like, c'mon, even Diantha's match here only gets four Pokemon??? Then again, this is the same game released in 2013 that doesn't have the Elite Four / Champion levels upgrade upon beating the game, so lol. To call this system half-baked is an insult to the Johto games idea of good game design, which already bordered on nonexistent.

Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire: The Elite Four has souped up teams and Mega Evolve now, but lacks Gym rematches, which is kinda silly when this feature started in Emerald.

Sun / Moon / USUM: While you need to rematch the Elite Four for a random Title Defense challenger, honestly I don't mind this too much. It'd still be great to choose these people via a menu, but this mechanic is so awesome despite being random I don't really have many complaints. Also helps some of these guys randomly show up in the Battle Tree.

Sword / Shield: You can invite a sitting Gym Leader, your rival Hop, former Leader Piers, or former Champion Leon to the Wyndon Stadium tournament but they aren't guaranteed.

"After the player has completed The Crown Tundra story, the Galarian Star Tournament is opened. It allows the player to rematch all the present and former Gym Leaders, Hop, Leon, Peony, Sordward, and Shielbert in Multi Battle tournaments." - I have no opinion on this because I was bored enough by the base game to not bother with the DLC (yet, may do so someday).

Let's Go Pikachu / Eevee: Oh my gosh, an actually sensible rematch system? Beat the game, rematch the Gym Leaders once per day in their Gyms, plus the Elite Four upgrades.

Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl: Normal Elite Four rematches again. However, there are once per day Gym rematches...after getting the National Pokedex, which requires seeing all Pokemon in the normal dex. I guess that slightly makes sense given how they use mons from other regions (like Wake using Politoed). With both LGPE and BDSP I do again wonder why they can't all be rematched in the same location, but compared to most other games arbitrary requirements...

Scarlet / Violet: Mixed bag. You have to rematch all Gyms (non-renewable) to unlock the Academy Ace Tournament, which is fine...only for the DLC to force you to buy rematches for 200 Blueberry Points in the League Club Room every single time you want to battle them. This is extremely annoying if you don't have access to multiplayer to speed things along: 200 points isn't a lot for just one leader but it adds up especially when a superboss is locked behind 10 trades (600 BP to unlock the trade as each opponent needs to visit you three times, you need to trade 10 times, so 6,000 BP). For goodness sakes, it is 2024. I am the Champion, I have saved the world, I have beaten some of the hardest postgame content in Indigo Disk to access all this garbage. Why can't I just rematch these people for free? How is this game design so woefully outdated and inconsistent that it's not much better than what we were getting in the late 2000's and to some extent (like XY) beyond that time?

Bottom line, it should be: I beat the game, I get all the Gym Leaders / Elite Four / whatever in a room, rematch them daily, no cost no nothing. It's 2024 and I'm still saying this stuff when it should have disappeared completely after 2010.
 
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I think it's fine to have a bit of gameplay systems associated with rematches, but yes the SV system definitely shouldn't cost that much. At minimum, I think after you get their trade yo ushould be able to invite them for free. Then its like you're building to something
Or, judging by Cyrano, 10 BP

iirc once you do the trade you can refight them as many times as you want while they're invited so that's nice at least.
 
Normalize should at least have picked up the 20%/30% power boost when gen 6 introduced all those variants. Like it's Delcatty and the normal type, it's the least you can do.

At least it has some vague form of use case, even if it's weird it exists. Stall meanwhile continues to be the most baffling ability I think I've brought it up a few times in this thread alone!
It did in Gen 7 on.
 
It's frustrating when rematches aren't conveniently available, but I do think it's more satisfying when you've had to do a bit of work to get access to them (obviously not a fan of repeat payments though).

BDSP's rematch teams are wonderful, but somehow it doesn't feel quite right to me that you can just go and battle each leader every day in their Gyms. I think maybe the issue is that it's too much of a good thing all at once: if I can immediately battle all of them, I will, but then I'll get bored after a day or two and stop. Platinum's random selection in the Battleground meant I'd come back regularly over a longer period of time, both because I wanted to tick off every battle and because doing three or four battles in a row was satisfying without ever feeling like a drag. There's no reason why I couldn't have just imposed my own limits for BDSP rematches to avoid getting burnt out so quickly, but psychologically it doesn't quite work that way haha. Clearly not everyone feels the same way, though.

In general, I think rematch convenience is a double-edged sword. You don't want to have to jump through hoops to access them, especially if you're like me and don't spend nearly as much time playing Pokemon as you used to, but it's nice when at least some of them feel like a treat or a secret. To be honest, I probably enjoyed Emerald's random, infrequent Leader rematches most of all, despite the first several rematches for each Leader being completely trivial as actual battles.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
i do like going back to the gyms for a rematch with the leader. i wouldn't even mind if the whole gym became a rematch. more opportunities for post-game exp!

but yeah, i literally never bothered with some of these rematches. i still love HGSS, but BYE.
For HGSS I just did all the requirements, got them all in the Dojo, then never fought any of them

It's the classic "too good to use" phenomenon: what if one day I want to fight Erika for some reason? Well, she's there in the Dojo nice and ready, I don't want to go through the rigmarole of getting her there again.
 
HGSS had a metric fuckton of stuff that was conceptually good, but a chore to get. Rube-Goldberg approach of a game, ngl.

IMO they are the most overrated games in the franchise (other than the Game Boy generations, but that's from a technical standpoint). They do have many nice details, but they combine the Gen IV slowdown and annoying approach to terrain (fuck off Rock Climb), the level issues in Johto (at least Kanto got rebalanced), and an utter playground rumour approach to extra features. No seriously, "go on a Thursday at 6 AM to the Lake of Rage to find Pryce to get his phone number for a rematch, but you gotta call him at a different specific time". Or "leave this decor for 3 months in the safari zone and you will start finding wild Riolu there". What the flying fuck.


For all the crap ORAS gets about the Battle Frontier (which, ttbt, the Battle Maison is good enough, 4 battle styles Battle Tower is superior to most of the stuff from the Frontiers; the one enjoyable gimmick from those came from Stadium 2), they stand as the better remakes for me.
 
The thing about the BDSP that drive me crazy was doing all the gym puzzles again every time. Not that they’re particularly hard, but some like Candice or Volkner are time consuming to repeat over and over.
I mean, they can't not have you do Volkner's again, there's no other way to get to him and you literally have to partial undo it to get out to begin with. They could leave the snowballs destroyed for Candice, but Volkner's gym doesn't have a solved state to leave it in.
 
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Those get HOME models, and the updated new party icons. Awesome.

Gigantamax and Eternamax don't, they have HOME renders and that's it. And Astral forme Terapagos gets the party icon of course, but, it doesn't get the HOME model, just the render. Which is a shame.

Astral Terapagos is pretty much a Mega anyway, down to the 100 point increase in BST. Which IMO is better than the Gigantamaxes being pretty much just a different move.
 
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Those get HOME models, and the updated new party icons. Awesome.

Gigantamax and Eternamax don't, they have HOME renders and that's it. And Astral forme Terapagos gets the party icon of course, but, it doesn't get the HOME model, just the render. Which is a shame.

Astral Terapagos is pretty much a Mega anyway, down to the 100 point increase in BST. Which IMO is better than the Gigantamaxes being pretty much just a different move.
I kind of wonder if it's just due to performance issues or wanting to adhere to the special lighting conditions that Home just cannot remotely handle. Stellar Form Terapagos in particular has a lot of special textures and lighting effects, all the g-maxes have their dumb clouds and harsh reds, and then there's Ogerpon's Terastalized States that don't even get renders.
 

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