Did they go a little overboard with legendaries each gen?

[ShinyUmbreon189]

The old legendaries are good but they started going overboard starting with the 3rd gen. I like the 3rd gen games and everything but there are just wayyyyy too many legendary pokemon and they just kept adding more and more in each Gen after it. It makes me not wanna see legendaries anymore.

 

[Shootingace]

Are you guys kidding? The more legendaries the better i think. It's really cool and would lead to a ton of adventures. As for Darkrai and Cressilia they actually look cool and play a good role in Canalave city. Giratina has an origin forme to transform it into a deadly offence instead of a wall. What i really don't like is the idea of catching the 'GOD' of all Pokemon. As for Arceus' forms, that gives a unique feel to the creator of Pokemon so i think everything about the legendaries are great.

 

[MiTjA]

I liked the earlier legendaries - they seemed realistic. But eventually then you could end up catching and controlling time, space, and "god." Did anyone else find that a little weird?

Realistic? Care to elaborate?

The thing is, everyone seems to have different assumptions and definitions about what legendary pokemon are supposed to be, without further considerations as the franchise grew.

The term legendary, comes from the word legend. Only gen 2 really first touched upon that by actually having people refer to the birds that had towers built for them.

You yourself consider Arceus a god, no one in the games does. I don't. It's a creation myth.

The old legendaries are good but they started going overboard starting with the 3rd gen. I like the 3rd gen games and everything but there are just wayyyyy too many legendary pokemon and they just kept adding more and more in each Gen after it. It makes me not wanna see legendaries anymore.

the only thing that gen 3 did differently (and has since continued with a slow pace) is adding more "average legends" very like articuno and co, but simply not being part of the standard trio (latis, events, then heatran/cresselia/darkrai..)

gen 2 introduced "true legends", meaning big 680 ones with stories about them and covering the boxes. And gen 2 was designed and developed at the same time as gen 1, which was the beginning of the franchise :P

 

[voicerocker]

The number of species of Legendary Pokemon increasing doesn't mean that the actual number of them has increased by a large quantity. Each Legendary Pokemon is limited to 1 per game, while there are unlimited Rattata or Starly or Magikarp and any other standard Pokemon encountered in the wild.

Numbers-wise, only 47 Pokemon out of 649 are Legendary. That's 7.2% of the total, which isn't much at all. The only time the percentage of Legends introduced is above 10% is when looking solely at the 135 Pokemon introduced in Gen 4, which 13 of those were Legendary. That is 12.1% of the total introduced in that Gen, which still isn't a big deal.

Gen 5 had the same amount of Legends as Gen 4, so they know when enough is enough, but right now, 7.2% of all Pokemon being Legendary isn't much at all, especially considering most of the 602 standard Pokemon are limitless, while all Legends are limited to 1 per game.

 

[Shootingace]

What's really weird though is when you catch Dialga or Palkia or Arceus isn't the time/space/universe supposed to go haywire?

It's also very weird that wailord is still the biggest Pokemon on the Pokedex.

 

[MiTjA]

What's really weird though is when you catch Dialga or Palkia or Arceus isn't the time/space/universe supposed to go haywire?

Nope, these are just powerful pokemon. They don't control complete dimensions or similar, just have the extraordinary ability to manipulate them a bit. The stories that refer to them as deities are... stories.


In Platinum if I remember correctly, Cyrus asks a similar question about whether the Distortion world will fall apart along with the real world once Giratina is caught/defeated, but later realises that's not the case. :P

 

[FACEcake1223]

I just don't like how the newer the game, the the legendaries are revered as deities, and how there are 20 in each game. The original 151 pokemon only had 5 legendaries. Other than that I'm fine with them.

It's also very weird that wailord is still the biggest Pokemon on the Pokedex.

That's because Wailord is awesome and hilarious.

 

[MiTjA]

I just don't like how the newer the game, the the legendaries are revered as deities, and how there are 20 in each game. The original 151 pokemon only had 5 legendaries. Other than that I'm fine with them.

BW felt pretty classic to me in regards to legendaries.

You could find the musketeer trio through the main game, saw a roamer fly off for you to catch, and then got your mascot at the end, to fight the unobtainable counterpart. 5

Its practically the same as Hoenn for example,
just instead of finding musketeers you look for golems, the roamer is a version exclusive Lati@s, and you get your mascot. 5

And not that far from GS, where you had the beasts, who were all roamers at the same time, and then got your mascot... 4

Or all the way back to RBY, with the trio as always, and Mewtwo as the end boss thing, making it 4.

Of course there was a Kyurem and Landorus hidden in the postgame, but that's the same deal as Rayquaza in RS, or the second mascot in GS.

I probably left out gen 4 for a reason eh? Because it was supposed to be taking the franchise on steroids.
But still. You meet the lake guardians as the trio role, then your mascot at Spear pillar... which is surprisingly just 4 too.
oh..
Gen 4 went omfg in the postgame legends and event-legends department though, having Heatran as the legend of a whole subregion, Regigigas as a fourth hidden golem, Cresselia with a small plot, Giratina in the usual "wait for third version" position, and then of course Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, which were essentially there so that they had something to show off throughout the rest of gen 4..

I would however understand if what you meant was how there is Heatran, golems, Cresselia, lake guardians and whoever else squeezed into BW2 postgame, (or birds in Pt, and the dozen in HGSS) but that is obviously for more accessability, since those are all legendaries from past generations..

Beside of those non-canon "guest appearances" as one could call them (lol), I still don't get why so many think legends are being overdone.


So again, this is the only noteworthy difference in how legendaries are done with current standards, compared to the first gens:
-1 or 2 postgame standalone legends to spice it up
-several event pokemon so they can be revealed slowly throughout the generation

I like all of this :B

 

[Sabrewulf238]

This might be strange to say....but I never feel like legendaries are real pokemon.

I mean I know they are but they have always seemed more like trophies to me than anything. I always feel like they shouldn't be touched. :p

As for the topic, yeah they do seem to be getting more and more extravagant. It's a mixed bag really. I don't think you could really call Shaymin or Meloetta that crazy design wise.

 

[chella182]

People say there are only five in Gen I (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, and Mewtwo) but that's not true!

It's species name might be legendary, but it's not a legendary Pokémon like all of the others (which, one could argue, might make it even more special). But yeah. It's base stats aren't high enough for it to be a legend, it's genedered (yes, I know some other legends are, but they have the higher stats), + many other reasons why it isn't the same kind of legendary Pokémon that (I think) we're meant to be discussing here.

 

[StupidPokemonLover101]

I agree with ^^ I want some epic pokemon, where they top every pokemon. I feel like we still have not had a pokemon that can beat any pokemon, and at times, I don't like it, but in the end it makes it great, so that strategy, and training can still overcome any thing.

 

[大輔]

Legendary Pokemon aren't really overboard... like their name suggests they are apart of a legend held /specially/ for a certain location. They might be able to be in other regions, but legendaries are basically prone to their specific origins... so no, they aren't overboard.