Critical Moves

[Hiatus]

When it comes to battling, we have this system known as "critical hits." When they strike, the power of move doubles itself, and it also ignores all stats boost the opponent might have had.

What are our thoughts on critical attacks? Do we feel that they help make things more balanced and whatnot? Are we fond of them, or not so much? If so, then what would be our reasoning? If we were to make changes to this particular mechanic, how would we go about it? Would we imagine it to be helping us in long run?

As for myself, I don't precisely dislike it; in my eyes, critical hits tend to add a bit of realism and whatnot into battling, making them feel more... engaging, in a way. What I find to be most exciting about critical moves as that they have ability turn tables around in drop of a hat; you'd be winning the match one second, and opponent would have it all under control in the next.

 

[Legobricks]

As I understand, criticals have a multiplier of 1.5 instead of 2 as of generation six (and that's exactly the first thing I would've changed about them, so that's nice). I dislike random criticals in any game. A degree of chance is okay, but I much prefer some condition needing to be fulfilled over what amounts to complete randomness. Something like in World of Tanks, where one's shots do have an arbitrary percentage-based chance to alight enemy vehicles, but one actually has to be actively hitting the engine or transmission to have that chance of causing fire (or destroy the fuel tank, which also requires deliberate player input to consistently do). This sort of system already exists in the form of type matchups, so as far as I'm concerned the random criticals don't really have a worthwhile place in Pokemon. One could say criticals serve to introduce risk to strategies like having tanky monsters maximising their attacking stats and sweeping, but I'd say if the enemy needs to rely on a critical to beat such a strategy, their own strategy is simply bad.

 

[Yoshikko]

Crits are nice if they're in your favour and even then I feel like I'd rather have no crits at all. It'd be nice if you could both opt for a crit clause at the start of a match (on Showdown that is, not expecting this in-game) so that you don't have to worry about any sudden gamebreaking hits.

 

[Pave Low]

I think critical hits shouldn't be allowed. They can ruin seriously mess up your strategy if they feint your Pokemon or bring it to the brink of death and thus losing you the match, especially if that Pokemon is a valuable team member and essential for your strategy to work. Critical hits are lucky and it reduces the amount of skill needed to win battles. I think that moves with "a high critical hit ratio" should become "possibilty of critical hit" and other moves shouldn't be able to get you crits.

 

[Kenchiin]

An RPG without Critical Hits is not an RPG.
Either way, I'm not really happy with the current logic, I would modify it somehow so critical hits occur less often.

As I understand, criticals have a multiplier of 1.5 instead of 2 as of generation six (and that's exactly the first thing I would've changed about them, so that's nice).

I wanted to highlight this post, just in case someone forgot lol

 

[Pendraflare]

They were something that was needed to shake up the game, because otherwise things could end up being nothing but stall wars forever. In Generation I it was weird where they ignored all stat modifiers, including your boosts, but in later games they made it more organized. Although it does suck to be on the receiving end of one, it does get fun when you manage to score one yourself.

But I noticed that in this generation, they made Focus Energy a lot more powerful, as one more boost would guarantee that critical hit. I need to try that sometime and see if it fares well.

 

[MtArgente]

They add variety so you can win by luck even if your opponent is much better than you. Actually they sound terrible when said like this... :P

I'm not very good competitively (only played a little bit in gen 5) so I didn't mind them.

 

[The Jade Fist]

I honestly would rather, the default crit rate be 0%, then through moves/ items /abilities, increase it. So many other things in the pokemon games work like this if you think about it. Confusion, attract, paralyze only might actually do what they are supposed to do, and the odds of actually getting a burn/poison/paralyze/freeze on "may apply moves" even some attacks that stat boost still only have a chance to give the boost.

I think removing crits from the equation unless, some one is actively trying for crits would be much more in line of the way the rest of the game goes, as well as much more rewarding when you get one.

 

[danielthegamerful]

Critical hits are always a great thing in every video game.

It's that random option that gives you hope:

1) Clutch situations - if you need the critical hit to win.
2) It's Luck, it's always amusing to see when luck strikes you!
3) Diversity of moves (for example, slash. It gives the user a higher critical chance)

There's plenty more but this is all I can think of on the spot!