Decisions that made no sense.

[Poke fan number 489]

What are some decisions in Pokémon that actively made you question Game Freak.
1. Not Giving Megas to more bosses in Gen 6.
2. The Fact that none of the Gen 6 starters got Megas(If the gen 1 starters get them, then so should that gen's starters).
3. The Fact that the didn't allow new evolutions in fire red/leaf green.

 

[Orion☆]

Most baffling decision of all time? Ditching the PSS from Gen VI. Keeping it around would have perhaps solved some problems with connectivity and practicality in future generations. Alas...

I also look at any kind of unnecessary Dexit precursor with suspicion - e.g. locking evolutions in FR/LG and LGPE, not including any old Pokémon prior to the post-game in Gen V, not including post-Gen IV evolutions in BD/SP.

 

[ReKoil]

Their insistence on including a gimmick nowadays. I'd rather they omit it and spend more time designing their mons instead and possibly make more of them.

Ditching the Hoenn style contests. I loved them and would like to see them again =\

 

[Orion☆]

Their insistence on including a gimmick nowadays. I'd rather they omit it and spend more time designing their mons instead and possibly make more of them.

^ This so much. Not that the mons aren't well-designed (except for the majority of the PLA ones), but I wish they would make every mon useful in some way. Some of them are just filler, really.

Forgot another baffling decision: cutting out Super Training, again from Gen VI. That feature was the reason I had my stint in competitive in that Generation as opposed to VII and VIII. The mini-games were super fun, and yet... no equivalent to that appeared in any subsequent generations. :c

 

[Duck]

I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again:

Getting rid of the Game Corner instead of just making it ... not gambling. It's a Game Corner just throw some minigames a la Pokethlon or the Stadium minigames.

It'd 1) make getting things from it not trivial but also not a complete and utterly boring grind and 2) be the kind of thing that'd be seen fondly and generate hype for the game (for example, I don't doubt there'd be Max Coins speedruns)

 

[SuperSpyroDragon64]

Natures, EVs, and IVs. and Kanto.

How many RPGs let you distribute points freely when they are obtained?
Like the skill points in Fallout and Dragon Quest?
That's the kind of system that should replace EVs. When levelling up, grant EV points. When in the Pokemon menu, let the player distribute these EVs freely like it's Pokemon Showdown.
Or each game should intentionally include designated EV Grinding areas and give the EV-boosting Held Items and Consumables to the player ASAP if the opponents are going to bring out full teams of perfect-coverage perfect-nature perfect-IV perfect-EV monsters as soon as you hit the first Gym/Rival Battle.

Natures? Another bad way to distinguish one Pokemon from another.
Kids don't know what separates a Hardy Garchomp from a Sassy one and a NPC/Mint to change these Natures just sounds weird. I'd rename them to Fighting Styles, like in Smash Ultimate. Demon Style raises Attack and lowers Special Defense. Reckless Style raises Attack and lowers Defense. Crusader Style raises Defense and lowers Special Attack. Neutral Style edits no stats. Suddenly, it makes sense for a NPC to switch these Styles around. Or "Training Manuals" to replace the Mint items.

IVs? Just a fundamentally awful idea. Nothing good has ever come of this. If you can't hack your rom or design your fangame to read all IVs as 31 during Stat Calculation, give the player early access to a Day Care and a Gifted Ditto with perfect IVs and a Destiny Knot and a NPC who sells Nature Mints and areas for EV Training. Hidden Power is a highly niche move that exists to give overly strong Pokemon checks for Pokemon they weren't meant to have a coverage move for, making them even better than they should be.

And finally, Kanto. This is a boring region with a bad level curve and a dull plot about wandering around crushing whoever you run into because you are bored. I'm not asking for Aslowla levels of cutscenes but a few good dialogue lines can go a long way to creating a story where players can fill in the blanks themselves if you don't have time to type everything out.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

- Gen VI and gen VII story.

Gen VI story is almost not existent and gen VII one is full of lacking things. I hated that Zygarde arch had to be completed in the next generation. The idea of Multiverse is extremely cool, but don't make it, if you know you can't handle it. It's my opinion tbh. Loved the AZ part tho.

- 7th gym in R/S and ORAS

This one really made me go "wait what?" in a pokemon game. Hoenn is my second fav region, but honestly you can't really make a gym with a double battle with just two pokemon that are almost under-leveled and both weak to water type, in a generation where surf is a HM. So, tbh it was way too easy. That felt like a very very lazy choice. Especially for the 7th gym. Emerald made it right imo, even if I remember it was still kinda easy.

- Not giving Pokedex descriptions to all pokemon in Gen VII and then cutting the National Dex.

Idk why people are angry at this thought. First of all, Gen VII still disappoints me because that was a really lazy choice. Because, even in the older games they almost just copy-pasted the descriptions. They could have done the same.
The reason why I think National Dex is needed is first of all for pokedex descriptions, but secondly, because you can collect them all and imo that's the first thing in a "monster collector" game. Also, if not all pokemon will get back in the games, some of these pokemon will just be forgotten and some people's work would be a waste. And you have a high chance your fav pokemon won't be there lol (rip).
Other than these things, I agree on the fact that there are too many pokemon, but like I am not saying you HAVE TO catch them all. Simply, I think that they should kinda do like gen 4 or gen 5: only some pokemon are available at first and then in the post game you unlock National Dex. When you complete the regional Dex (not the National one) you can get the shiny charm. When u complete the National Dex, no reward at all or something different from shiny charm. Because people are more interested in shinies rather than completing the Pokedex. Imo GF has choices to bring back National Dex and do it in a way that isn't excessive for all players.

I won't mention BDSP because GF didn't make it, but def a honorable mention. If it was made by GF, it would have been on the top of the list.

 

[Sheep]

What I did not understand:

1) Not including the big, loved feature that was customization in ORAS. This was stated to be so people had a reason to continue buying XY, but it was still very disappointing not having it in the RS remakes. Glad they have stuck with customization otherwise.
2) Removing the button to always keep your running shoes toggled on after HGSS. It should have stayed in the games that came after it so I didn't need to keep holding B! Doesn't matter much for the recent games, but for older titles it was noticeable.
3) Fresh Water healing more HP than a man-made Potion invented specifically to heal HP.
4) Already mentioned, but the Game Corner should have been replaced with minigames rather than outright removed.
5) More relevant for modern games but - why say our Pokémon wishes to be petted while in battle, when we can't pet them!? This just makes no sense, especially when we could pet them during this prompt in 3DS games. They could definitely have added this in if they wanted to with the Switch's touchscreen.

Natures, EVs, and IVs. and Kanto.

How many RPGs let you distribute points freely when they are obtained?
Like the skill points in Fallout and Dragon Quest?
That's the kind of system that should replace EVs. When levelling up, grant EV points. When in the Pokemon menu, let the player distribute these EVs freely like it's Pokemon Showdown.
Or each game should intentionally include designated EV Grinding areas and give the EV-boosting Held Items and Consumables to the player ASAP if the opponents are going to bring out full teams of perfect-coverage perfect-nature perfect-IV perfect-EV monsters as soon as you hit the first Gym/Rival Battle.

Feeling like I agree with this as well lately. EV training makes sense from a 'spend more time playing our game' standpoint, but it still is exhaustingly long/boring and I would much rather speed up the grind. The real work and challenge comes from figuring out how to use Pokémon with high EVs on your teams, what moves to give them, etc and that challenge will always be there - but the EV training process to get to that point is honestly tiring.

Can't say I feel the same agreement towards replacing natures with styles though.. I feel like natures give Pokémon more personality, which has some importance in a game with hundreds of creatures to capture and raise vs Smash with much less. There is also less of a need to differentiate Smash characters since they already have set personalities from their own games, and in Smash itself each character can only be obtained once. I think natures make sense to keep personally, especially since the menu now states what stats they boost.

 

[Zeostar]

The title defense mode in Gen 7 requires you to beat the entire elite four every single time.

So trying to see the different opponents just makes me extremely over-leveled and nullifies any sort of fun.

 

[Palamon]

Barely giving Mega Evolution to pretty much anyone in Generation 6. I can count the amount of people that used Megas in story on one hand. That is an absolutely baffling decision considering Generation 6 was the gen that introduced this mechanic.

Never releasing Eternal Flower Floette in some way. Like, if it's in the data, they could have released it at some point as a special event Pokemon.

Not releasing the Arceus event because they thought "players would be confused" when all you had to do was bring the Azure Flute to Spear Pillar and it'd play a cutscene automatically to summon a staircase. Kind of dumb they cut this event entirely in Gen 4 when it's barely even confusing.

And in universe one: Building a Radio Tower in place of a fucking cemetery for Pokemon. That's just literally insensitive.

 

[SuperSpyroDragon64]

Can't say I feel the same agreement towards replacing natures with styles though.. I feel like natures give Pokémon more personality, which has some importance in a game with hundreds of creatures to capture and raise vs Smash with much less. There is also less of a need to differentiate Smash characters since they already have set personalities from their own games, and in Smash itself each character can only be obtained once. I think natures make sense to keep personally, especially since the menu now states what stats they boost.

Alright, let's say they keep Natures, but they're purely cosmetic while easily-changed Fighting Styles are what influence stats. How does that sound?

 

[Orion☆]

And in universe one: Building a Radio Tower in place of a fucking cemetery for Pokemon. That's just literally insensitive.

This too. The other baffling decision was not rectifying this in the Johto remakes. Sure, the House of Memories was given more prominence as a place for honoring deceased Pokémon, but the fact stands that the actual burial grounds were in the Tower itself. What even was the purpose of the Kanto Radio Tower, by the way? Should there be Johto re-remakes one day, I want to see the Tower as it was in LGPE and the radio turned into a smaller station.

 

[FeraligatrMaster]

In general:
-Introducing IV's, EV's, and natures. Even worse, not giving us an EV/IV checker and a way to change IV'S, natures, and abilities right away.
-Not giving us a Move Relearner from the beginning.
-Giving Pokemon that evolve by using a stone (Pikachu, Lombre, etc.) worse movepools upon evolution.
-Giving Chimecho a baby and no evolution.
-Giving Mega Evolutions to Garchomp and the Lati@s, and not giving any to Pokemon like Flygon.
-Giving Charizard and Mewtwo 2 Mega Evolutions.
-The evolution methods for Pokemon like Tyrogue, Basculin, and Galarian Yamask.
-Libero being a literal Protean clone.
-HM's.

For RBY:
-Psychic being immune to Ghost.
-No good Bug, Ghost, and Dragon type moves.
-Freezing lasting forever, until a frozen Pokemon is being hit with a Fire type move.
-The ledge between Mt. Moon and Cerulean City pretty much being a point of no return.

For GSC:
-Making certain Gen 2 Pokemon unavailable before postgame.
-No good Dragon type moves other than Dragonbreath and Outrage.

For FRLG:
-Making Pokemon like Golbat and Onix unable to evolve before receiving the National Dex.

For DPPt:
-Leaving Pokemon introduced in Gen 4 out of the Sinnoh Pokedex, especially in (Brilliant) Diamond and (Shining) Pearl.

For HGSS:
-Trying to make Goldenrod City's theme sound more upbeat in HGSS.
-Omitting Kris/Marina from HGSS.

For B2W2:
-Not releasing the hidden abilities for certain Pokemon (especially the Johto starters).
-Leaving the Pikachu line out of the Unova dex.
-Making Pokemon in the Unova dex unavailable before postgame.
-Making Ghetsis' team worse (especially his Hydreigon).

For XY:
-Changing the cries of older Pokemon.
-Not making Pokemon Z.

For ORAS:
-Ruining May's design.
-No trainer customization.
-Omitting the Battle Frontier.

For LGPE:
-Not adding cross-gen relatives of Gen 1 Pokemon.

For SwSh:
-Leon's ace being a Charizard. His ace should've been a Dragapult.
-The Charmander line being in the Galar dex while the Bulbasaur and Squirtle lines aren't.

For BDSP:
-Keeping the exact same Sinnoh dex as DP.
-Making TM's single-use again.

 

[RadEmpoleon]

One thing that never made sense to me is nerfing Dark Void. Yes I know it was necessary to nerf it because Smeargle would spam it in doubles, but did they really have to make it so only Darkrai can use it AND drop its accuracy to 50%? The first part is fair and sufficient, but the accuracy drop is unnecessary. Why would they make its signature move even less accurate than Hypnosis? If it's "unfair" to have an accurate sleep move, then they should think about nerfing Spore's 100% accuracy.

Gale Wings nerf. Again, I know it was a necessary nerf, but they might have gone a bit too far making it so it ONLY works at full HP. Maybe it could've been 50% HP and above?

Echoing other people's thoughts about Megas. Why did they not give the Kalos starters Megas if the mechanic was introduced in that region? Why is there only 1 Mega for all of Kalos, and it's for a mythical and was introduced in ORAS? Why do some counterparts not both have Megas? If Gardevoir and Gallade can both get them, why not Glalie AND Frosslass or Beedrill AND Butterfree? Froslass and Butterfree would've definitely benefitted from them.

Why does Meowth have its regular form, Alolan form, Galarian form, and GMax form? Funny enough, I don't like any of them except for the OG I guess.

Ability duplicates. Someone above me mentioned Libero being a Protean clone, so I started thinking of others. Turboblaze and Teravolt are the same as Mold Breaker, Dazzling is the same as Queenly Majesty, and Chilling Neigh is the same as Moxie. There might be others, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.

Why is there not a special variant of Intimidate? An ability that lowers the special attack upon entering battle would be something interesting to shake up doubles/VGC. (I was gonna say why there wasn't a special variant of Moxie, but we have Grim Neigh now...)

SIGNATURE MOVES AND ABILITIES. I'm all for making Pokemon unique, but there has to be a better way than making signature moves and/or abilities for each and every Pokemon. I think every Pokemon in Alola (at some point in its evo line) has either a signature move, ability, or both. I think they toned it down in SwSh a bit, but there were still a lot of signature moves/abilities. If they keep doing this for every single Pokemon, then signature moves and abilities won't be a special "gimmick" anymore. (Also notice how the duplicate abilities I mentioned are all signature abilities...)

Why is Mega Gyarados not a Dragon type? Regular Gyarados isn't a Dragon type, and this was their opportunity to make it the type it deserved to have... but no, Dark type! Because that makes sense.

Freeze mechanic. They really need to rework it because it's busted. I don't think there's a set amount of turns to be frozen, so you could just stay frozen for the duration of the battle. Sleep has a maximum of 3 turns, so why not make it so freezing has a maximum amount of turns? Also I was watching a battle video and a FIRE TYPE was frozen. How does that even work?

Why is there no Sandstorm form for Castform?

 

[Palamon]

ngl i don't think it doesn't make sense or/as didn't have trainer customization? While it would have been nice to have, I don't know where a customization shop would fit in OR/AS since they made Contests more of a thing in these games than previous ones with a whole side story to take into account of.

Also, I believe Ghost was supposed to be super effective against Psychic in Gen I, but a programming bug made them immune instead. Along with the Ghastly line being part Poison, so I don't think it was intended for Ghost to be immune to Psychic in this generation. Just an accident that happened in the coding. That's what I hear, anyway.

 

[Nah]

While it would have been nice to have, I don't know where a customization shop would fit in OR/AS since they made Contests more of a thing in these games than previous ones with a whole side story to take into account of.

In Mauville if anywhere, I guess. They completely re-did that city, so it wouldn't have been the weirdest thing to shove a clothing store and hair salon in there.

But I imagine that since XY was the first and only game before ORAS (which was immediately after XY) to have trainer customization, they probably felt it was safe to not include the feature in the remake, people weren't used to it yet and stuff.

 

[Megan]

ngl i don't think it doesn't make sense or/as didn't have trainer customization? While it would have been nice to have, I don't know where a customization shop would fit in OR/AS since they made Contests more of a thing in these games than previous ones with a whole side story to take into account of.

Imo character customization does make sense especially with the contests. They even could have incorporated one into the other by allowing you to customize your contest clothing (aside from your overworld stuff).
Placing a shop for clothing is also pretty easy. Much like how they incorporated Marts into the PokeCenters they could have just dedicated a section of every contest hall to a clothes salesman. Mauville would have also made sense. The only downside here is that it takes a while until you get to the first town with a contest hall (two badges, to be exact). But even for that there's a fix: make Verdan Turf City accessible earlier. That town isn't really important for the plot and the roadblock they put there never really made much sense, anyway.

 

[mewtwo2you]

for me it's only a few things

1. gimmicks as previously mentioned although I enjoyed megas
2. trade evolutions. WHY?!?! I already can't even get version exclusives without buying both versions always hated this it doesn't even offer anything to the gameplay
3. dexit. I'm not even going to begin to start this tangent.
4. limited feebas tiles. Literally f$%k limited feebas tiles

 

[Orion☆]

Here's some more baffling decisions! Not necessarily from the main games this time.

From Pokémon Masters:
-THE FOREIGN ACCENTS. I get they wanted the real-world correspondence factor but characters like Viola, Leon, Piers, Raihan and Koga sound awful. Doubly so for Koga, who already had a pretty effin' offensively fake Japanese accent in the English dub of the anime. I'm still mad over it especially because it coloured my view of him to such a point I no longer like him. :c
-The Lillie shilling. Oh god, the Lillie shilling. There are characters who have not even been sighted in this game, and yet Lillie has FOUR ALTS. DeNA, why!? I know you love your money, but this is way too much!
-The fact they're having Paulo, of all rivals, possibly turn evil - or at least teasing the possibility. I'd rather have them save that for a main series game, not a spinoff.

This from the PLA guidebook:
-Not including artwork for a couple of Pokémon and several pivotal characters like Beni and Cogita. I would get it if they were covering the latter two up for spoiler purposes but the same guidebook also includes... the ultimate Big Bad just as he appears in the game. Yikes.
-From a Doylist standpoint, Ingo's haircut. I don't have a problem with the wide forehead, the receding hairline or the buzz cut; done correctly, all of these (separately or together) can look fantastic. Thing is, not only does it look awful in the concept art, but it's also inconsistent with the core of his PLA design. A lot of fans have been calling male pattern baldness, but it doesn't work like that; heck, human hair doesn't work like that. It looks like a huge plate covering wires on a robot's head. Sure enough, Ingo and Emmet looked rather robotic (and were assumed by part of the fandom, myself included, to be androids) in the Unova games, but whoever designed Ingo in PLA went the extra mile to make Ingo look less like an animatronic puppet and more like a human who is naturally dishevelled from a traumatic experience (and come to think of it, he might even pass for a ghost.) Alas... they missed a spot check with his hair. Had they drawn the hairline more naturally or added, say, some fuzz or spikes or frayed ends to go along with his destroyed longcoat and hat, I would have bought it. For now, I'm sticking to the fan reinterpretations.

 

[KOZSTAR]

I see genuinely no reason for EVs and IVs to coexist. EVs are already complicated enough, why do we need another gimmick that fills literally the same role?

Also, the removal of XY character customization. Another European generation is imminent, and I really hope that comes back.