HMs

[Mab]

The most hated feature of the game... or, it's certainly up there, at least for me. What's your take on HMs? Do you believe they're necessary for the game mechanics? If they were to be removed, what could replace them? (ie, "HM" items, riding Pokémon like S&M might be doing). Would you care?

 

[tokyodrift]

Some of them are really good in-game wise, and some are just terrible. Although it hasn't been around, the most useless was Whirlpool. I think most people just grab an HM slave at the beginning of the game and just grab it when they need it. I actually use Surf and maybe Strength the most in-game wise. Would I miss them if they were removed? Probably not.

 

[Mister Coffee]

I think that with Soaring and Pokemon Riding and such, I think that HM's are already in the process of falling out of purpose and may even be flat out removed, or at least they will be reverted to TM's.
I think with the direction that the games are going currently with over world mechanics and features which are defeating the purpose of needing HM's (Soaring made Fly completely useless), they're just not necessary any more.

I would also argue that Flash is strictly worse than Whirlpool, I always hated using Flash and would often try to navigate dark caves without it in the past.

 

[blue]

The only reason why I like some HMs are because a couple of them can be useful in battle. Surf and Waterfall are great special and physical based Water-type moves respectively, but that's it. I see no other reason for HMs now that they're expanding ridable Pokemon in S/M. I wouldn't even be surprised if HMs are replaced by this mechanic tbh.

 

[Drayton]

There's be a logical since why HM is needed, to progress the game further and without it it's not possible to progress. Some HMs are dandy like Fly, Surf or Strength, some are just ways to get shorcut like Cut. Yep! Some HMs are terrible too like cut is nerfed of scratch

 

[Elysieum]

HMs don't bother me as much as they used to. I've adapted my team configuration to always include one utility Krabby (which knows Cut, Strength, Rock Smash and Surf). I lose one slot on my team, of course, but the benefit of never coming to a halt during gameplay trumps the alternative.

 

[Lunar]

The fact that HMs still exist in the games today still baffles me, there is loads of options which could replace it. We could just get items that deals with some of the obstacles we face and then have water and flying types to surf and fly us around. It looks like GF are going in the right direction in Sun and Moon with Pokeride, but I don't think HMs will completely disappear this generation.