[SPOILERS] More Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Disappointment 😭

[Sweet Serenity]

I literally feel like crying right now. 😢

Spoiler:

Not only did I learn from the official website that Pokémon HOME won't be compatible with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet until early spring as I posted in another thread, meaning that I won't be able to transfer my previous Pokémon over to the new game until then to start adventure with whatever team of Pokémon I want, but I also learned that they nerfed the abilities Protean/Libero, assuming that the leaks are real, in which they very likely are. These abilities used to change the user's type based on the type of move that it used. However, now, these abilities only work once that the Pokémon enters battle, which is complete crap now. This means that if a Pokémon with the ability Protean/Libero uses a move if a different type, it would be stuck as that type until it switches out.

This is extremely disappointing for me because Greninja and Cinderace were some of my favorite Pokémon, and I was really looking forward to choosing Sprigatito as my starter because of it, as it has Protean as a hidden ability. I might still choose it because it can still be a good sweeper regardless, but dang, this leak killed my mood. To add insult to injury, based on the list of the Pokémon that would be returning, many of my favorite Pokémon won't even be returning for this generation. This really sucks. I really miss those days before the Nintendo Switch and Pokémon HOME when every Pokémon was in every game and I didn't have to wait five or so months to transfer old Pokémon. This is going to be one rough disappointing generation, that's for sure. I'm just getting less and less excited about this generation now. What is your opinion on the Protean nerf and are many of your favorites excluded from the games? How does this make you feel about the games now?

 

[ambam]

Spoiler:

Oh Lord, they did? Wonder how bad this will affect them competitively. At least Greninja still has battle bond.... Can't say the same for Cinderace.
S/V has no Blaziken, Garchomp, Empoleon, Scolipede, Togekiss, Excadrill, or.... Whimsicott! D: Just about none of my favorite Pokemon made it in but Weavile. Sucks 'cause I usually use my absolute favorites on my post-game team.... Idk what I'll do now, especially considering my feelings on most gen 9 Pokemon.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Spoiler:

Oh Lord, they did? Wonder how bad this will affect them competitively. At least Greninja still has battle bond.... Can't say the same for Cinderace.
S/V has no Blaziken, Garchomp, Empoleon, Scolipede, Togekiss, Excadrill, or.... Whimsicott! D: Just about none of my favorite Pokemon made it in but Weavile. Sucks 'cause I usually use my absolute favorites on my post-game team.... Idk what I'll do now, especially considering my feelings on most gen 9 Pokemon.

Spoiler:

Garchomp did make it to the game according to the leaks. I am glad too because Garchomp is one of my favorites as well. I should also note that they nerfed Battle Bond as well. Apparently, Greninja would no longer transform into Ash-Greninja. Instead, it would have its Attack, Speed, and Special Attack boosted when it KOs an opponent. I would say that this is still good, but I just didn't mention it beforehand because I don't have a Greninja with Battle Bond anyway.

 

[ambam]

Spoiler:

Garchomp did make it to the game according to the leaks.

Spoiler:

Wait really? The website I'm looking at with the whole Pokedex doesn't have it listed at all. Maybe a mistake on their part.

On another note, I'm kinda considering not getting the game altogether now. The fact that fan-made, free-to-download romhacks can include more Pokemon than a 60-dollar game made by the highest-grossing media franchise in the world pisses me off to no end.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Spoiler:

Wait really? The website I'm looking at with the whole Pokedex doesn't have it listed at all. Maybe a mistake on their part.

On another note, I'm kinda considering not getting the game altogether now. The fact that fan-made, free-to-download romhacks can include more Pokemon than a 60-dollar game made by the highest-grossing media franchise in the world pisses me off to no end.

Spoiler:

I saw it in an image posted by another user in another thread. I will link the image here below. Garchomp is the 9th Pokémon in the 6th row. By the way, what is the website you're referring to? If you don't mind, can you DM it to me? Thank you.

 

[Corveone]

Things are usually nerfed as a consequence of being unbalanced as heck and therefore people abusing of them to the point it gets annoying, so I'm fine with it as with most of the nerfs made in the latest games (honestly, it's one of the few things I think Game Freak is handling well). If it was up to me, I'd keep the more insane Abilities exclusive to mid-tier Pokémon, to compensate for their inferior stats (like keeping Protean as it was, but if it was Kecleon-exclusive)

I am dissappointed at Gen 9 from what I've seen (don't own the games yet), but for several other reasons. To be realistic, every Pokémon game is disappointing one way or another. I couldn't help but facepalming when I've read that GF removed the Set Battle style option, so at this point it's clear to me that they're outright trolling. On top of forcing Exp. All, and then forcing Affection on everyone, now they also force Switch style, removing an option that was there from the very first gen. Instead of adding options to customize your gameplay experience, they remove them.

 

[Megan]

To be fair: Set mode is basically just switch mode with the switching dialog box automatically saying "No". So you can just manually say no whenever the opponent sends out a new Pokemon. Still sucks that they removed it. But it's not a complete deal breaker.

I'm now a little bit further into the game (somewhere in the mid game but most skills unlocked):

Spoiler:

I was never a fan of L:A gliding mechanic. Not being able to gain new height was very frustrating. Little did I know they managed to make it far worse in SV. Now you can't even glide near infinitely. Instead there's a limit on how much distance you can cover. And it's not a lot. Barely worth it when you're doing a glide out of a regular or even high jump. But even if you look for a very high place it's pretty much only a very limited amount of time. The moment it runs out you're only going downwards.

I've also yet to find a puzzle that actually makes use of it. High Jump, for example, is needed to get to one of the gyms, at least.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Things are usually nerfed as a consequence of being unbalanced as heck and therefore people abusing of them to the point it gets annoying, so I'm fine with it as with most of the nerfs made in the latest games (honestly, it's one of the few things I think Game Freak is handling well). If it was up to me, I'd keep the more insane Abilities exclusive to mid-tier Pokémon, to compensate for their inferior stats (like keeping Protean as it was, but if it was Kecleon-exclusive)

I am dissappointed at Gen 9 from what I've seen (don't own the games yet), but for several other reasons. To be realistic, every Pokémon game is disappointing one way or another. I couldn't help but facepalming when I've read that GF removed the Set Battle style option, so at this point it's clear to me that they're outright trolling. On top of forcing Exp. All, and then forcing Affection on everyone, now they also force Switch style, removing an option that was there from the very first gen. Instead of adding options to customize your gameplay experience, they remove them.

I have to strongly disagree with you when it comes to Game Freak balancing things, Corveone. If anything, Game Freak has proven time and time again that they have no idea how to balance their games. I'd say they stopped ever since generation V, the games have always been unbalanced. For example, Pokémon such as Haxorus (one of my all-time favorites) and Hydregion literally broke the game at the time. If you take a look at Haxorus' Attack stat, you would know that it is on par with legendary Pokémon and it's not even considered a "pseudo-legendary" by fans, even though I personally consider it one. It was the ultimate sweeper and wallbreaker. Hydregion's typing of Dragon and Dark, along with its great stats and vast movepool that allowed it to cover practically everything also broke the game. In fact, these Pokémon are the reason that Game Freak created the Fairy-type to "balance" things. They also created the Pokémon Landorus, which can pretty much do literally everything and they left this Pokémon unchecked for years. Despite all this, nothing stopped Game Freak from creating Mega Rayquaza and Primal Kyogre and Groudon the very next generation, which completely broke the meta game. When generation 7 rolled, they didn't stop of any of these things. In fact, you can say that the addition of Z-Moves combined with Mega Evolution, which still includes Primal forms, broke generation 7.

In generation 8, sure, they got rid of Mega Evolution to add some "balance," but they created Zacian, a Pokémon that could probably give Arceus a run for its money. Crowned Zacian, with its 170 base Attack, gets an Attack boost whenever it comes into battle. Zacian is super-fast and has great defenses too. This isn't balancing. You can't tell me that Game Freak has no idea that this could have potentially broke their game. Then, generation nine comes around. Sure, they nerfed Zacian (along with Zamazenta who actually wasn't broken at all) by making it so that it can only get that attack boost once per battle, but they had to go along and nerf Protean/Libero as well. Don't get me wrong, these are very good abilities, but they weren't broken. Cinderace, Greninja, and Kecleon were definitely good, but they weren't broken by any means. One good hit could KO either one of those Pokémon. I don't think Protean was nerfed for balance. Instead, I think they nerfed it solely because they didn't want anything else interacting with Pokémon types other than their Tera Type gimmick. I say that because generation nine added a bunch of other stuff in their games that are much more broken than Protean/Libero could ever hope to be.

For example, Pokémon with ancient/future forms are literally strong as legendary Pokémon, and there is a dolphin Pokémon that can switch forms to a form that has a 650 base stat total, triggered only by switching out of battle. That makes this Pokémon as strong as a major legendary Pokémon, as in one that could potentially be on the cover a game. Either they know what they're doing and intend for this to happen, or they're the most incompetent game developers ever. The crazy thing is that mainline Pokémon games usually don't disappoint me because I always know what to expect. However, it seems like new generation Pokémon, as in Pokémon games on the Switch titles, seem to be removing more features, Pokémon, and nerfing things that shouldn't be nerfed. It's so disappointing. I don't have the game yet, but I'm guessing because of delay, my pre-order is not expected to be delivered to me until Monday, but I'm sure this is going to be one rough generation. I felt like I've really been suckered in with all the hype. We'll see how I feel about it when I get the game though. Also, yes, them removing the Set battle feature is ridiculous. Now, I have to deal with the game constantly asking me if I want to switch Pokémon. You would think that a Pokémon game that sells itself on being open world would encourage players to play the game how they want to play it.

 

[Mewtwolover]

For example, Pokémon such as Haxorus (one of my all-time favorites) and Hydregion literally broke the game at the time. If you take a look at Haxorus' Attack stat, you would know that it is on par with legendary Pokémon and it's not even considered a "pseudo-legendary" by fans, even though I personally consider it one. It was the ultimate sweeper and wallbreaker. Hydregion's typing of Dragon and Dark, along with its great stats and vast movepool that allowed it to cover practically everything also broke the game. In fact, these Pokémon are the reason that Game Freak created the Fairy-type to "balance" things.

Game Freak don't seem to learn from their mistakes because that's not the first time they created a new type to "balance" things. Psychic-type was broken in generation 1 so they created the Dark-type to "balance" things in generation 2.

 

[Corveone]

I have to strongly disagree with you when it comes to Game Freak balancing things, Corveone. If anything, Game Freak has proven time and time again that they have no idea how to balance their games.

That's right. Not saying that they're great at balancing things out, just that I agree with the big majority of nerfs made in the more recent gens. Thunder Wave & Paralysis speed drop, Terrain boost down to 1.3, Gale Wings, Disguise, King's Shield, Steel having one less resistance, the whole Mega evolution removal, etc.

I believe those changes made perfect sense, now is the gameplay well balanced? No, not at all, and it will never be because they allways balance one thing and break another, especially with all these one-gen gimmicks and the newly introduced stuff. There will be allways some new ridiculously powerful legendary or whatever new broken mon/move/Ability that everyone will try to use and abuse, until that probably gets a nerf in the next gen as well.

 

[soulzzii]

this might come a bit like im just defending Sweet Serenity, but i strongly agree with them, also, this might be a long text.
like Serenity said, they jave proven itself to not know how to properly balance their games, and if anything, i would argue that when they try to balance, they still manage to leave a lot of things broken, the amount of types, pokemon, habilities and even moves that need balacing is kinda insane, just look at some dragon types, until gen 5 they were only weak to ice(which is very bad defensive-wise) and dragon itself, they would be broken until today if Fairy types didnt exist, and some may even argue Fairy type itself is a broken type. and i think it dosent makes sense to nerf Protean/Libero now, sure, might be because Cinderace is one of my favorites, but i just dont see why they would do it now, instead of nerfing Libero when it came out with CInderace, while you may argue some players might abuse it, and well, i agree on it, its still a hidden hability that some people are not even awere of- and well, Cinderace is banned on competitive (not sure on Greninja), but you wanna know a pokemon with broken hability that its not banned on Competitive? Shedinja, wonder guard makes that its only hit by super effective hits, Wolfey made a good video explaining how people use it in competetive. and on my opinion, it would make more sense to nerf the pokemon instead of the hability, while its my favorite, i cant deny Meowscarada has an insane speed stat, so why not nerf its speed, and keep Protean how it is? it just dosent make sense to me.
speaking of that, there is a lot that just dosent sit right with me. Pokemon home not being avalible until early spring? not even for people who preordered the game? just dosent make sense. or the fact that it got marketed as having no gender and just not having any type of outfit customization, or even the set move removal, while its not something i would use, it dosent make sense for them to remove it, sure, you can argue that "its basically just switch mode with the switching dialog box automatically saying "No"." it just dosent make any sense on why would they remove it, the fun of it was just not knowing which pokemon would come next, and its a feauture thats been in the games for ages, there was a controversy going around about pokemon company developers hating challenges/nuzlocke, and while that might have come off as fake, im starting to think that was the case, same goes for exp. share, while i like having it, the least there should be is a feature to switch it off. or challenge mode only being a thing on BW2. Another thing that dosent make sense are the Pokemon removals, sure, why every single pokemon dosent need ot be avalible on Paldea, i think its just dumb that they straight upn not exist on the game, and the same goes to SWSH, you know well they can hire any type of freelancer artist to make the models for them, some people would even do it for free! and its not like they would need to make new 3D models for every single game. And of course, how broken the games are, sure, a bug or another might be normal but i think the last time i saw a pokemon game this broken was RGBY. and they are like 26 years old! we even got big pokemon related influencers admiting to emulating the game because its runs better (i am in no way endorsing emulating in this context, just saying what i saw) if you go on any social media, people are making threads about the amount of bugs they found, comparing it to games like Cyberpunk 2077, thats how bad it is, and while i love pokemon from the bottom of my heart, its still a billion dollar industry and its the highest grossing franchise, the fact that they are this big and still release an game with this amount of problems is insane to me, it honestly looks like they are just releasing anything at theis point because they know the fans will buy and defend it. And personally, i dont think the problem is on the Switch hardware.
S/V was the biggest pokemon release on some places, but its probably also the biggest disappointment of the pokemon games.