Pokémon You like(d) Pokémon but these things irk(ed) you!

[GuerreraD]

Hello there, bell-treers!

As the fellow Pokémon lover that I was in the past, I want to share a few opinions with you and hear your own. Not that I don't love Pokémon anymore, it's just that my love only reaches from Gen 1 to Gen 5. However, good for you if you're still having fun with the latter games! Just remember to please be polite when expressing your opinion or replying to someone else's. You don't have to agree, but there's no need to be rude!

Okay, this will be long... but without further ado, here I go!

• There was nothing wrong with Jynx being black.

Okay, so she resembled African people. Why would that be a bad thing? I don’t see CocaCola CEOs complaining about how much Delibird resembles their commercial image of Santa Claus. Did Native Americans/Native Polynesians feel offended by Xatu? Were Goths bothered by the Gothita line? Were construction workers insulted by the Timburr line? Or were Czech/Jews annoyed by the Golett line?

Just so you know, Animal Crossing did the same face-washing with the gorilla Jane, look it up.

• After 26 years, after eight generations, and after 900 different pkmn (the last of them being Basculegion)... there are still several unused type combinations. Check it out here if you want (https://pokemondb.net/type/unused).

• Why Parasect doesn’t have pupils?! Paras certainly has!

• Six generations after breeding was introduced, Nidorina and Nidoqueen are still broken. They can’t breed, not even with the male of their own species. Poor Nidoking will remain a creepy pervert forever.

• Lugia, the “guardian of the seas”. Lugia, who “can calm and give rise to storms”. Lugia, who “isolates itself deep underwater”. Lugia, who is not a water type.

• In the ORAS remake they defiled Wally, my favourite character, for which I will never forgive them. (Extract from something that my best friend did time ago, leontinees).

​

• Sexism in western naming (Nintendo Japan is not to blame for this, I guess?). There are many examples: GeoDUDE, MR.Mime, SlowBRO, WaiLORD, and several -king.

• Progressively anorexic children designs. Walking skeletons. Unhealthy-looking, starving kids. You get the idea.

• Why are the Platinum and HGSS Battle Frontier identical? Even with the same aces? That has no sense, GameFreak! If you didn't want to make the effort of creating a new whole place, I can understand that. But couldn't you at the very least have other people as the bosses? Or even giving the admins of Team Rocket a second-chance job for all I care!

• Jynx again. Why did she never get a third evolution? Her pals Electabuzz and Magmar did.

• Similar to the previous one. Dusclops became Dusknoir, and Banette became... nothing. They are counterparts and you won’t convince me otherwise.

• Fairy type.

Yes, you’ve read right. It’s not the fact that they decided to introduce a new type 18 years later... it’s the fact that they made a new type completely out of the blue that nobody asked for, instead of pleasing the fans and implementing the widely known and adored fan-made Light type that has been around since the times of Gold/Silver/Crystal as a counterpart to Dark.

• Why, just why, there are so many Move Tutors since 3rd gen onwards? Do you really expect me to remember where each one of them are the moment I catch a pkmn whom I’d like to teach whatever move they’re offering? Why not give me the TM like before, so I can use it whenever I want?

• Mega-evolution. Yeah, throw me into the pyre if you want, but I hate the whole concept of it.

1. First, you take already strong pkmn... and make them even stronger? What was even the point?
2. Second, you also take pkmn that could certainly benefit from a second or third stage evolution... and instead take it away by making it temporary (like Houndoom, Banette or Audino).
3. Third, half the designs look ridiculous to me. A few are utterly awful (mega-Manectric, really...).
4. Fourth, it was never heard about before in any of the games nor even hinted at, either main or spin-offs, but apparently it’s been done since thousands of years ago? Yeah, please...
5. Fifth, not all the pkmn can mega-evo. What do you mean, my beloved and long-time trusted friend Dewgong and I don’t have a strong enough bond?

• Baby Kangaskhan never being a thing (but it can mega-evo, can you believe it?).

• Enemy teams that I cannot fear nor respect anymore (Flare, Skull and Yell).

• Black2&White2. This is where it started to go downhill for me, where I abandoned the franchise.

Ok, GameFreak. You took a risk and attempted to do something new, something astonishing. I wouldn’t blame you for that... if only you’ve gone all the way. Joining Kyurem with Zekrom/Reshiram? It sounds a bit Digimon-ized, but alright, I’ll take it. Just... why make it half-way? Why not fuse the three of them and show us The Original Dragon of Isshu region?! Even if only for a one-time-battle, even if we couldn’t keep it afterwards because of reasons... it would still have been a blast!

Besides, why the different protagonists and not keeping the same original group? We saw Cheren mature, we saw Bianca mature, and N, and Iris... but we don’t have a clue about Black and White because we’re not them anymore, and when you meet them they look exactly the same.

• Regional forms. So instead of creating a new wholesome pkmn, you just take a Vulpix and make it ice; or strangle a poor unsuspecting Exeggutor until it has the height of a building; or put a wig on Dugtrio. And you call that original? I call it being bored and lazy. That Persian is totally suffering hydropsy on its face.

• Galar pkmn are raised on steroids. Please, keep your rare candies away from me.

• Male Combee don’t evolve. Excuse me? Don’t you know there are also drone bees in a honeycomb, GameFreak? I don’t know how to help male Salandit, sorry.

• Other minor silly things:

1. Slowking not being an evolution of Slowbro.
2. Porygon-Z instead of Porygon3.
3. What’s the supposed difference between Friendship and Affection? You’re trying to be “original” again, aren’t you...
4. Why can a whale breed with a kitten?!
   
5. The first-pkmn-following-you feature, which was the best and cutest ever, has only been used thrice in the main series.
6. Pokémon Style Boutique. C'mon, you know what I mean. Who cares about catching 'mons anymore, as long as your hat matches with your shoes...

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Big disagree with Jynx being representative of black people.. just no. Maybe opera singers, but black people? No. It really did tread the line of blackface and looking like a golliwog doll.

Also, I don't think Geodude/Mr. Mime/etc. was sexism. There are some Pokémon that appear only as female, or have queen in the name, etc.

Big agree with hating mega evolution.. more like the mega downfall of the Pokémon franchise (for me, anyway). I wish they had just kept it simple with the basic evolutions.

I think the regional Pokémon are a cute idea though, and I love fairy Pokémon! I'd like to see a radiation type introduced some day, that'd be interesting

 

[kiwikenobi]

There was nothing wrong with Jynx being black. Okay, so she resembled African people. Why would that be a bad thing?

It wasn't because Jynx resembled black people, it was because it resembled blackface, which is now viewed as a disrespectful caricature by many people.

Why Parasect doesn’t have pupils?! Paras certainly has!

It's because the parasitic fungus on its back has taken it over. The insect is no longer operating its body--the mushroom is. Its empty eyes are meant to reflect it being sort of a zombie now.

Six generations after breeding was introduced, Nidorina and Nidoqueen are still broken.

This has actually been confirmed to be a deliberate choice by the game designers, not a glitch or oversight. Back in Gen I, a Pokédex book came out in Japan that seems to have presented Nidoran female's evolutions being sterile as one of the mysteries of nature or something.

 

[Snek]

Ahahaha you should've just called this the Pokémon Rant Thread.

• Fairy type.

Yes, you’ve read right. It’s not the fact that they decided to introduce a new type 18 years later... it’s the fact that they made a new type completely out of the blue that nobody asked for, instead of pleasing the fans and implementing the widely known and adored fan-made Light type that has been around since the times of Gold/Silver/Crystal as a counterpart to Dark.

I actually have no issues with Fairy type. It was needed (It always bothered me that there were 17 types and not an even 18). From a competitive standpoint Fairy typing really helped balance the metagame. Dragon and Fighting types were overused in Gen 5 and so it made game-playing less predictable and varied the teams. I still think that Psychic should have resisted Fairy though (I was really disappointed when it didn't) and that Steel was immune to Fairy (I'll get into later why it should)

Things that Bother Me:

1. IVs still exist
I hate IV breeding it really is a pain. I admit it. I genned Pokémon in Gen 7. Got frustrated with Pokémon franchise and took a break from it.

2. No way to evolve regional forms in SwSh
That's right. To evolve a Pikachu into Alolan Raichu it needs to be in Alola. Same thing with Exeggutor and Marowak. Makes sense. I didnt want ingame trade for them. I wanted to evolve them myself. They should've at least made an "Alola" island to evolve them.

3. Galar Fossils are abominations
I fear for the creativity of the franchise in the future. All of the new Legends mons are good designs but there's a reason why they're in the trailers. I just hope they learn their lesson and not create any more Ultra Beast abominations

4. Trade Evolutions
They need to go. With the rising costs of games I refuse to trade with myself anymore. Change the method GF!

5. Type Changes that should have happened:

Dragon immune against Poison instead of Steel.
From an Eastern perspective, dragon/dinosaur bones are used in medicine. Also because the mystic/magical quality Dragon's immunity would make sense. Steel would resist Poison but can be corroded by Poison moves. Dragon is a terrible offensive type so giving it a more defensive advantage would be good for it.

Fire and Ice types super-effective against each other. For those that have lived in extreme cold environments this would make sense, right? If Ice is a glass cannon type it should have even more offensive weapons too

6. Male Combee/Salandit

Male Combee don’t evolve. Excuse me? Don’t you know there are also drone bees in a honeycomb, GameFreak? I don’t know how to help male Salandit, sorry.

This. It always disappointed for some Pokémon to be useless simply because its a different sex. Male Salandit could have evolved into something cool. Instead, its just a harem joke mon.

 

[daringred_]

I fear for the creativity of the franchise in the future. All of the new Legends mons are good designs but there's a reason why they're in the trailers. I just hope they learn their lesson and not create any more Ultra Beast abomination

not sure if you know this, so i'll say it anyway: the galar fossils are based on british paleontologists in the 19th century who were the first to study dinosaur fossils but assembled loads of them completely incorrectly, which is why the fossil pokemon in galar (a region inspired by britain) are so muddled, with the wrong heads affixed to the wrong bodies etc. it's not a lack of creativity or anything, it's based on the actual history of the region galar is inspired by, and i think that's pretty cool, personally.

as for my own opinions. i don't have a lot of them, but.

• agree that jynx was an issue. it clearly looked like blackface/a caricature of black people;
• don't think the western names are sexist. seems like a bit of a stretch to me;
• i actually really like regional variants! it's an interesting spin on pre-existing pokemon, often giving them new typings as well which can change how you use them in battles or even make them a pokemon you'd use when you normally wouldn't. i personally love galarian rapidash;
• i actually really enjoyed USUM and, to a slightly lesser extent, SWSH. it definitely has its issues, but i don't agree that it's as bad as some people make it out to be;
• i've seen some people complain that the dynamax den (or w/e it's called) in the SWSH dlc is bad because it makes getting shiny legendaries too easy, but i disagree. as someone who didn't play anything before ORAS, and doesn't plan to, it's nice to have a chance to catch all these legendaries from past games in their shiny forms!

 

[Alienfish]

I definitely agree with the Jynx/anyhing censored AC villagers. Japan/ese have a completely different culture when it comes to symbols and just other people. I can understand censors but outright not pretending to understand other countries no matter right/wrong is not how y'all roll, Ninty. The AC censor was way worse though. Generally Japanese shows/games is careful keeping private and public apart so you don't have to be correct on TV/games cause it's fiction. This might have changed in recent decade, but yeah back then at least.

Sure Jynx might have been a bad move in general cause I assume the targeted audience is not really into Japanese culture, but also the same people who found Mr. Popo racist, lol. And yeah Jynx is supposedly based at those yamanba/ganguro gals as well, though yeah could probably have made a better skin tone. And it definitely doesn't look like those golliwog dolls. Racist? Maybe but not as people want her.


As for my own onion, though:

- S/M/USUM were the worst handhelds before sw/sh. Regional variants were ehh and i didn't like the steep curves in USUM.
- The Japanese/Asia exclusiveness of a lot of Wi-fi events. I understand you can't do real-life events in every country but did they really have to region lock wi-fi ones?
- The cutscenes in the above mentioned games, ew.
- I actually liked the clothes options and boutiques, if anything I hated how every single playing character started out with a cap/visor/weird headbands on their head. Did they work with McD in terms of outfits or, lol?
- X/Y was a horrible graphics experiment and I hope they learned.
- IV/EV should never have been such a large factor.. bruh.

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

-Gen 8 is the worst of them all. I like one of the NPCs, but thats it. I was so disappointed when I got the game. When I stopped caring for the series as much as I used to.
-EXP Share for all Pokemon starting at Gen 6. It was easier to level up Pokemon before then when you could just give it to the Pokemon you needed to level up the most.
-Change from Pixelated to 3D. It was gross. I'm used to it now... but the shiny Pokemon.. look super wrong. And gross. (but i do still enjoy the chibi style in gen 6, just not as much)
-No more 3rd entry of games. It made simple changes and added really cool features that would have made each generation all that much better. I like USUM, but it doesn't feel the same as Emerald or Platinum :/
-Regional variants were cool for one generation, but I miss the normal look for each Pokemon and its really weird.

minor: Trade evolutions. I like them, but what if I have no friends to trade my Porygon2 with?

The biggest one for me was how easy the game got with Mega Evolution, Z Crystals, and Gigantamax (i don't remember what its called). It was super cool in 2013, but then I was done.

 

[skarmoury]

(deleted my original comment bc i decided not today. LOL)

The only thing I'm irked (or anxious, really) about right now is the artwork and sprites of the Gen IV remakes. I hope they fix the shadings or palettes a bit, at least.

 

[Biyaya]

I LOVE that they implemented regional forms. It makes the world a little richer to me. I enjoy the fact there's diversity within species now, and some variants have great designs. It would be different if they gave up completely on making new pokémon, but they still develop new ones beside the new variant forms.

At first, I felt bothered by some of the sexual dimorphism they incorporated (I thought female pikachu's tail looked dumb), but it also adds some appreciated realism to the Pokémon world. Although it made old episodes of the show feel especially dated, I finally have a confirmation on the sex of Ash's pikachu.

Also, the butterfree/venomoth switch bothers me. I don't know when I'll get over that.

Progressively anorexic children designs. Walking skeletons. Unhealthy-looking, starving kids. You get the idea.

:c Some healthy kids are just naturally thin.

 

[Snek]

not sure if you know this, so i'll say it anyway: the galar fossils are based on british paleontologists in the 19th century who were the first to study dinosaur fossils but assembled loads of them completely incorrectly, which is why the fossil pokemon in galar (a region inspired by britain) are so muddled, with the wrong heads affixed to the wrong bodies etc. it's not a lack of creativity or anything, it's based on the actual history of the

I knew the inspiration behind the Galar fossils. Every Pokémon in the game has an "inspiration". Many new Pokémon in a new region have homages to the real-life region. What I'm judging GF is that they could've done better with the designs. Yes, what I'm saying is pretty subjective but thats the point of this thread it seems. Some designs for me are more creative than other designs and the Galar fossils have designs that aren't very creative. I still hate them because they look like Ultra Beasts. Dragapult has an inspiration behind its design and it was pulled off fantastically. I just don't want any more UB-like Pokémon in the franchise.

deleted my original comment bc i decided not today. LOL)

Ohhh now I'm really curious....

 

[Holla]

• Even though I still play and enjoy to an extent the newer games I hate how hand-holdy they are. I get they are making it easier for kids but at least make it an option in the settings or something. I miss the days of wandering around figuring out where to go next. Now NPCs and the map make it too obvious
• EXP Share. Was way better off as a held item. I didn't like it when the new key item EXP Share was introduced in X and Y but at least I could turn it off. Now with Sword and Shield it's always on and I hate that so much.
• Battles in the new games feel pretty easy. Sure I'm a Pokemon veteran so I even find the old games easier nowadays but anything after gen 5 feels even more easy compared to when I replay the older games.
• The fact that so many people hate gen 8 just because not all Pokemon are in the game. I get your fave Pokemon not being in the game is a downer, but with around 900 Pokemon now it's getting a bit insane to include everything for every new game. How many games do you know that have that many different characters all included in every game? Not to mention in my opinion the focus of the new games should be new Pokemon and not old Pokemon. You can always go back and play your old favourites if you really want to use an older Pokemon that isn't in Sword/Shield. Just, there are so many other bigger problems with gen 8 than just Pokemon being cut so I don't get how so many people hate gen 8 solely for that reason. (While I had fun playing through Sword I totally agree that it has a ton of issues, though missing Pokemon bothers me very little compared to everything else).

 

[Alienfish]

Also to add for Jynx, it's not even a "skin", it's more like a demonic mist or anything. Lol.

Also more of a fanbase bother, but the massive hype of Nuzlocke variation challenges, I posted before in Unpopular Opinion but yeah it really irks me with fandom sometimes.

I think the fact you need apps and payments for Bank and whatnot just to get Pokémon through is more of an issue than not adding Pokémon for free, but, yeah.

 

[Mr.Fox]

The removal of certain Pokemon from the games was inevitable and I was expecting it. I knew we'd get to a point where there would just be too many to implement into the games (might happen to AC villagers too eventually...)

What bothered me was the removal of moves. I wasn't a huge HP user so that one didn't affect me as much, but I ran a lot of 'mons with Return/Frustration...and now they're just not viable to use anymore. For STAB purposes, you now either have to replace Return with a weaker move to get 100% accuracy, or a more powerful move and lose the accuracy.

Needless to say my Normals haven't left their boxes since US/UM.

 

[Firesquids]

Hiya I like Pokemon (a lot, too much even) and know way too much about it, here's my thoughts

• Jynx is most certainly problematic to a western audience point of view. I don't think GameFreak has ever come out with an official statement but people claim that she's biased off the Japanese ganguro style but to mine (and many other's) western point of view she very closely resembles not only blackface but specifically the "mammy" caricature. It's really for the best that Jynx was altered to the purplish bluish color she is today to avoid normalizing these hurtful stereotypes.
• Not sure why Gamefreak doesn't explore all possible type combinations, maybe so people talk about it every time a new one is used.
• Parasect doesn't have pupils because the cordyceps mushrooms on it's back ave overtaken it's body, the paras you once knew is dead and you're really just raising the mushroom parasite possessing it's lifeless husk.
• The Nidoking/Nidoqueen thing is weird because it they were created as a gendered pokemon before the gendering system was created in generation two, so to this day technically the Nidoking and Nidoqueen lines are different species. I find it rather interesting that the adult forms can't breed, it's like they go through menopause upon evolving
• Yeah I also found it weird that Lugia and Celebi gained the psychic type rather than water and grass respectivly. Also not sure why they didn't retcon Celebi to grass/fairy when gen 6 came out.
• Jynx probably never got a third evolution as a result of the controversy surrounding her character, but who really knows? Gamefreak works in mysterious ways...
• Banette did get a megaevolution though (man now I really wish Dusknoir got one
• Regarding fairy type over "light" type. So the name for "dark" type pokemon was actually a bit of a mistranslation. In Japanese the dark type is actually "evil" type and the fighting type acts as the heroic counterpart (evil fighting style vs heroic fighting style).
• Regarding Megaevolution. It's just another regional gimmick, guarantee the same thing is going to happen to giganta/dynamax
• GameFreak will never convince me that baby Kangaskhan isn't Cuebone
• Don't you dare talk trash on my Skullybois
• Black and White were Jinuchi Masuda's passion project, they were meant to function as a soft reboot of the franchise after the diminishing sales of Diamond/Pearl.
• I thought regional forms were a great idea, animals change and adapt to the different climates of where they end up so it's a nice parallel to real life while also being a convenient gimmick to bring back old fans.
• Sw/SH is definitely babby mode with all the exp candies, like it's way too easy to power level
• But drone bees don't change form...? from the wikipedia for drone bees, "drone is a male honey bee. Unlike the female worker bee, drones do not have stingers. They gather neither nectar nor pollen and are unable to feed without assistance from worker bees. A drone's only role is to mate with an unfertilized queen" Yeah I'm not sure who you would want them to portray this in a family friendly setting lol Also I'm not sure how to interpret Salandit and Salazzle as anything other than a sub/dom metaphor

Other minor silly things:

1. Slowking not being an evolution of Slowbro. (Bros can't become kings I guess lol)
2. Porygon-Z instead of Porygon3. (GameFreak subtly subverting expectations )
3. What’s the supposed difference between Friendship and Affection? You’re trying to be “original” again, aren’t you... (I agree they always make their mechanics so stupidly complicated)
4. Why can a whale breed with a kitten?! (ehh that's egg groups for you -shrug-)
5. The first-pkmn-following-you feature, which was the best and cutest ever, has only been used thrice in the main series. (honestly inexcusable. Let me ride and carry and have pokemon follw me gamefreak give the people what they CRAVE )
6. Pokémon Style Boutique. C'mon, you know what I mean. Who cares about catching 'mons anymore, as long as your hat matches with your shoes... (Let us dress them up for battles at least, I don't feel like pasting stickers on a photo, I want my pokemon wearing hats, sunglasses and bandanas. They could even make it to where you need a high friendship to dress them, up and some pokemon don't like certain clothes based on their nature or something idk)

 

[Alienfish]

The item-trade method of evolving certain Pokémons. Some are either limited or impossible to get on your own and GTS are like never helpful for it. I mean sure you can ask friends for help but it's a bit.. did they have to make it like that?

 

[.: Meri :.]

While I don't think Jynx was intended to resemble blackface (I'm partial to the interpretation that she's based off the Yama-uba yokai, probably mixed with some Norse mythology/opera singer traits too), I think the color change from black to purple was the right decision. If someone accidentally stepped on your toes, you'd probably still hope they'd apologize for hurting you, even if it wasn't done out of malice. Her previous design understandably made people uncomfortable and was worth addressing for that alone, and I think fixing the issue people had with Jynx probably even opened up more opportunity for more people to like her and want to use her on their teams.

Onto the main question, the thing that irks me nowadays with Pokemon is shiny-locking legendaries and more recently, starter Pokemon. It was always cool when someone would randomly get a shiny starter/legendary Pokemon on their first go, but that can't happen with shiny locks. And like, if someone really wants their starter or a certain legend to be a different color... why not just let them try for it? It's their copy of the game, let them play it how they like. A lot of players get a lot of fun out of shiny-hunting, and while I don't do it often, it can be a fun thing to do on the side while I'm busy with something else.
I think the thing that really bothers me about it was that it seems like it was done for the sake of making a lot of shinies event-exclusives, which aren't practical/accessible for a lot of people even when they're not region-exclusive events (which a lot of them wind up being). The cutscene continuity reasoning doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, especially when in SWSH, Pokemon that are generated as shiny upon spawn... don't appear shiny in the overworld.

 

[Holla]

Broke out my Gen 1 & 2 VC games recently so I have a couple (mostly) older gen things that bug me.

• The beginning of the game in Red or Blue was hell if you chose Charmander as there was nothing good against Brock you could catch in the early game. (To be fair though they balanced this out in Yellow and Firered/Leafgreen by making Mankey available early in those games)
• Gen 2 has a major Pokemon distribution problem (it's probably better in the remakes but I still found it annoying even there). Many cool new gen 2 Pokemon were post game Kanto only even though they are considered to be Johto Pokemon. Why?! I really wanted to use a Houndour in SoulSilver but had to transfer one up from Emerald cause it was post game only grrr. Also Fire types in general. If you didn't pick the fire type starter there's not a whole lot of options there especially for new Pokemon (that's why I wanted a Houndour in SoulSilver but postgame only boo).
• Gen 2 breeding is painful. It was improved in gen 3 but the rates at which the daycare man found eggs was atrocious. Pokemon with the highest compatibility (same species different OTs) only had a 31% chance to make an egg. Now a days its 70% or 88% if you have an Oval charm. There was also no way to speed up hatching eggs as no abilities so therefore no flame body... TLDR: breeding in gen 2 is so dang slow.

Anyways all that aside I still do enjoy the old games especially now that they are on VC and I can trade with myself in them. They have tons of flaws though and most but not all of them were fixed in their remakes.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Just a few things off the top of my head:

- Multi battles with a friend in Sword/Shield against randoms is not possible. You need a full group of friends or people to team up and do multibattles.
- I don't like the fact that legendaries of any sort are allowed in ranked and competitive. You just end up seeing the same Pokemon used which is very boring.
- The direction they're going with the graphics is not very appealing to me. It seems like it's trying to be too much like BOTW but isn't doing a good job of it considering how many memes get shown of how messy it looks.

 

[LittleMissPanda]

I love Pokémon. Sometimes I go back and play the older installments, some of my favorites being Fire Red, Emerald and Crystal. Because in the older games there's no one to guide you on where to go next and some of the battles can be pretty challenging. There's little to no hand-holding. I really like how some towns/cities/routes branch off in different directions and you can basically choose where you want to go without there being an obstacle in the way or some kind of penalty. A good example is G/S/C and their remakes. Once you reach Ecruteak City, you can decide if you want to head to the west towards Olivine/Cianwood, or go to the east and tackle the Rocket Hideout/Lake of Rage mission. If you go east you can even reach Mt. Mortar and do some exploring (you'll need HM Waterfall to fully explore the mountain)

That's one of the things I love about Pokémon: being able to freely explore and catch all kinds of Pokémon, and take on Gyms in a different order. The newer games have become much too linear for my liking. I want to be able to go to destination C first, rather than have no choice but to go to destination A because I'm not allowed to play the game how I'd like.

Without a doubt my #1 gripe with the newer installments is the Exp. Share. Starting with LGPE~ even in X/Y and S/M/US/UM you have the ability to turn off the Exp. Share, which I did immediately because I actually want to train my Pokémon through traditional means, not just have them sit in my party and earn exp. without doing a single thing. They have to earn that level up. Exp. Share turned into Exp. ALL, just like in R/B/G/Y, in which all members of your team receive Exp. points. IMO having the Exp. Share turned on essentially turns the game into easy mode, whereas having it off is like playing on normal difficulty. It's one of the things that kept me away from SwSh.

I prefer the sprites rather than the 3D models of the Pokémon because the sprites are more dynamic and really showcase the Pokémon's personalities. The 3D Models just stand there, or "hover unnaturally" aka Skarmory and Xatu. Gen 5 did this the best with the introduction of fully animated front/back sprites. To this day I love how Oshawott tosses its Scalchop in the air before catching it with skill, all the while being very cute about it. It shows that Oshawott is playful yet when it comes down to it, it's not afraid to go all out in battle. A lot can be said about other Pokémon, too.

I really like the idea of regional forms. Animals adapt to their environments to ensure optimal survival, why can't the same be said about Pokémon? It makes the world really feel alive and connected. Sure, it's basically giving a Pokémon a fresh coat of paint, but it's fun and interesting to see them in a whole new way. That doesn't mean I like every design, for example Alolan Raichu I find to be really obnoxious, Diglett/Dugtrio are just stupid, and the Geodude line is extremely uninspired. Some are just silly, such as Galarian Mr. Mime and Stunfisk. I understand the concept behind them all, but that doesn't change the fact that they look awful. Hisuian Growlithe is just too perfect (except for being part rock-type! 4x weakness to water and ground is never fun)

Overall, GF is making Pokémon too easy nowadays, like if kids can't learn by themselves. It's not fun or rewarding having overpowered 'mons without actually getting the work done yourself. GF better not turn BD/SP into "Pokémon for Dummies" and Exp. Share better have an OFF switch. That's all I ask for.

 

[Dunquixote]

Mine is going to be pretty short since I haven’t played the newer installments.

1. This one is minor but it irks me so much - removal of the casinos. I loved the slots and gambling in Pokemon so hearing it was removed saddened me. I know this game is targeted towards everyone including kids but parents can educate their kids on what gambling is and how to play responsibly (also not give their payment to their kid) or to emphasize how the slots and other gambling that was in the game were mini games but even if you won a bunch at that, gambling outside of the game like in actual casinos or by playing gacha games come with a cost and many risks.

2. The Poke bank costing money. I was excited when it first came out but then when I found out it came as a subscription, that bummed me out. Don’t have the money to get subscriptions let alone games unless it is as a present. I do understand why, but I personally don’t like it. I would have preferred it as dlc that you just need to pay one time for.

3. I like the 2D sprites so much. While I still may consider getting eventually remake of diamond, I don’t like the 3D model. I think 3D is kinda overrated.

4. Ivs: I used a website to help me with this but I never got an understanding over these. I would love to play again and against other players but the whole iv stuff was confusing and frustrating.

That exp share now sounds annoying. I haven’t played sword and shield, but I hope that won’t be a thing in pokemon legends which i’m considering getting and any future installments. i really miss playing pokemon .