(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

The fact that changing the controls for the Ultra Wormhole game can't be done in the options menu and isn't actually explained to you anywhere near the wormholes. But requires you to fly to a completely different island, go into the gamefreak building and talk to a fucking rando just to change it.

Also in Ultra SuMo Rotom never shuts the fuck up.
 
I actually woun't mind Rotomdex if it wasn't for the "here's my advice you didn't ask for" dialogue
did you know it can actually prevent you from interacting with Rotomdex while it's happening? its own interactions get in the way of its interactions
That's the most frustrating part about it. Especially when I want to use the map and he's busy asking me if I want to open my bag to heal my pokemon because apparently they are low on HP (Alakazam had 50% everyone else was full). Or when he repeatedly tells me I need to go to a pokemon centre, literally at the door to the pokemon centre.
 
The fact that changing the controls for the Ultra Wormhole game can't be done in the options menu and isn't actually explained to you anywhere near the wormholes. But requires you to fly to a completely different island, go into the gamefreak building and talk to a fucking rando just to change it.

Also in Ultra SuMo Rotom never shuts the fuck up.
While annoying, at least you only have to do it once. (because who in their right mind actually likes using the gyroscope controls over the circle pad) It's probably a little more annoying that even if you do know where to go to change the controls for the Ultra Warp Ride, you still can't change them until you've gone through the ride at least once.
 

Xen

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Rotom doesn’t seem to start his “unwanted advice” until you nickname him Roto-(first letter of Name).

I haven’t touched Rotom at all on my current UM save; the lack of unscripted Roto boosts was well worth the trade-off for not having to listen to his constant blabbering (besides when you load the save).
 
I can definitely do away with the Rotom Dex, it's almost like additional unnecessary cutscenes, as if there weren't enough in-game, every time it talks and blabbers about how you completed a page in the Pokedex or when you encounter a Pokemon you've never seen before. I've also never touched a Roto Power before so the thing is basically useless to me. Just annoys me when it talks or flashes asking you to roll for a Roto Power.
 
Rotom doesn’t seem to start his “unwanted advice” until you nickname him Roto-(first letter of Name).

I haven’t touched Rotom at all on my current UM save; the lack of unscripted Roto boosts was well worth the trade-off for not having to listen to his constant blabbering (besides when you load the save).
You mean, until it asks to nickname you "Roto- (first letter of your name)".

Still, if it were me programming how Rotom Dex acts to the player, I'd have the "advice you weren't asking for" come up frequently until the player bonds with it to the point of asking to nickname the player, after which point it'd trust that the player knows what they're doing. 90% of the advice given is only really helpful in the beginning of the player's journey. I don't think the player needs to be reminded that they can register Poke Rides to the D-pad when they're about to face Totem Kommo-o.
 

Codraroll

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Yeah, the Rotom dex is only slightly annoying if you just refuse to acknowledge its existence. That was what I did in my US run, I did not interact with it, ever. Was a little annoying to wait for its messages to go away, but then there weren't nearly as many of them.

Seriously, it completely baffles me how a company of professional video game designers thought that unstoppable blabbering monstrosity was a good idea to implement, with such confidence that they didn't even implement an off switch. Any conversation with a website designer would tell them that unsolicited pop-up messages are annoying to the point of being repulsive for most people, especially if they block important content. The feedback they got from the PSS in XY should have told them that. Heck, they should have known better than to implement it even in XY. People had made jokes about how annoying Navi was in Ocarina of Time for almost two decades even by then.

The only explanation I can come up with is that some higher-up at Game Freak must be really fond of pop-up-messages, and totally blind to any and all criticism or suggestions for improvement. This is game design so bad it actively turns people away from the game, and should be one of the first things a game designer learns in their education.
 

Pikachu315111

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The only explanation I can come up with is that some higher-up at Game Freak must be really fond of pop-up-messages, and totally blind to any and all criticism or suggestions for improvement. This is game design so bad it actively turns people away from the game, and should be one of the first things a game designer learns in their education.
Actually it more feels like GF designers wanted to make a companion which felt like was actively helping you while also forming a friendly relation so added a batch of conversation options... forgetting that's not why we're playing the game. We're playing a Pokemon game to go on a region wide adventure, catching and befriending elemental creatures and raising them to do competitive activities. We don't want to sit down and have a conversation with the Rotom Dex because, let's be honest, it's a tool and we get nothing from doing so. Now, I will sit down and play with my Pokemon in Pokemon Refresh because, not only is it more immersive with the Pokemon responding to your pets and feeding it, but it also gives you benefits like curing status ailments, landing more critical hits, or holding on after a KOing attack with 1 HP. But you get nothing from doing the Rotom Dex conversations, except maybe more chances to do Roto Loto and able to do a Z-Move again but comparing what you need to deal with to get those perks it's not worth it.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having a companion character. But they can't be intrusive. Heck, while people complain about Navi, she wasn't actually that bad of a companion character. What was annoying about Navi is how she alerted you, constantly saying "Hey Listen!" (which they remedied in Majora's Mask with Tatl who keeps quiet until you talk with her). However, Navi never interrupted gameplay and the only reason she says "Hey Listen!" is if she was pointing something out like an odd marking on the wall or something which had readable text. Her main purpose was being the player's aiming reticle to keep track on who or what the player has targeted, but they also allowed the player to talk with her to get tips whether she alerts you of it or not. And it was all optional, you can completely ignore her.

And that's where the Rotom Dex fails. Rotom Dex interrupts gameplay by blocking your map, it's actions are distracting such as its eyes glowing, it talks whenever if feels like with no way to stop it. What Rotom Dex needed was a little button with a "!" that appears on the bottom of the screen if it had something to say. If you wanted to hear what it had to say, you can click the button, otherwise it just remains quiet. There, problem solved.
 
Actually it more feels like GF designers wanted to make a companion which felt like was actively helping you while also forming a friendly relation so added a batch of conversation options... forgetting that's not why we're playing the game. We're playing a Pokemon game to go on a region wide adventure, catching and befriending elemental creatures and raising them to do competitive activities. We don't want to sit down and have a conversation with the Rotom Dex because, let's be honest, it's a tool and we get nothing from doing so. Now, I will sit down and play with my Pokemon in Pokemon Refresh because, not only is it more immersive with the Pokemon responding to your pets and feeding it, but it also gives you benefits like curing status ailments, landing more critical hits, or holding on after a KOing attack with 1 HP. But you get nothing from doing the Rotom Dex conversations, except maybe more chances to do Roto Loto and able to do a Z-Move again but comparing what you need to deal with to get those perks it's not worth it.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having a companion character. But they can't be intrusive. Heck, while people complain about Navi, she wasn't actually that bad of a companion character. What was annoying about Navi is how she alerted you, constantly saying "Hey Listen!" (which they remedied in Majora's Mask with Tatl who keeps quiet until you talk with her). However, Navi never interrupted gameplay and the only reason she says "Hey Listen!" is if she was pointing something out like an odd marking on the wall or something which had readable text. Her main purpose was being the player's aiming reticle to keep track on who or what the player has targeted, but they also allowed the player to talk with her to get tips whether she alerts you of it or not. And it was all optional, you can completely ignore her.

And that's where the Rotom Dex fails. Rotom Dex interrupts gameplay by blocking your map, it's actions are distracting such as its eyes glowing, it talks whenever if feels like with no way to stop it. What Rotom Dex needed was a little button with a "!" that appears on the bottom of the screen if it had something to say. If you wanted to hear what it had to say, you can click the button, otherwise it just remains quiet. There, problem solved.
... who even uses the map function once you have Charizard Glide available? You see everything you need to with this and can immediately fly to a previously visited point of interest if you want. (or get close to where you need to go next) If you just want to check but not go anywhere, you can still back out of it as easily as the regular map.

I don't mind Rotom Dex's conversations. Those are nice attempts to make it feel like an actual companion. I'm sure most of us here don't mind those, either. It's the constant basic advice that make most of us wish Rotom had an off button.

But hey, for those who absolutely can't stand it, take heart in the fact it won't be in the upcoming Pokemon games. Way too much of an Alola thing to carry over... even though Rotom aren't native to Alola and can only be found via Island Scan in USUM.
 

Pikachu315111

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... who even uses the map function once you have Charizard Glide available? You see everything you need to with this and can immediately fly to a previously visited point of interest if you want. (or get close to where you need to go next) If you just want to check but not go anywhere, you can still back out of it as easily as the regular map.

I don't mind Rotom Dex's conversations. Those are nice attempts to make it feel like an actual companion. I'm sure most of us here don't mind those, either. It's the constant basic advice that make most of us wish Rotom had an off button.

But hey, for those who absolutely can't stand it, take heart in the fact it won't be in the upcoming Pokemon games. Way too much of an Alola thing to carry over... even though Rotom aren't native to Alola and can only be found via Island Scan in USUM.
Not sure about you, but I do often take a quick look down at the map at times to get a better idea of the area I'm in. The map is detailed enough (in areas it shows where the player is) where you may see a path, alcove, or just a little indent you didn't see but if you check it out you might find something interesting.

As for the conversations and even questions is asks you in USUM, they are interesting... until you gone through all of them and they start repeating. Like, I could probably write hundreds of questions/conversations you can have with Rotom Dex, being it's a Pokemon WHO CAN TALK. Thinking about it, I'm surprised there's no feature where Rotom tells you what your Pokemon is thinking like Dr. Footprint.

Rotom Dex may not carry over but now that they gone gimmicky with the Pokedex it'll be a downgrade not to do so again. So question is what will they do with the Pokedex next game?
 
I think Rotmdex would be great if its interaction where reactive instead of active
like, if it only talked when you tapped it, give me some questions to ask it and make some dialogue trees from there
that way players that don't want to interact with Rotomdex only hear it on cutscenes and players that do don't get their play interrupted since it only speaks when you ask it to, it also opens the possibility of having different types of relationships with Rotomdex based of your questions and answers
 
Something that becomes more and more annoying the longer you play any of the games, is the general lack of pokemon that can learn the fly HM. Fly is pretty much necessary in all gens up to gen 7, and since it´s actually a decent in-game move I usually want to use a dedicated flier to safe a moveslot for one of the shitty HM's on my HM-slave. However, since I played almost all gens through multiple times, I have already used most of the fliers in the game. I really don't want to use the same flier every time, so the very limited pool of pokemon that can learn fly is really starting to hamper teambuilding for me.

Here's a list of all fully evolved fliers in every gen. I excluded plain nonviable in-game fliers like delibird or (pseudo)legendaries. Uber boring normal/flying types get a mark, so all of them except Staraptor.

Gen 1: Charizard, Pidgeot*, Fearow*, Golbat, Dodrio*, Aerodactyl
Gen 2: Noctowl*, Crobat, Togetic*, Xatu, Murkrow, Skarmory
Gen 3: Swellow*, Pelipper, Flygon, Altaria, Tropius
Gen 4: Staraptor, Drifblim, Honchkrow, Togekiss
Gen 5: Unfezant*, Swoobat*, Sigliph, Archeops, Swanna, Golurk, Braviary, Mandibuzz
Gen 6: Talonflame, Hawlucha, Noivern

Eight of the 32 are ultra boring normal/flying types. If we exclude those, there are only 24 'usable' fliers left, of which some come really late (skarmory, braviary) or are just shit (tropius, togetic). Having only four non-boring fliers on average per gen is already bad enough, but if you exclude aforementioned late-game and shit pokemon too, the flier pool becomes frustratingly shallow. Gen 1 is especially bad since you're pretty much forced to use pidgeot or fearow if you didn't choose charmander, since golbat isn't great and aerodactyl comes late.

Gen 5 does it much better, with two early-game fliers, three mid-game fliers and three late-game fliers. The boring normal/flier also has at least SOME interesting gimmick in super luck air cutter for a great early game. Sigiliph and Archeops both come early enough and are actually interesting. Swanna is great because it can also learn surf, essentially filling two teamslots at once. It feels like you actually have some options here, so good on you, gen 5.

Anyway, I think that the fact that these fliers generally can't learn many other HM's makes the problem worse. You usually can't just use an HM slave for fly, because that would cost you an entire team slot for just one move.

What's more, there are a lot of pokemon that are easily able to carry a human through the sky that can't learn fly. A lot of bugs come to mind, like scyther, heracross and yanmega. Why can't they learn fly? It's so infuriating. Scyther for example would be infinitely more useful if he could fly. It's really hard to put him on a team just because you need a second flier, likely piling up shared weaknesses. It just screws up teambuilding.

So let's just say that I'm glad that, after like twenty years, gamefreak finally realised that HM's are shit.
 

Pikachu315111

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Gen 5: Unfezant*, Swoobat*, Sigliph, Archeops, Swanna, Golurk, Braviary, Mandibuzz

(...)

Gen 5 does it much better, with two early-game fliers, three mid-game fliers and three late-game fliers. The boring normal/flier also has at least SOME interesting gimmick in super luck air cutter for a great early game. Sigiliph and Archeops both come early enough and are actually interesting. Swanna is great because it can also learn surf, essentially filling two teamslots at once. It feels like you actually have some options here, so good on you, gen 5.
You skipped over the best thing about the Gen V fliers: You can fly using Golurk.


 
Gen 1: Charizard, Pidgeot*, Fearow*, Golbat, Dodrio*, Aerodactyl
Gen 2: Noctowl*, Crobat, Togetic*, Xatu, Murkrow, Skarmory
Gen 3: Swellow*, Pelipper, Flygon, Altaria, Tropius
Gen 4: Staraptor, Drifblim, Honchkrow, Togekiss
Gen 5: Unfezant*, Swoobat*, Sigliph, Archeops, Swanna, Golurk, Braviary, Mandibuzz
Gen 6: Talonflame, Hawlucha, Noivern
Also Tropius is fine as a single stage, the lati's are literally forced upon you in ORAS.

But yeah HM slaves no-beuno
 
You skipped over the best thing about the Gen V fliers: You can fly using Golurk.


Meh, I'd rather fly on a giant bamboo rocket FROM (Ultra) SPACE. :P
In the Spanish translation, "Focus Blast" is called "Onda Certera", or "Accurate Wave". Think about that for a bit.
What are you talking about? Focus Blast is the most accurate move in the game! Swift, Aura Sphere, Aerial Ace, etc. all wish they could be as accurate as Focus Blast!

... is my sarcasm showing? Truly that name is about as accurate as the move itself, which of course is dubiously referred to as "Focus Miss".
 
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Pikachu315111

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Detective Barricade , of course your sarcasm if showing through. Thinking it's more fun to ride on a bamboo rocket shit than an ancient ghost mecha which is awesome to fly on because it's not Flying-type, you jokester you. :bloblul:

Joking aside, I suppose Celesteela is alright too. Both use rockets, and I think we can both agree that as long as the fly Pokemon will be leaving its immediate area a crispy crater you can't go wrong.

In the Spanish translation, "Focus Blast" is called "Onda Certera", or "Accurate Wave". Think about that for a bit.
Actually its wrong on two counts. One because its not accurate (probably confused what the "focus" in Focus Blast was referring too. They made the same mistake with Focus Punch (Puño Certera) though got it correct with Focus Energy (Foco Energia), Focus Band (Cinta Foco), and Focus Sash (Banda de Foco); got all this info off Bulbapedia so if I'm wrong blame them).

Two, it's not a wave. This is important because it's not powered-up by Mega Launcher. In addition, Focus Blast's Japanese name translate to "Fighting Spirit Bomb", the "bomb" part being notable as this means it gets blocked by Bulletproof.
 
As someone from the country, the Spanish translation is an horrible incoherent mess. Did you know the word Seed is banned from attack moves? The worst cases are Seed Bomb becoming Germ Bomb and Seed Flare being just plain Flare, because they don't even sound like Grass moves any more. Bullet Seed becoming Recurring also sounds dumb.

...And yet the Miracle Seed is still called that.

And don't get me started in the Umbrio moves. Just don't please.
 
Detective Barricade , of course your sarcasm if showing through. Thinking it's more fun to ride on a bamboo rocket shit than an ancient ghost mecha which is awesome to fly on because it's not Flying-type, you jokester you. :bloblul:

Joking aside, I suppose Celesteela is alright too. Both use rockets, and I think we can both agree that as long as the fly Pokemon will be leaving its immediate area a crispy crater you can't go wrong.



Actually its wrong on two counts. One because its not accurate (probably confused what the "focus" in Focus Blast was referring too. They made the same mistake with Focus Punch (Puño Certera) though got it correct with Focus Energy (Foco Energia), Focus Band (Cinta Foco), and Focus Sash (Banda de Foco); got all this info off Bulbapedia so if I'm wrong blame them).

Two, it's not a wave. This is important because it's not powered-up by Mega Launcher. In addition, Focus Blast's Japanese name translate to "Fighting Spirit Bomb", the "bomb" part being notable as this means it gets blocked by Bulletproof.
The focus blast translation kind of makes sense when you consider how “focus” is meant in that move (as you mention) — it requires a lot of focus to execute properly, but when executed it’s accurate. That’s at odds with the move “missing” rather than failing, but maybe fits the concept. Realistically they just messed up, though, and there’s no way that move should be called “accurate wave.”
 
As someone from the country, the Spanish translation is an horrible incoherent mess. Did you know the word Seed is banned from attack moves? The worst cases are Seed Bomb becoming Germ Bomb and Seed Flare being just plain Flare, because they don't even sound like Grass moves any more. Bullet Seed becoming Recurring also sounds dumb.

...And yet the Miracle Seed is still called that.

And don't get me started in the Umbrio moves. Just don't please.
Playing through the Spanish version of Pokemon X was worth it to see Team Flare grunts saying things like "Me aburro como una ostra" (literally "I'm bored like an oyster"). The dialogue seems to be fine, but then again I'm not a native Spanish speaker.

The character names are quite different in Sun and Moon, so it took me a while to realize "Oh! They call "Tilo" Hau in English!"

"Tímida" refers to the English "Bashful" nature, NOT "Timid". "Miedosa" corresponds to the English "Timid". This must be confusing to any Spanish-speaking Smogonites!

"Avalancha" is Rock Slide, not the English "Avalanche".
 
"Tímida" refers to the English "Bashful" nature, NOT "Timid". "Miedosa" corresponds to the English "Timid". This must be confusing to any Spanish-speaking Smogonites!
Several nature translations are messed up. As in, many would have fit as translations for another nature:

Bashful -> Tímida (actually means "Timid")
Bold -> Osada (actually means "Brave")
Brave -> Audaz (actually means "Bold" and it's called exactly like the Reckless ability)
Careful -> Cauta ("Cautious". Not a straight translation but it kind of works...)
Impish -> Agitada ("Hectic")
Lonely -> Huraña ("Shy"... I guess it could fit)
Mild -> Afable ("Affable")
Quiet -> Mansa (actually means "Mild")
Rash -> Alocada ("Crazy")
Relaxed -> Plácida ("Placid")
Sassy -> Grosera ("Rude")
Timid -> Miedosa ("Fearful")
 
On the subject of badly translated move names, Double Slap still sticks out to me like a sore thumb, when it hits up to 5 times. It really makes you wonder why none of the programmers ever caught that during the translation phase. I'll concede to character limits of the much less advanced systems preventing the move from being dubbed Quintuple Slap, but even 5-Times Slap (or 5x Slap if you're really stingy with characters) is still a better name than freaking Double Slap because it actually conveys what the effect of the move is and don't outright lie to you.

I can get past Rock Slide being named Avalanche in other translations because they're effectively synonyms for each other, but when something is outright lying to you or not giving you the full story of its effects, that's not good game design in my opinion. It's like all of the missing information in the descriptions in SUMO/USUM, despite their being a much larger description box:
  • Water Bubble not mentioning that the user's attacking stats are doubled when using Water-type attacks,
  • Prankster not mentioning that Dark-types are immune to an opponent's Prankster.
  • Light That Burns the Sky not saying that its category depends on the user's highest attacking stat.
    • And for that matter, neither LTBTS or Photon Geyser mention that the category also determines which defensive stat is used, which can be important because you could think that it always uses Special Defence just because the attack's naturally a Special attack, despite that not being the case.
  • Shadow Tag omitting that you're immune to other Shadow Tags.
  • And probably others. But these stick out to me.
 

Pikachu315111

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As someone from the country, the Spanish translation is an horrible incoherent mess. Did you know the word Seed is banned from attack moves? The worst cases are Seed Bomb becoming Germ Bomb and Seed Flare being just plain Flare, because they don't even sound like Grass moves any more. Bullet Seed becoming Recurring also sounds dumb.

...And yet the Miracle Seed is still called that.
Why is the word "seed" banned? And why don't they just use another word like nut or shell? Come on Spanish translators, English did the hard part by translating the name from Japanese you just need to put it in context in your language.

The focus blast translation kind of makes sense when you consider how “focus” is meant in that move (as you mention) — it requires a lot of focus to execute properly, but when executed it’s accurate. That’s at odds with the move “missing” rather than failing, but maybe fits the concept. Realistically they just messed up, though, and there’s no way that move should be called “accurate wave.”
Oh, I'm not saying "Focus Blast" is incorrect, it makes sense in context. I'm just saying the Spanish translators took the wrong meaning of the word, instead of being a move the user needs to concentrate to use, they took it to meaning the user had properly aimed the attack.

The character names are quite different in Sun and Moon, so it took me a while to realize "Oh! They call "Tilo" Hau in English!"
Different but based on the same root word. Like all the characters, he's named after a plant, the sea hibiscus. The sea hibiscus's Hawaiian name is "Hau", and that's what his name is in the Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, and Russian versions. The sea hibiscus's scientific name is "Hibiscus tiliaceus", which is where the French got "Tili" and the Spanish got "Tilo". German version decided to be a bit special and chose a cousin species, the "Talipariti tiliaceum", to get the name "Tali". Finally, Brazilian Portuguese didn't want to mess around and just named him after the genus getting "Hibi".
 

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