Pros and cons of event legendaries?

[Peaceful Giraffe]

This is a topic that was mentioned recently in a different thread, and I think it actually merits its own thread, because I can think of about a bazillion arguments involving event legends off of the top of my head.

The usual argument-
They're so hard to obtain! It's not fair!

The usual defense-
But they're so damn awesome! Look at these guys!

And.... discuss.

 

[winstein]

I agree that event legendaries are rather inconvenient in obtaining. Sometimes I wish the older event legendaries become readily available because I felt their novelty had worn off. It would be more convenient to see Celebi available in-game, for example.

I do commend the designers' efforts in justifying the elusiveness of the legendaries, though, because I felt that there could be justifications on why those event legendaries couldn't be logically available. For example, Jirachi is supposed to be awake for a thousand years at a time, so it couldn't logically be available all the time.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Team Gaara]

The biggest con, in my opinion, is that you can't nickname them. These days, GAME FREAK seems to just hand these things out for free instead of letting us catch them in game, which sucks for people like me who like to nickname all their Pokemon and are forced to use a Meloetta named Meloetta.

I'm gonna be pissed when they distribute Diancie~

 

[Orion-Sama]

Event Pokémon are paramount for the success of the franchise, for better or worse. That is why they have been a factor from the very beginning. It was Mew what started the true fever for the games after all. The rest is history.

While the lack of availability was off-putting, I never really cared much for it. You can still complete the game without them. Unless you really, truly liked them that much, being unable to obtain them should not make any difference whatsoever. I also found them rather gimmicky at first, with not very imaginative stats and while they had interesting Moves and backstories, it wasn't really too much to write home about. 3rd Gen was the first to change that with the addition of Deoxys, the first event Pokémon I found truly interesting and cool. After that, I have really looked forward to get most event Pokémon as I liked one or many of them in subsequent Generations (Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Meloetta, and Diancie). Luckily, the advent of Wi-Fi has made them much more common than before. I currently own at least one of each, and they're usually only missed during their introduction Generation.

I do miss in-game events, which gave them more presence and meaning, though. It doesn't seem it'll happen again, sadly...

 

[Beth Pavell]

What ticks me off is when they're not made available to everyone. With the Global Link there's no excuse for not making a legendary - a very small packet of data - available to everyone as an event. What tends to happen of course is that Japan gets everything ...

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

I hate that you cannot use them as trade fodder on the GTS. I only get them to complete my Pokedex and are just there to look pretty in my storage boxes. I don't think I have ever gotten a single event legendary with a good nature or flawless IVs in something, much less both at the same time.

 

[Winterdaze]

Cons: Limited availability, regional lockouts, difficult to get the right nature and IVs, the huge number of them means some go years without a release, they often fall into obscurity after the release ends

Pros: ???

 

[Silverwynde]

The biggest con, in my opinion, is that you can't nickname them. These days, GAME FREAK seems to just hand these things out for free instead of letting us catch them in game, which sucks for people like me who like to nickname all their Pokemon and are forced to use a Meloetta named Meloetta.

I'm gonna be pissed when they distribute Diancie~

Oh dear Primus, THIS.

I love giving my Pokemon nicknames but with Event Legends, I can't. They are stuck with their species name and that bothers me to no end. What if I want to name my Celebi "Cheza" or my Jirachi "Safeguard"? Oops, can't because I'm not the OT!

Even worse, if you want it shiny you're completely hooped; Nintendo will never release it shiny or if they do, its stats will suck pterodactyl eggs.

The only real pro I see with these guys is that they have unique Ribbons. I'm a bit of a Ribbon junkie and getting a really pretty or rare one is a bonus to me. But that's the only thing that I like about them.

 

[Dorothy]

I'd personally rather, if they're going to do event Pokemon at all, they make them available as DLC that's always available, rather than limited-time events which aren't really fair to people who aren't able to have the game or an internet connection while the event is ongoing.

 

[Pokémon Spectrum]

I actually like the idea of there being Pokémon so rare that you can't get them in-game. I have to agree with winstein, though. It would be nice if they made the older Event Legendaries catchable in the game. They'd just have to make it so that the Pokémon are still tied to events. Like having Celebi only be available on first day of spring, Jirachi on the first day of Winter, Mew on the player's birthday, etc. It would certainly make it easier to level the competitive circuit if they made the really heavy hitters more readily available. It'd be really neat if they made Darkrai available on Halloween.

However, in recent years, Event Pokémon distributions seem to be linked to real-world events (i.e. the movies premiering), which makes quite a bit of sense from a publicity standpoint. It gives people who don't watch the anime as regularly a reason to care about there being a new movie coming out.

 

[Snarl]

Pros: Keldeo

Cons: Lack of Keldeo

 

[GhostFingers]

The sheer amount of them leaving gaps all over my pokedex is enough to frustrate the completionist in me. Also the real kicker that legendaries CAN'T BREED really complicates matters more. I've had to restart my Ruby cart 3 damn times just to enable the subsequent games all have Groudon, Rayquaza etc, never mind the ones not even IN the game.

This kind of exclusivity promotes cheating devices which can in rare cases damage save data. If i had access to a cheating device i probably would use it.

The only one i have access to is Jirachi (since i live in Europe and have Pokemon Channel). I was lucky enough to buy second-hand Diamond & Plat carts with Darkrai, Manaphy and shiny Ho-Oh on the pre-existing save files. (With trading and such i'll have 'em all transferred over soon.)

 

[Muur]

Well I suppose it can give interest to the games since they come out way after, giving people reason to continue playing the game. Keeps interest in them too. The major con is those unable to get them though, also promotes hacking, if you want them but cannot get them.

 

[proserpina]

It's probably one of the biggest factors that discouraged me from trying to complete my dex for years on end, to be honest. I can't even count the number of times I've missed out on Pokémon because the events haven't been somewhere I could get to (hint: every time). It's unfair and kind of turns the Pokémon into a gimmick instead of actually accessible, viable options. In the end, I think it's a disservice to the work of those creating them to make a short term prize of them like that rather than making them remain obtainable in the long term.