Poke Dragon
Looking for a way to be whole again.
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2018
- Messages
- 4,333
- Reaction score
- 7,420
Not being able to catch most of the opposite version's Pokemon. This is why I don't want Max Raid Battle to stop being a thing.
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- Needing to fill up dex sightings to get the national dex. Being forced to backtrack to a seriously complicated or slow route/dungeon to find that one particular trainer who has that one last pokemon that doesn't appear in the wild.
I remember spending a lot there to get a TM or a Mon.HMs. Replaying Silver on VC has reminded me how Awful they are.
Game Corners. I hated the Game Corner. I was awful at the mini games, and I hated how they locked Good TMs like Ice Beam and Flamethrower as well as Pokemon like Porygon behind them. So glad that they got rid of them in BW. Thanks PEGI!
Single-use TMs (Despite improving trade evolutions, Sword and Shield also took a weird step backwards with the introduction of TRs)
- The snowy route from Mt. Coronet leading up to Snowpoint City. You are forced to walk slowly and the overworld blizzard can get bad enough that you don't know where you are.
Towers where you have to use the Mach Bike with extreme precision and speed timing or else you fall through cracks. That's the one thing I dislike about Hoenn.
Those Mamoswine routes, man they took a lot longer than needed to get through, with wonky controls related to the grid and all.
And the HMs. I'd love a Kalos game without the damn HMs.
They've really thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to HMs. Yes, having to have Pokemon with certain moves was extremely irritating, but the field obstacles themselves have been disappearing along with them and that part of the formula needs to stay. The field obstacles add more variety and puzzle solving to overworld exploration and the games are definitely missing something by not having them. Moving them to optional areas doesn't really help much either. The best thing to do with them is to just go back to the way they were in 3rd and 4th gen, but with Poke Ride or some other type of mechanic that doesn't require you to have certain moves on your team.
For me, I think HM's would work best not as attacks, but as unlockable powers of your party Pokemon. That is, rather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it. That way, you don't have to worry about teaching HM's nor their effects to your Pokemon - It's automatically applied - But you still need to keep those Pokemon with you in order to use their effects.
I agree - my irritation with HMs are the ridiculous numbers of them certain generations can throw at you, and the fact that so many of them are competitively worthless, even by in-game standards. However, in theory they're a really neat way of tying your party into overworld mechanics, and I've been feeling that lack of puzzles in recent games. Ride was good fun, but it loses some points for not featuring your own team members.
If there's a future happy medium, I think it probably involves no more than four HMs, all of which are moves you would actually want to use. Surf's already in the prime spot, but you could crank Strength up to 100 base power to account for the loss of Return, for example. Rock Smash could quite happily become a Fighting variant of Fire Lash. Not only are fewer move slots gobbled up, but the moves enable players to power up their teams to handle the new, tougher areas they've just gained access to.
For me, I think HM's would work best not as attacks, but as unlockable powers of your party Pokemon. That is, rather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it. That way, you don't have to worry about teaching HM's nor their effects to your Pokemon - It's automatically applied - But you still need to keep those Pokemon with you in order to use their effects.
If HMs did come back in their original form (which I think is unlikely) I think five is the ideal number. I liked what they did in X and Y, sticking to the original set of five from Gen I but replacing Flash with Waterfall. Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength and Waterfall seem like the most "iconic" HMs, the ones which are always included (apart from Waterfall being absent from Gen I, of course). Surf and Waterfall are both great in-battle moves; Fly and Strength are pretty good but could be improved a bit. Cut definitely needs to be powered up. Strength could be changed to a Fighting-type move for some variety - and actually, by that same token, maybe Waterfall could be replaced with something else so that each HM is a different type.
Also, Fly should allow you to overcome obstacles like the others! Imagine a deep canyon or crevasse where you have to use Fly to get to the other side.
That would still require you to have a Pokemon in your party that can unlock those powers.ather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it.
That would still require you to have a Pokemon in your party that can unlock those powers.