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What do you NOT miss about the older games?

Instead, I think they should have a 7th slot in your team for field abilities only and you can choose to fill it with an HM slave or if you don't have one, you could rent one from an NPC.

Let's Go did this, but I think it only quasi-made sense there because Pikachu/Eevee stays glued to your body even if they're not on your team. In general, the thought of creating a whole extra Pokémon slot that's just there for the sake of clearing obstacles and can't do anything else feels pretty roundabout. It would be far simpler to just democratize a few generic field skills like Strength and Cut so that all or at least most Pokémon could learn them. Surf doesn't necessarily need to be a field skill, the Rotom Bike's Water Mode is one example of how to work around it, although for my part I think they could consider just letting the player actually swim (and then tack on some scuba gear if they want to bring back Diving).

Although in the larger scope of things, I feel like we/they could try thinking outside the paradigm of field move obstacles altogether? Throwing up rocks and trees that need a special move in order to be cleared out is hardly the only way to create puzzles in the overworld, as plenty of other video games can attest. And even Pokémon has had several non-HM examples, primarily with ice sliding puzzles, but also supernatural mazes (Turnback Cave, Winding Woods, Lost Cave, etc.) and some smaller examples (I'm thinking like the parkour stones on a couple of routes in XY, or the season-dependent stuff in Gen 5, which you could probably adapt into being weather-dependent instead). Certain Gym puzzles, like Humilau's lily pads, might also be instructive here. I'd also like puzzle tasks that require interaction with the wildlife, like say there's a Pokémon blocking the road, and you need to go find honey or something to lure it away so you can get through.
 
Let's Go did this, but I think it only quasi-made sense there because Pikachu/Eevee stays glued to your body even if they're not on your team. In general, the thought of creating a whole extra Pokémon slot that's just there for the sake of clearing obstacles and can't do anything else feels pretty roundabout. It would be far simpler to just democratize a few generic field skills like Strength and Cut so that all or at least most Pokémon could learn them. Surf doesn't necessarily need to be a field skill, the Rotom Bike's Water Mode is one example of how to work around it, although for my part I think they could consider just letting the player actually swim (and then tack on some scuba gear if they want to bring back Diving).

Although in the larger scope of things, I feel like we/they could try thinking outside the paradigm of field move obstacles altogether? Throwing up rocks and trees that need a special move in order to be cleared out is hardly the only way to create puzzles in the overworld, as plenty of other video games can attest. And even Pokémon has had several non-HM examples, primarily with ice sliding puzzles, but also supernatural mazes (Turnback Cave, Winding Woods, Lost Cave, etc.) and some smaller examples (I'm thinking like the parkour stones on a couple of routes in XY, or the season-dependent stuff in Gen 5, which you could probably adapt into being weather-dependent instead). Certain Gym puzzles, like Humilau's lily pads, might also be instructive here. I'd also like puzzle tasks that require interaction with the wildlife, like say there's a Pokémon blocking the road, and you need to go find honey or something to lure it away so you can get through.

Well part of the reason that HMs exist in the first place is to emphasize the theme of people and Pokemon working together, it creates more of a connection with your Pokemon if they have to help you explore the overworld instead of being able to explore it yourself. They were able to get away with things like the Rotom Bike and the Corviknight Taxi in SwSh because that's still Pokemon helping you out, just not in the usual manner as HMs and Poke Ride. So any solution they would implement would be done in a similar manner, unless it's something that the player can do themselves. That's the difference between the field abilities and overworld elements such as the ice sliding puzzles and the parkour stones. I would like to see more of those back too, but first and foremost they should let you use your own Pokemon to clear some of those obstacles. It just doesn't feel as satisfying if you're using random Pokemon like with the Poke Ride and SwSh's gadgets than if you were doing so with your own Pokemon.
 
Well part of the reason that HMs exist in the first place is to emphasize the theme of people and Pokemon working together, it creates more of a connection with your Pokemon if they have to help you explore the overworld instead of being able to explore it yourself.
People keep saying this but is there any actual source?
 
People keep saying this but is there any actual source?

I think it's more of an inference. In a series where you venture into the wilderness with a team of magical creatures that have become your friends, it makes sense for there to be some obstacles where you work together with those creatures' unique strengths in order to progress, instead of just having everything be like "go find the key" or "figure out the password."
 
People have mentioned everything I was thinking except for one thing.

In Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, when you're trying to find an item in your bag, you can't scroll "backwards" by hitting the up button to access items at the bottom, nor can you "quick-scroll" through the items by hitting R. It's very annoying, and I'm glad that you can do both those things in Gen V.
 
- Terrible graphics for the first couple generations. Generation 1 also had lackluster official art (though nowhere near as bad as the early Fire Emblem games. At least I can stand to look at the early Pokémon art.)
- Agonizingly slow walking and surfing speeds. I was thrilled when Generation 3 introduced running shoes, but disappointed that you couldn’t use them indoors (IIRC)
- Physical and special attacks being determined by the attack’s type. It was such an arbitrary and confusing system that I never figured out the difference between physical and special attacks until Generation 4 changed it.
- TMs being one-use items. I don’t have as much of an issue with one-use items in other RPGs like Fire Emblem where you have a roster of a finite size that you can’t add to whenever you want (and is usually smaller than the amount of Pokémon I amass in a typical playthrough.) In Pokémon, it doesn’t work as well because I constantly acquire new Pokémon throughout the game so I held off on TM usage until the very end of the game for when I knew what my final roster would be. I greatly prefer the new system where TMs can be used infinitely, but are far more expensive.


I have mixed opinions about HMs. Since I've played Pokémon since Generation 1, in recent games I feel very spoiled by being able to summon a Pokémon to transport me whenever I want, but on the other hand, I enjoyed the strategy of deciding which Pokémon to teach HMs. It rarely if ever created problems with deciding what Pokémon to bring with me. Almost all HMs (perhaps with the exception of Defog, which is undoubtedly the worst HM) were viable in battle. Some were excellent in battle (Fly, Surf, Dive) and I used them just as often for battle as for overworld actions. I also love the idea of having moves that are not only useful in battle but also serve a purpose in exploration. That was one aspect I loved about the Generation 3 games.
 
There’s a few:
- HMs and single use TMs. Poke ride was a huge improvement over this and I like the changes they made to the bike.
- Random encounters in caves. They were just so tedious and unnecessary. It just made exploring them a headache unless you were all loaded up on repels. Similar idea with surfing, though they’re still there (just way more uncommon iirc).
- Lack of physical/special split.
- Unskippable catching tutorials.
- Needing heart scales for move relearners. They’re also better now since you can teach them forgotten TRs.
 
- Grinding for Exp. It's much easier now with the new Exp Share.
- HMs
- Save times, as others have said
- Backsprites that only showed half the Pokémon
- Lack of a day/night cycle in Gens I and III
- Rotom Dex lol
 
- Save times. I could make dinner, take a shower, go take a walk and come back and it still wouldn't be done.
- Rotom Dex. Whoever green lit this thing enjoys watching people suffer.
- HMs. Surf and Waterfall were nice, but the rest were... only useful for the field effects and otherwise a waste. (Now, if Cut was let's say, Grass-type or Rock Climb Rock-type and Strenght Fighting-type, some stuff could have been salvaged. Or Rock Smash getting a boost when used against Rock-types. Alas.)

- Terrible graphics for the first couple generations. Generation 1 also had lackluster official art (though nowhere near as bad as the early Fire Emblem games. At least I can stand to look at the early Pokémon art.)

Really? while there's an obvious and clear difference in the artworks from nowadays, I do think the Generation 1 and Generation 2 official arts had their charm. It may not necessarily be up to par with nowadays quality, but it had a really nice charm to it for me.
 
I think the Rotom Dex was a good concept with a poor execution. Rotom makes for a good digital assistant and we could definitely use a Pokemon equivalent of Siri or Alexa that could help you figure out where to go or search for dex information. The issue is that it's way too intrusive and keeps trying to force a bond with you.
 
I think the Rotom Dex was a good concept with a poor execution. Rotom makes for a good digital assistant and we could definitely use a Pokemon equivalent of Siri or Alexa that could help you figure out where to go or search for dex information. The issue is that it's way too intrusive and keeps trying to force a bond with you.
Well, in USUM. It thankfully shuts up at the end of SM, with it just having a line every time you turn on the game, but at least it's not intrusive anymore.
 
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