*new mechanic Also how about that Special (atk/def) split? I feel like that would be a topic for another video entirely, because it sounds like it'd have MASSIVE implications in competitive, and can't really be ranked due to how different the stat system would be
I miss Berry Farming, horde battles, S0S Battles, the Vs. Seeker, and the Safari Zone. Its better than having nothing BUT One & done tasks to do in POST GAME. I need a Johto Remake with Regional Pokémon, it may be the only way to fix the Johto Gyms leaning heavily too much on Kanto Pokémon.
@@aaronsommers7665 Fire and Water would always hit Steelix's Sp.Def Ground and Fighting would always hit Steelix's Def Both Ground and Steel used physical Atk for attacks
Pokémon-amie and refresh are actually really fun for me as a casual player cause I find it really really cute and it gives the pokémon more personality
Yeah, and Pokepelago was a useful way to get items and experience. I loved knowing that my pokemon weren't rotting in a PC box, but out having fun on an island. The whole list is pretty biased towards competitive play. No one outside of tournaments would put Terrain or Weather in the top ten.
I'm a hardcore player and I love pokemon Amie. I feel like the ability to pet your pokemon is a basic necessity/mechanic that is missing for no reason from every game except gen 6.
I think that's cause the typing additions were Needed vs a mechanic. Dark and Steel was needed to bring down psychic types. Fairy was needed to bring down dragons. They aren't the same as mechanics which can come and go. Those three types are still here.
@@TheRibottoStudios I would be willing to agree if the special split wasn't on the list. While dark type was to reign in psychic a bit (similar to fairy with dragon), it still adds just as much to the game as something like abilities, maybe even more, atleast back in gen 2/3. Not only does it add complexity to type variety, it made some pokemon who weren't as viable before, like clefable or magneton, into something more viable
I miss soaring. The soaring music is so nostalgic for me. ORAS certainly had their flaws, but it definitely felt like a lot of love was put into those games. And I'm still salty that the DexNav never came back! It made completing the Pokedex so much fun.
Given that the Physical/Special split is in this list, I'm surprised the Special split (into dedicated Attack and Defense) introduced in Gen II wasn't also mentioned.
yeah i'm also surprised he didn't mention EVs replacing Stat Experience because being able to max out every stat on every mon lead to pretty centralizing stat spreads lmao. although i have heard that he knows basically nothing about gen 1 so there's a chance he just didn't even realize it existed
@@stllr_ but he should have been able to Google which changes have occurred throughout Pokémon history? It’s all good- still a fun list and good to know he’s still human and can make mistakes
He's a vgc player, so likely it just never occured to him because vgc really started at gen 4 and minutiae like the special split and stat exp were only really things singles players would care about.
on gems, there's one other thing you're forgetting that was obscenely broken: flying gem stab acrobatics. that combo could take out most neutral targets, and a couple of frailer resists, without too much trouble.
Yeah PokeStar Studios is underrated as HELL!! I ignored it in my first playthrough but then had SO MUCH FUN with it!! The mechanics are in many ways more fun and creative than standard battles!
@@GarlyleWilds totally, wolfie dropped a ball on this one. Imo Contests, Pokeathlon and Pokestar Studios are the three best non-battle facilities in any pokegame.
I disagree. One of the magic of pokemon is hanging out with your friends and seeing a guy pull up with jirachi in his gameboy and everyone huddling around him to see it and ask him where he got it. Mythicals are cool because theyre exclusively difficult to get and like shinies, theyre not required for anything so they can fill that role. If every pokemon is easily accessible then no one will bat an eye at any pokemon again. The problem is these events are not accessible enough to people around the world
I loved Contests. So glad to see it at 16. It was really a big deal for a lot of players, back in the day. And in the anime, at least *three* of Ash's companions were "Coordinators." If they could implement something like a Coordinator League in a game where you can choose to either go the Battle League or Contest League, where each one gave you a different type of badge or Ribbon, that would be AMAZING. Especially with the whole "Three different stories" thing in Scarlet and Violet, this open world aspect would make it a very viable option, since badges don't look like they dictate the location that you go to now. It would really emphasize that aspect of "This is your adventure. Go out and do what you want to do" style that they always *talk* about, but never follow through on. Every story ends with the E4 and Champion. Just imagine if there was a Contest E4 now... or... E12? since you need 3 opponents for a contest... or maybe E60, so there is a full contest of each type? Probably just an E5, with one trainer for each contest type. Still... Imagine! Plus, all the new moves could have insane new move combos too.
I agree. One of my favorite aspects of Scarlet/Violet was having multiple quest lines that you could follow. I'd like it if we could have multiple leagues you could go up through - the standard gyms+E4, but then also maybe contests like they were back in RSE where you had to go city to city and work your way up through the ranks.
The HGSS safari zone is fantastic, in my opinion. What I love about it is that it enables you to catch so many Pokemon quite early on, stuff that was locked to Kanto in the original games. And the fact that there was no step timer on helped out a lot too :)
I’m honestly disappointed Super Training hasn’t returned, that minigame was useful, fun, and allowed me to get evolution items if I took the time to fully EV train one of my members (which I 100% did)
One really random thing about physical/special is that of all the eeveelutions, there’s one special type that hasn’t gotten an eeveelution. The dragon type was, between gen 2-3 made up of special moves, but it’s the only special type that doesn’t have an eeveelution
In my opinion, Pokemon Camp is a really good mechanic and allows to bond even more with your Pokemon I also really liked SOS Battles, mainly as a Shiny Hunter
Camp was a fun idea, but raising friendship really hurts what little challenge the main story already had. SOS battles are great, they're my favorite form of shiny hunting.
Pokemon Camps are THE best way to evolve a newly caught friendship evolution Pokemon! Want to evolve that Shiny Eevee you just hatched into a Sylveon? Pokemon Camp!
I personally really, really, really wish Strong and Agile styles return in a mainline entry. Yes it needs rebalancing. But made the average casual playthrough so much fun and strategic. The way they interact with moves is interesting and adds a ton of new options out of your usual 4 moves.
Fun thing about the soaring, in Pokemon Ranger guardian signs you could also fly on latios (or latias dont remember exactly) and go around the map and catch pokemon even. big nostalgia for me.
It says a lot when one of your disliked features was the Tamagochi ones. They are really cute features that are there to have us interact more with our pokemon past "catch, fight, catch, fight"
Gen 3 added basically every modern thing besides that however which speaks volumes, plus you had essentially double the map size with the underground dive portion. Truly a mind blowing gen considering it was all done on the little gba
@@ethantreadway9478 been said by other people, but yeah, you just added other people there to get safaris that you wanted, some normal safaris had ditto which would then have higher chance of good IVs for example
I appreciate baby Pokemon because their existence makes getting cooler Pokemon easier in the later games. Previously, the only way to get Electabuzz and Magmar were from very specific scenarios. But thanks to their lower evolutions, they can put Elekid and Magby in areas where people in early game can get them (sure they barely did this until 2 generations after they released. But the point still stands).
as someone who likes teamwide exp share, it just makes it quicker for me because it just takes out some of the grind, and I’m there more for the pokemon rather than the grinding. Definitely agree that it should be able to be turned off though
Yep, it's great if you want to use it, especially nice for EV training because you didn't need to switch out your lvl 1 baby with its power item, but it's honestly just asshole design to force it on people. I just want a team that doesn't steamroll the main game.
I think that weather teams really benefit from this aspect of terastilization in a way that people aren’t talking about that much. Tera-ground arctozolt, tera fire venusaur, Tera grass charizard, tera water kingdra, tera fire torkoal, tera steel politoed, tera ghost, rock, or ground tyranitar, tera water or steel aurorus, tera fire or steel torkoal, and tera electric excadrill all sound amazing. The fast sweepers all really love keeping their original stabs, and mons like Aurorus and politoed that sometimes struggle as the defensive weather setters they want to be can take on a typing that will buy them the turns they need to setup properly. Aurorus is a personal favorite mon for me, so the idea of terastilizing to water to take a SE hit, setting up AV, and still having a stab boost on your 100% accurate blizzards sounds like the kind of tech that could actually let it see use. If it gets access to rocks, t-wave, haze, and encore again, on top of its amazing stab combo, it could legitimately see play in VGC and singles as a defensive terastilizer, which brings me a lot of joy.
as someone in the planning stage of a pokemon competitor (no delusions of how it'll perform, just a passion project for me) i am very happy to see this list. gives me so much insight into what works and what doesn't from someone else's perspective
Well Wolfey has an evident competitive bias. Most casual players (which make the bulk market for Pokémon games) would likely rank some of these features differently. For instance, I think a lot of players would rank "affection/friendship" way higher.
@@lucaguglielmo2142 oh of course. but the more opinions the better, and a casual opinion on these is much easier to find than a competitive one. Maximizing enjoyment for multiple player types is absolutely the goal, including those with the World Champ Difference
Holy shit i had no idea Wolfe was in the Pokemon World Tournament in gen 5, that is actually amazing. Imagine being immortalized in a Pokemon game forever, especially a Pokemon game that had actually great animations and a decent story for once, plus some great pokemon designs. That gives you clout for like...... forever
2:54 While I agree that, logically, Friendship and Affection should have been part of the same system, I do think that it worked better as a separate system, purely because the in-battle bonuses you got against NPCs made an already fairly easy game into one that required zero effort. I would be fine with it if it could be toggled off as an option, but seeing as the EXP Share doesn't even get THAT much anymore, I don't see it happening in the future.
Huge but not as huge as the laundry list of top tier additions gen 3 made on top of overhauling the graphics to close to what they are today (which isn't a good thing for GF)😂
I know I'm a year+ late to the party, but one thing I have not seen mentioned in any videos along this line is Gen 2's introduction of the EXP bar in battle. It's a small thing, but I'd say very impactful, as it's so nice to be able to see a mon's exp growth in real time as opposed to having to go into your party and view the stats of each mon if you want to see how much further you have to go until the next level
Noooo, I LOVED pokemon amie cause I was addicted to the yarn game. Raising affection was sooo easy cause I loved that minigame so much (I completely ignored the other two mini-games though)
Contests definitely should have been in XY. They are in the anime and it’s a region heavily focusing on fashion. It makes so much sense but maybe it was cancelled because they barely let the gen finish anyways
4:40 thank God it doesn't seem to be the case anymore with Scarlet and Violet it seems, but it the fact it took them 9 years to finally improve on these bad animations is kinda mind blowing.
haha! you think it's mindblowing? it's because the game was *so* successful that they didn't have to care about shit like that; it would still succeed.
@@edmg7 is it tho? pokemon was suffering from success, and still is. just because tail whip has a shitty animation doesn't mean they weren't making the conscious decision to ignore it and work on other things.
Camping was kinda goated imo just a fun little feature. I like the interactivity, it gives everything more personality. I feel like the best thing they can do is individualize the adventure and make it personal to you. Camping was fun in that I can feel connected to my team and it’s really interactive and makes it super entertaining. Watching your Pokémon interact, cooking for them, and just having fun is a great part of Pokémon. It’s a step in the direction I want to see and I loved the feature. Immersion is number one
There's one massive mechanic that I think you forgot, Slot 0: *typing*. In the original design concept for Pokemon there were just stronger and weaker ones. Then they added typing for more variety in what they could do and it was the right choice.
Leppa berries are very useful in a play through. I depend on them a lot when I'm deep in exploration and run out of PP and don't want the hassle of going all the way back to heal. Of course, camping works too but cooking curry is like... three whole minutes...
Personal Hot take: "I actually think it was a mistake to get rid of HMs!" I mean, the whole idea of the Pokemon Games revolves around the idea of exploring the region WITH YOUR POKEMON. And HMs were a way to have the Pokemon in your party actually get involved in your exploration. Instead, they made actual HM slaves (as in, Pokemon that only purpose is to use HMs). Scarlet&Violet even introduced a Legendary HM Slave! The whole problem with HM slaves could be easily solved with just making the "field moves" be usable with more than one move. I mean, why the hell can't my Pokemon Break Rocks with Dynamic Punch? (As for HMs like Fly, Surf, Rock Climb, etc ... refer to Lets Go games for the answer)
Japanese Crystal actually had pretty much the same online functionality as Gen IV WiFi thanks to the Mobile System GB. There were equivalents to things like the Pal Pad, online battling and trading, Vs Recorder via Pokemon Stadium 2, GTS, online events (GS Ball, Odd Egg ticket) and a machine to look up player stats. That's not all, Goldenrod Pokémon center got an upgrade not dissimilar to the Global Terminal and the Battle Tower was online only, working the exact same as the Gen IV WiFi tower with room leaders.
Yeah Dynamax Adventures were incredibly fun. I put so much time into that mode just because I found it to be fun. Getting access to ability patches was really just the cherry on top
I know the quadruple battle thing is a joke, but when you think about it, most JRPG's use 3 to 4 heroes in one party, and it makes the decision making often really fun. Granted I'm not sure how much that would apply to pokemon.
Me and my brother were discussing an idea about inverse battles: what if there was an inverse room move, which turns the battle into an inverse battle for 5 turns.
It would be a massive buff to ice types and Pokémon with bad types too You could get a inverse team with just tanky Pokémon with bad types like avulugg and hisuian arcanine
If it weren't for Sword & Shield's Nature Mints, I would still be cursing Natures out to this day. Nature Mints watered my crops, purified my water supply and cleared my house of plagues. It's because of Nature Mints that I can finally accept Natures for the roles they play in world building, role play, and generally fleshing out our favourite monsters.
And so did the removal of Hidden Power - endless soft-reseting before a Legendary to get that 4% Hidden Power fire was some of the most fun playing games (/s).
A couple of things I think should have seen included - ribbons, I spent so much time trying to show how much I loved my Zapdos getting it every type of ribbon I could (still hate pokeathelon medals didn't follow the pokemon and ribbons got consolidated out) - B2W2 medal box (essentially achievements) - honourable mention, hard mode/easy mode also in B2W2, if only you didn't have to beat the game and perform a mystery gift, also, mystery gift
Global Link was mindblowing for 9 year old me back in 2016, I remember linking my Alpha Sapphire, and winning a master ball from one of those games and going nuts. Good times.
It's so crazy to think about the Physical/Special Split. I get it in Gen 1 and 2! (even though it's really not exactly that fun in hindsight) Since you could just max all your stats with Stat Exp, something like Poliwrath's stats are just "well it's better with its fighting moves than it is with its water moves". ...but then Gen 3 came around and it somehow switched us to the new EV/IV system but _didn't_ split physical/special To use Poliwrath for an example: In Gen 1, Level 100 Poliwrath had an Attack stat of *268* and a Special stat of *238.* In Gen 3, Adamant 252 Atk Poliwrath has an Attack stat of *295* and a Special Attack stat of... *158.* Once upon a time, Gyarados was just "not that good at special attacks", but when Gen 3 rolled around, most Pokémon had to CHOOSE an attacking stat. Gyarados' stat comparison? 348/218 in Gen 2, and 383/140 in Gen 3. Using one attack stat just straight up means giving up the other now, so thank you Gen 4 for putting the universe back in balance.
I always thought it would be interesting if you could try to breed a large specimen of Bulbasaur and if you succeeded in breeding one that's twice as large as normal you would gain a special move or ability. It would mean people don't automatically evolve everything into their final evolution, but choose a path of getting a very strong unevolved pokemon. I think height and weight are almost completely useless, but there is quite a lot of unused potential there in my opinion.
Tbh the idea of quad battles sounds fun, kinda like a lite SMT feel. Would absolutely boost the value of team wide buffs/debuffs like growl, tail whip, and howl.
Yep. Two of the reasons why BDSP is the worst pokegame ever released. The combo of a hugely inexperienced developper (ILCA) and time constraints worked like a charm (/s).
I legit think putting amie/refresh/camp so low is a horrible take. Seeing your pokemon move and interacting with them in a casual setting is a fantastic way to get immersed and bond more with them. It is one of the aspects I most want to see future games expand on.
For me, I get so, so, so much more value out of having them follow me in the main game rather than having to go out of my way into a special menu to experience this
Graphically it's great yeah. Imo a huge problem tho is that since Gen 6 where they introduced it the mechanics barely changed at all - in fact they maybe got worse...
I'd like to add one defense for the BDSP underground: egg moves! All the Pokemon in the Underground have an egg move for the pokemon they are, and being a Gen 8 game, you can then use that egg move pokemon + one of your own to teach an egg move to your existing team via the daycare. Finally making egg moves more accessible is a fantastic change, and I hope it's maintained in future generations - especially since it's probably one of the few good things about BDSP Underground aside from the variety it offered.
I did not care for it much but knew some people that liked the Hoenn beauty competitions. Would have been an interesting alternative path to gym battling. Could have expanded on it too like competition moves have bonus effects, etc. Would have been interesting having a breeder class, trainer class, and so on.
I think some of these mechanic ratings are accurate while others are ranked where they are because of how they affect competitive battling rather than the games or pokemon as a whole
the physical special split helped a bit the power creep if you think it well, you can simply use the best stat (atk/spatk) instead to make a more complex ev spread running a mixed mon using both stats because of the coverage (like the mixed sets of tyranitar, salamence, swampert, etc)
I definitely agree with the mythical section, so glad that Deoxys (my second favourite mythical pokémon) had its mythical status removed in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire ❤️
It's less that it's mythical status was removed, more that it's a bonus for playing the remake, arceus (mew and jirachi aswell iirc) have also been made available without events thanks to bdsp, manaphy too in PLA afaik... but they're still considered mythical. We can likely expect Victini and possibly genesect, when gen 10 comes around in the gen 5 remakes.
@@chitorunya As much as I appreciate what you're saying, Pokémon themselves confirmed that Deoxys is no longer mythical with the "Monthly Mythical giveaways" were Deoxys was absent when every other mythical was given away over the course of the year.
I love max raid dens and Dynamax adventures. I do wish they expanded more on this though. it has soooo much potential. Like having longer adventures with more hearts, and also more cool things to influence your team, like a TM person. Im sure there are tons of things they could have done for this. I hope scarlet and violet really expand on the raid stuff.
I'd put Region Variants as number 1 personally. That just adds so much to the lore and versatility of some pokemon that weren't even considered before. Looking at you Marowak!
I really don't think the game corner made kids have a gambling problem 💀💀💀 but I do agree it was really hard to actually win enough to get a prize from there, atleast in DpPt
I’m biased but shinies are imo one of the best despite their lack of any mechanical functionality, they’ve created an entire sect of the fan base who probably wouldn’t still be playing if it weren’t for shinies, as well as some of the most hype moments an individual can have in Pokémon
I always think of mythicals and legendaries as a squares and rectangles kind of a thing. Mythicals are also legendaries, just... they're Those Ones that you don't need to be considered to have completed your 'dex
Used to love making a level 1 wonder trade team back in the XYORAS days, then when you reached Lumiose or Mauville you usually had enough for a couple rare candies for each so it gave you a nice little boost to bring them up to speed (I played without EXP Share for reference)
Honestly, I might put Phys-Spec over Wi-fi. As much as the online scene is such a massive part, it still relies on the core game being enjoyable and diverse. The competitive scene needs more pokemon to be viable for it not to get stale, whether that's in direct connection tourneys or wi-fi battles. Not to mention how much it helps out the single player experience by letting more pokemon do what they do best.
Nah, wifi made getting traded evos, battling etc all possible. Back in the day we were all stuck battling the same 3-4 ppl that had the GB link cable and the games pretty much had a hard stop until RSE added more post game content aside from the red showdown in GSC
I am surprised Wolfey didn't mention getting rental teams from other players. It seems like such a game changer for people who don't have the time to build their own team (something I am sure Wolfey could appreciate).
Pokemon amie and Mega Evolutions were my favorite mechanics (mostly bc pokemon x was the first pokemon game I’ve finished). It was fun playing the mini games and interacting with the pokemon in amie and it was cool seeing past pokemon get new forms. One of my favorite mega evolutions was mega mawile, it was so dope.
Pokemon Amie being so low is blasphemy. Yes it was a basic addition, but with the big jump to 3D is actually made your Pokemon team feel more tangible by being able to interact with them.
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Types?
@@ralkyy that can't really be called a mechanic, you know? It's something literally all pokemon have and have always had, like moves or stats
*new mechanic
Also how about that Special (atk/def) split? I feel like that would be a topic for another video entirely, because it sounds like it'd have MASSIVE implications in competitive, and can't really be ranked due to how different the stat system would be
I miss Berry Farming, horde battles, S0S Battles, the Vs. Seeker, and the Safari Zone. Its better than having nothing BUT One & done tasks to do in POST GAME. I need a Johto Remake with Regional Pokémon, it may be the only way to fix the Johto Gyms leaning heavily too much on Kanto Pokémon.
Well I would argue that leppa berries are basically ethers you can Farm.
I TOTALLY agree with the physical special split. As a sinnoh baby, I can’t imagine living without it since it is a main part of offensive strategy.
same, playing gen 1-3 games feels so off for me because of not having the split
Wait wasn't steelix gen 2?
@@aaronsommers7665 Yep, why?
@@aaronsommers7665
Fire and Water would always hit Steelix's Sp.Def
Ground and Fighting would always hit Steelix's Def
Both Ground and Steel used physical Atk for attacks
@@aaronsommers7665
If it's an Eeveelutions, or Dragon, then it was Special
Pokémon-amie and refresh are actually really fun for me as a casual player cause I find it really really cute and it gives the pokémon more personality
Yeah, and Pokepelago was a useful way to get items and experience. I loved knowing that my pokemon weren't rotting in a PC box, but out having fun on an island. The whole list is pretty biased towards competitive play. No one outside of tournaments would put Terrain or Weather in the top ten.
I'm a hardcore player and I love pokemon Amie. I feel like the ability to pet your pokemon is a basic necessity/mechanic that is missing for no reason from every game except gen 6.
@@Hydraina It's also in Gen 7, but yeah, it should've been more spread. Even though it makes sense it disappeared afterwards since home console
I wish you were able to do more things in the actual world with your pokemon in the newer games
I'm confused why he hates Pokémon-amie so much, but following Pokémon is apparently one of the best features ever.
I am a little surprised that new pokemon types wasn't on here. The introduction of steel, dark, and fairy type was a huge game changer for the game
I think that's cause the typing additions were Needed vs a mechanic. Dark and Steel was needed to bring down psychic types. Fairy was needed to bring down dragons. They aren't the same as mechanics which can come and go. Those three types are still here.
I think its 'cause types additions are basically types after all, wich were a mechanic since Red Green and Blue
@@TheRibottoStudios I would be willing to agree if the special split wasn't on the list. While dark type was to reign in psychic a bit (similar to fairy with dragon), it still adds just as much to the game as something like abilities, maybe even more, atleast back in gen 2/3. Not only does it add complexity to type variety, it made some pokemon who weren't as viable before, like clefable or magneton, into something more viable
@@srarts123 I-....huh yeah that is interesting that he would put the physical/special split which has stuck around but didn't include new typing.
These kids dont know about gen 1 psychic.
I miss soaring. The soaring music is so nostalgic for me. ORAS certainly had their flaws, but it definitely felt like a lot of love was put into those games. And I'm still salty that the DexNav never came back! It made completing the Pokedex so much fun.
Nothing Like seeing the space rift or the random storm cloud and getting ready to encounter a legendary
@@ScripFing Usual sunday, a kid just gets three mystical beings that brings them to three gods as per schedule
It was sooooo fun
Fun fact, Soaring predates ORAS
It was added in Pokemon Ranger Guardian signs first
Given that the Physical/Special split is in this list, I'm surprised the Special split (into dedicated Attack and Defense) introduced in Gen II wasn't also mentioned.
I’m assuming he just forgot? Cuz it was pretty huge for lots of mons
yeah i'm also surprised he didn't mention EVs replacing Stat Experience because being able to max out every stat on every mon lead to pretty centralizing stat spreads lmao. although i have heard that he knows basically nothing about gen 1 so there's a chance he just didn't even realize it existed
I’m assuming that it’s because they’re both very similar
@@stllr_ but he should have been able to Google which changes have occurred throughout Pokémon history? It’s all good- still a fun list and good to know he’s still human and can make mistakes
He's a vgc player, so likely it just never occured to him because vgc really started at gen 4 and minutiae like the special split and stat exp were only really things singles players would care about.
on gems, there's one other thing you're forgetting that was obscenely broken: flying gem stab acrobatics. that combo could take out most neutral targets, and a couple of frailer resists, without too much trouble.
I like how Wolfey has expanded his content creating from Pokemon VGC to Pokemon games in general
He’s expanding his brand, quickly, STOP HIM!!!
I LOVE IT I value his opinion on ALLL things Pokémon
Agreed
but he still says that double battles are the ideal way of playing pokemon 🙃
@@GuilhermeOliveira-ou4qv why is he wrong?
Me and my Mew had a cameo! Thanks Editors!
First on a verified ytber
@@tyranttracergaming feel proud kid?
@@dragogaming5164 feel proud commenting on a 4 month old video?
@DragoGaming Dam bro really got you there lol
Hi
PokeStar studios deserved its own slot separate from contests. It’s basically a mission mode disguised as movie filming.
Yeah PokeStar Studios is underrated as HELL!! I ignored it in my first playthrough but then had SO MUCH FUN with it!! The mechanics are in many ways more fun and creative than standard battles!
Agreed. It has pretty much nothing in relation to the contest system.
@@GarlyleWilds totally, wolfie dropped a ball on this one. Imo Contests, Pokeathlon and Pokestar Studios are the three best non-battle facilities in any pokegame.
@@charliez077 I'll never forget the battle they put you in against (in all but species) a Wondereye and you need to change its type to beat it.
I love Mythics which is why I completely understand the hate for having to get them in a limited time event. Why do cool Pokémon need to be exclusive.
Mythicals have a great design. Change the way to obtain them from event to post game optional boss and we’re golden.
it feeds the hunger!!!!
I was SOOOO happy when Jirachi got given away in shining pearl. Because he's my absolute favorite pokémon EVER.
I disagree. One of the magic of pokemon is hanging out with your friends and seeing a guy pull up with jirachi in his gameboy and everyone huddling around him to see it and ask him where he got it. Mythicals are cool because theyre exclusively difficult to get and like shinies, theyre not required for anything so they can fill that role. If every pokemon is easily accessible then no one will bat an eye at any pokemon again. The problem is these events are not accessible enough to people around the world
It wouldn't be cool if everyone could get it
I loved Contests. So glad to see it at 16. It was really a big deal for a lot of players, back in the day. And in the anime, at least *three* of Ash's companions were "Coordinators." If they could implement something like a Coordinator League in a game where you can choose to either go the Battle League or Contest League, where each one gave you a different type of badge or Ribbon, that would be AMAZING. Especially with the whole "Three different stories" thing in Scarlet and Violet, this open world aspect would make it a very viable option, since badges don't look like they dictate the location that you go to now. It would really emphasize that aspect of "This is your adventure. Go out and do what you want to do" style that they always *talk* about, but never follow through on. Every story ends with the E4 and Champion.
Just imagine if there was a Contest E4 now... or... E12? since you need 3 opponents for a contest... or maybe E60, so there is a full contest of each type? Probably just an E5, with one trainer for each contest type. Still... Imagine! Plus, all the new moves could have insane new move combos too.
Me too especially in Platinum! I would love to see it in Scarlet and Violet!
I agree. One of my favorite aspects of Scarlet/Violet was having multiple quest lines that you could follow. I'd like it if we could have multiple leagues you could go up through - the standard gyms+E4, but then also maybe contests like they were back in RSE where you had to go city to city and work your way up through the ranks.
The HGSS safari zone is fantastic, in my opinion. What I love about it is that it enables you to catch so many Pokemon quite early on, stuff that was locked to Kanto in the original games. And the fact that there was no step timer on helped out a lot too :)
I’m honestly disappointed Super Training hasn’t returned, that minigame was useful, fun, and allowed me to get evolution items if I took the time to fully EV train one of my members (which I 100% did)
The overworld catching mechanic in Arceus is amazing. And the sound when a Pokémon is caught is perfection
Its so satisfying fr
I wish Gen 9 had the option to use the Hisui Pokèballs instead simply for the little fireworks pop animation.
Personally my favorite new mechanic came in Pokemon mystery dungeon, explorers of time/darkness/sky - a good story.
When we went on the run to clear our names that shit stuck with me forever. Probably the best story of all of the games easily
That came in Pokémon colosseum for me!! But I loooved red rescue teams story
Need a new mystery dungeon for switch
Wonder when will they bring that mechanic to the main games?? Probably never 💀
@@sammydray5919 Gen 5 had some pretty good stories. The whole N and Team Plasma saga in BW and B2W2 were pretty amazing.
One really random thing about physical/special is that of all the eeveelutions, there’s one special type that hasn’t gotten an eeveelution. The dragon type was, between gen 2-3 made up of special moves, but it’s the only special type that doesn’t have an eeveelution
Draceon would be so nice..
In my opinion, Pokemon Camp is a really good mechanic and allows to bond even more with your Pokemon
I also really liked SOS Battles, mainly as a Shiny Hunter
Agreed
I love Pokémon Camp. It's a nice way to heal up the team quickly, but being able to bond with and spend time with my team is great
Camp was a fun idea, but raising friendship really hurts what little challenge the main story already had. SOS battles are great, they're my favorite form of shiny hunting.
sos chain also gives you double evs, and withe the ev items you can get(from a pokèmon that drop only 1 point in 1 stat) 20 ev points for a kill
Pokemon Camps are THE best way to evolve a newly caught friendship evolution Pokemon! Want to evolve that Shiny Eevee you just hatched into a Sylveon? Pokemon Camp!
I personally really, really, really wish Strong and Agile styles return in a mainline entry.
Yes it needs rebalancing. But made the average casual playthrough so much fun and strategic. The way they interact with moves is interesting and adds a ton of new options out of your usual 4 moves.
Fun thing about the soaring, in Pokemon Ranger guardian signs you could also fly on latios (or latias dont remember exactly) and go around the map and catch pokemon even. big nostalgia for me.
Both Latios and Latias were possible, based on your gender.
you just unearthed a buried memory in my mind
It says a lot when one of your disliked features was the Tamagochi ones.
They are really cute features that are there to have us interact more with our pokemon past "catch, fight, catch, fight"
The Physical/Special split is such a big deal to me I don't normally play gens 1-3 because of its absence in those gens
Gen 3 added basically every modern thing besides that however which speaks volumes, plus you had essentially double the map size with the underground dive portion. Truly a mind blowing gen considering it was all done on the little gba
@@ghostofmoredishesmorebitch1507 Gen 2 also has a doubled map by having a second region.
@@GeorgeDCowley it just copied and cut parts of Kanto and had the worst balanced routes of all time lol
@@ghostofmoredishesmorebitch1507 OK.
Where tf is the skidoo riding in x and y 😭
The friend safari in X&Y was actually something I really enjoyed, was so nice to shiny farm there and you got hidden abilities there too!
But it’s still the *”Friend”* Safari. You need *”Friends”* and be in the post game.
@@ethantreadway9478 there were websites and subreddits that showed what ur friend safari had and ur friend code for anyone who wanted to add u
@@ethantreadway9478 the PSS was amazing to make friends, it was so easy. Honestly I still miss it to this day, it was so simple and effective
@@ACasualCustomer PSS was fun! But Festival Plaza.
@@ethantreadway9478 been said by other people, but yeah, you just added other people there to get safaris that you wanted, some normal safaris had ditto which would then have higher chance of good IVs for example
I appreciate baby Pokemon because their existence makes getting cooler Pokemon easier in the later games. Previously, the only way to get Electabuzz and Magmar were from very specific scenarios. But thanks to their lower evolutions, they can put Elekid and Magby in areas where people in early game can get them (sure they barely did this until 2 generations after they released. But the point still stands).
Good point!
as someone who likes teamwide exp share, it just makes it quicker for me because it just takes out some of the grind, and I’m there more for the pokemon rather than the grinding. Definitely agree that it should be able to be turned off though
Yep, it's great if you want to use it, especially nice for EV training because you didn't need to switch out your lvl 1 baby with its power item, but it's honestly just asshole design to force it on people. I just want a team that doesn't steamroll the main game.
I think that weather teams really benefit from this aspect of terastilization in a way that people aren’t talking about that much. Tera-ground arctozolt, tera fire venusaur, Tera grass charizard, tera water kingdra, tera fire torkoal, tera steel politoed, tera ghost, rock, or ground tyranitar, tera water or steel aurorus, tera fire or steel torkoal, and tera electric excadrill all sound amazing. The fast sweepers all really love keeping their original stabs, and mons like Aurorus and politoed that sometimes struggle as the defensive weather setters they want to be can take on a typing that will buy them the turns they need to setup properly.
Aurorus is a personal favorite mon for me, so the idea of terastilizing to water to take a SE hit, setting up AV, and still having a stab boost on your 100% accurate blizzards sounds like the kind of tech that could actually let it see use. If it gets access to rocks, t-wave, haze, and encore again, on top of its amazing stab combo, it could legitimately see play in VGC and singles as a defensive terastilizer, which brings me a lot of joy.
as someone in the planning stage of a pokemon competitor (no delusions of how it'll perform, just a passion project for me) i am very happy to see this list. gives me so much insight into what works and what doesn't from someone else's perspective
Good luck with your project!
Well Wolfey has an evident competitive bias. Most casual players (which make the bulk market for Pokémon games) would likely rank some of these features differently. For instance, I think a lot of players would rank "affection/friendship" way higher.
@@AzureKite thank you!!
@@lucaguglielmo2142 oh of course. but the more opinions the better, and a casual opinion on these is much easier to find than a competitive one. Maximizing enjoyment for multiple player types is absolutely the goal, including those with the World Champ Difference
Sorry, what is a Pokemon competitor? Something like Showdown?
Holy shit i had no idea Wolfe was in the Pokemon World Tournament in gen 5, that is actually amazing. Imagine being immortalized in a Pokemon game forever, especially a Pokemon game that had actually great animations and a decent story for once, plus some great pokemon designs. That gives you clout for like...... forever
Oh look we got a genfiver on our hands
2:54 While I agree that, logically, Friendship and Affection should have been part of the same system, I do think that it worked better as a separate system, purely because the in-battle bonuses you got against NPCs made an already fairly easy game into one that required zero effort. I would be fine with it if it could be toggled off as an option, but seeing as the EXP Share doesn't even get THAT much anymore, I don't see it happening in the future.
I agree. It must feel wrong feeding Pokemon herbs that smell awful, just because the power of friendship is literally too good.
The physical/special split was _huge_ for any of us that started with gen I.
Huge but not as huge as the laundry list of top tier additions gen 3 made on top of overhauling the graphics to close to what they are today (which isn't a good thing for GF)😂
Voltorb flip was so good, I didn't mind grinding for hours to kit out my Nuzlocke team with the gucci TM's
I know I'm a year+ late to the party, but one thing I have not seen mentioned in any videos along this line is Gen 2's introduction of the EXP bar in battle. It's a small thing, but I'd say very impactful, as it's so nice to be able to see a mon's exp growth in real time as opposed to having to go into your party and view the stats of each mon if you want to see how much further you have to go until the next level
Noooo, I LOVED pokemon amie cause I was addicted to the yarn game. Raising affection was sooo easy cause I loved that minigame so much (I completely ignored the other two mini-games though)
Contests definitely should have been in XY. They are in the anime and it’s a region heavily focusing on fashion. It makes so much sense but maybe it was cancelled because they barely let the gen finish anyways
Wolfey: Zacian needs his sword, otherwise it's useless!
Vanilla Zacian: The third ever pokemon form banned from Ubers
The affection system in x and y was my fav. I loved it
Video Idea: How Good are All Regional Variants in Competitive Play
I like it
I ship it
+1
Good idea
I’m down
Gyarados had effectively 100 sp.atk in gen 1 wich made it even more amazing than it already was.
People forget that in gen 1, sp atk and sp def were combined into 1 special stat lol, made pokemon like alakazam even more op
4:40 thank God it doesn't seem to be the case anymore with Scarlet and Violet it seems, but it the fact it took them 9 years to finally improve on these bad animations is kinda mind blowing.
It actually doesn't surprise me in the least.
Improve? You mean fix.
haha! you think it's mindblowing? it's because the game was *so* successful that they didn't have to care about shit like that; it would still succeed.
@@neonbelly9491 I think it's a bit more complicated than that.
@@edmg7 is it tho? pokemon was suffering from success, and still is. just because tail whip has a shitty animation doesn't mean they weren't making the conscious decision to ignore it and work on other things.
Camping was kinda goated imo just a fun little feature. I like the interactivity, it gives everything more personality. I feel like the best thing they can do is individualize the adventure and make it personal to you. Camping was fun in that I can feel connected to my team and it’s really interactive and makes it super entertaining. Watching your Pokémon interact, cooking for them, and just having fun is a great part of Pokémon. It’s a step in the direction I want to see and I loved the feature. Immersion is number one
SOS Battles were useful for EV training and finding hidden abilities too. I liked them lol.
Try to find a goddamn vanillite in the hail and come back to me lol
@@kefkapalazzo1 These encounters are so painful.
dragon type was also special prior to gen 4. one mechanic you forgot was the special split between gens 1 and 2
8:06 ah, yes, my favorite generation 7 Pokemon games
There's one massive mechanic that I think you forgot, Slot 0: *typing*. In the original design concept for Pokemon there were just stronger and weaker ones. Then they added typing for more variety in what they could do and it was the right choice.
Good list but pokemon amie is actually SSS+ tier and the best thing to happen to the series
For real, I want to show my Pokemon the love they deserve 😤
I love Rotation battles, they're so goofy and fun!
Leppa berries are very useful in a play through. I depend on them a lot when I'm deep in exploration and run out of PP and don't want the hassle of going all the way back to heal. Of course, camping works too but cooking curry is like... three whole minutes...
Personal Hot take: "I actually think it was a mistake to get rid of HMs!"
I mean, the whole idea of the Pokemon Games revolves around the idea of exploring the region WITH YOUR POKEMON. And HMs were a way to have the Pokemon in your party actually get involved in your exploration. Instead, they made actual HM slaves (as in, Pokemon that only purpose is to use HMs). Scarlet&Violet even introduced a Legendary HM Slave!
The whole problem with HM slaves could be easily solved with just making the "field moves" be usable with more than one move. I mean, why the hell can't my Pokemon Break Rocks with Dynamic Punch? (As for HMs like Fly, Surf, Rock Climb, etc ... refer to Lets Go games for the answer)
As someone who picked up XY in high school, Amie was my life
Me too.
@@fireembliam9090 based name
Japanese Crystal actually had pretty much the same online functionality as Gen IV WiFi thanks to the Mobile System GB. There were equivalents to things like the Pal Pad, online battling and trading, Vs Recorder via Pokemon Stadium 2, GTS, online events (GS Ball, Odd Egg ticket) and a machine to look up player stats.
That's not all, Goldenrod Pokémon center got an upgrade not dissimilar to the Global Terminal and the Battle Tower was online only, working the exact same as the Gen IV WiFi tower with room leaders.
Yeah Dynamax Adventures were incredibly fun. I put so much time into that mode just because I found it to be fun. Getting access to ability patches was really just the cherry on top
There's this guy called "Wolfe Glick" I don't know if you've heard of him but I'd say he was one of the best additions to Pokemon.
The Wishiwashi Masquerain SOS combo was OP as hell
Physical special split was just so relieving, like finally it made sense
I know the quadruple battle thing is a joke, but when you think about it, most JRPG's use 3 to 4 heroes in one party, and it makes the decision making often really fun. Granted I'm not sure how much that would apply to pokemon.
I love when you crossed inceneroar face when talking about friendship in following Pokémon
Me and my brother were discussing an idea about inverse battles: what if there was an inverse room move, which turns the battle into an inverse battle for 5 turns.
It would be a massive buff to ice types and Pokémon with bad types too
You could get a inverse team with just tanky Pokémon with bad types like avulugg and hisuian arcanine
Watching this list, where each mechanic originated, and how it changed over time, definitely makes it sound like Gen 3 was the GOAT.
If it weren't for Sword & Shield's Nature Mints, I would still be cursing Natures out to this day. Nature Mints watered my crops, purified my water supply and cleared my house of plagues. It's because of Nature Mints that I can finally accept Natures for the roles they play in world building, role play, and generally fleshing out our favourite monsters.
And so did the removal of Hidden Power - endless soft-reseting before a Legendary to get that 4% Hidden Power fire was some of the most fun playing games (/s).
@@charliez077 Good thing we can change teratypes now
@@Chaki21always could since they were added
@@AgusyJuli Yeah, but we couldn't change Hidden Power, which was why I said "now", my bad, it was formulated really poorly.
A couple of things I think should have seen included - ribbons, I spent so much time trying to show how much I loved my Zapdos getting it every type of ribbon I could (still hate pokeathelon medals didn't follow the pokemon and ribbons got consolidated out) - B2W2 medal box (essentially achievements) - honourable mention, hard mode/easy mode also in B2W2, if only you didn't have to beat the game and perform a mystery gift, also, mystery gift
8:07 "Introduced in generation 7" *Points to X and Y*
RIP
Global Link was mindblowing for 9 year old me back in 2016, I remember linking my Alpha Sapphire, and winning a master ball from one of those games and going nuts. Good times.
It's so crazy to think about the Physical/Special Split. I get it in Gen 1 and 2! (even though it's really not exactly that fun in hindsight)
Since you could just max all your stats with Stat Exp, something like Poliwrath's stats are just "well it's better with its fighting moves than it is with its water moves".
...but then Gen 3 came around and it somehow switched us to the new EV/IV system but _didn't_ split physical/special
To use Poliwrath for an example: In Gen 1, Level 100 Poliwrath had an Attack stat of *268* and a Special stat of *238.*
In Gen 3, Adamant 252 Atk Poliwrath has an Attack stat of *295* and a Special Attack stat of... *158.*
Once upon a time, Gyarados was just "not that good at special attacks", but when Gen 3 rolled around, most Pokémon had to CHOOSE an attacking stat. Gyarados' stat comparison? 348/218 in Gen 2, and 383/140 in Gen 3. Using one attack stat just straight up means giving up the other now, so thank you Gen 4 for putting the universe back in balance.
Gen 3 saved the video game franchise and redefined it, 4 refined it mechanically
Then it went downhill
I always thought it would be interesting if you could try to breed a large specimen of Bulbasaur and if you succeeded in breeding one that's twice as large as normal you would gain a special move or ability. It would mean people don't automatically evolve everything into their final evolution, but choose a path of getting a very strong unevolved pokemon.
I think height and weight are almost completely useless, but there is quite a lot of unused potential there in my opinion.
Tbh the idea of quad battles sounds fun, kinda like a lite SMT feel. Would absolutely boost the value of team wide buffs/debuffs like growl, tail whip, and howl.
I feel like o-powrers deserve to be higher up if only for the utility ones like hatching and encounter rates, not much higher, but a little higher.
I miss the old contests, I was so sad when I found out what bdsp did to them. And don’t get me started on the underground changes
Yep. Two of the reasons why BDSP is the worst pokegame ever released. The combo of a hugely inexperienced developper (ILCA) and time constraints worked like a charm (/s).
The only berry I tend to farm for a typical playthrough is the Leppa berry, since you can't buy ether or elixer.
I legit think putting amie/refresh/camp so low is a horrible take. Seeing your pokemon move and interacting with them in a casual setting is a fantastic way to get immersed and bond more with them. It is one of the aspects I most want to see future games expand on.
yea for a certain subset of players, but it doesnt see much use for those who care most about competitive battling
For me, I get so, so, so much more value out of having them follow me in the main game rather than having to go out of my way into a special menu to experience this
why would a competitive player need to bond with pokemon?
@@GravityIsFalling not every single player cares about competitive, remember that every once in a while
Graphically it's great yeah. Imo a huge problem tho is that since Gen 6 where they introduced it the mechanics barely changed at all - in fact they maybe got worse...
That Shiny Bagon took me a long time to find 😅
Great video Wolfey 🤩
I'd like to add one defense for the BDSP underground: egg moves! All the Pokemon in the Underground have an egg move for the pokemon they are, and being a Gen 8 game, you can then use that egg move pokemon + one of your own to teach an egg move to your existing team via the daycare. Finally making egg moves more accessible is a fantastic change, and I hope it's maintained in future generations - especially since it's probably one of the few good things about BDSP Underground aside from the variety it offered.
I did not care for it much but knew some people that liked the Hoenn beauty competitions. Would have been an interesting alternative path to gym battling. Could have expanded on it too like competition moves have bonus effects, etc. Would have been interesting having a breeder class, trainer class, and so on.
I think some of these mechanic ratings are accurate while others are ranked where they are because of how they affect competitive battling rather than the games or pokemon as a whole
well...a lot of these machanics are for competitive
and he's a competitive player
16:11 that taurus scene gave me so much flashbacks i had to stop myself from giggling
the physical special split helped a bit the power creep if you think it well, you can simply use the best stat (atk/spatk) instead to make a more complex ev spread running a mixed mon using both stats because of the coverage (like the mixed sets of tyranitar, salamence, swampert, etc)
wolfe's videos are becoming funnier. Great pacing and comedic timing.
How could you not add the new types Dark, Steel and Fairy to this list? Top 5 most revolutionary changes ever
Couldn't remember wich types were physical and special before Gen4, but that Eevee refference was all I needed
I definitely agree with the mythical section, so glad that Deoxys (my second favourite mythical pokémon) had its mythical status removed in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire ❤️
It's less that it's mythical status was removed, more that it's a bonus for playing the remake, arceus (mew and jirachi aswell iirc) have also been made available without events thanks to bdsp, manaphy too in PLA afaik... but they're still considered mythical.
We can likely expect Victini and possibly genesect, when gen 10 comes around in the gen 5 remakes.
@@chitorunya As much as I appreciate what you're saying, Pokémon themselves confirmed that Deoxys is no longer mythical with the "Monthly Mythical giveaways" were Deoxys was absent when every other mythical was given away over the course of the year.
How is Wolfey pumping out so much of these high-quality videos in a short amount of time?
He said in this video he hired editors.
I love max raid dens and Dynamax adventures. I do wish they expanded more on this though. it has soooo much potential. Like having longer adventures with more hearts, and also more cool things to influence your team, like a TM person. Im sure there are tons of things they could have done for this. I hope scarlet and violet really expand on the raid stuff.
I'd put Region Variants as number 1 personally. That just adds so much to the lore and versatility of some pokemon that weren't even considered before. Looking at you Marowak!
I really don't think the game corner made kids have a gambling problem 💀💀💀 but I do agree it was really hard to actually win enough to get a prize from there, atleast in DpPt
3:16 WHAT IS A ROTOM POWER?!! I’ve played both Sun and Moon to completion TWICE and I’ve never seen this, EVER
If Pokejobs exist where the PokeUnions?? There needs to be A PokeWorker revolution Pokomrades
K
Sad to see ultra space wasn't on here :(
I loved Misty Terrain in Sun & Moon precisely because it made it impossible for the Battle Tree to gimmick me with status conditions.
The fact horde battles aren't even on the lost shows how little they matter lol
I’m biased but shinies are imo one of the best despite their lack of any mechanical functionality, they’ve created an entire sect of the fan base who probably wouldn’t still be playing if it weren’t for shinies, as well as some of the most hype moments an individual can have in Pokémon
As a kid I always equated mythicals to legendaries. And as an adult, I will not stop that. They're legendaries. Can't convince me otherwise!
Even GameFreak considers mythicals to be a subset of legendaries, so I’m right there with you.
I always think of mythicals and legendaries as a squares and rectangles kind of a thing. Mythicals are also legendaries, just... they're Those Ones that you don't need to be considered to have completed your 'dex
@@avitraangelica9278 fair point and I like how you explained that
Used to love making a level 1 wonder trade team back in the XYORAS days, then when you reached Lumiose or Mauville you usually had enough for a couple rare candies for each so it gave you a nice little boost to bring them up to speed (I played without EXP Share for reference)
I kept saying before number 1 showed up, “It’s TMs!” only for TMs not to be on the list.
Honestly, I might put Phys-Spec over Wi-fi. As much as the online scene is such a massive part, it still relies on the core game being enjoyable and diverse. The competitive scene needs more pokemon to be viable for it not to get stale, whether that's in direct connection tourneys or wi-fi battles. Not to mention how much it helps out the single player experience by letting more pokemon do what they do best.
Nah, wifi made getting traded evos, battling etc all possible. Back in the day we were all stuck battling the same 3-4 ppl that had the GB link cable and the games pretty much had a hard stop until RSE added more post game content aside from the red showdown in GSC
YES THE SOARING MUSIC BROUGHT SO MUCH BACK!
I am surprised Wolfey didn't mention getting rental teams from other players. It seems like such a game changer for people who don't have the time to build their own team (something I am sure Wolfey could appreciate).
That bike trial line was funny
Been loving how much content has been coming out Wolfe, keep it coming!!!
Pokemon amie and Mega Evolutions were my favorite mechanics (mostly bc pokemon x was the first pokemon game I’ve finished). It was fun playing the mini games and interacting with the pokemon in amie and it was cool seeing past pokemon get new forms. One of my favorite mega evolutions was mega mawile, it was so dope.
Pokemon Amie being so low is blasphemy. Yes it was a basic addition, but with the big jump to 3D is actually made your Pokemon team feel more tangible by being able to interact with them.