Ill say Seismic Toss and Night Shade are really useful moves due to their fixed damage, and being at your level makes them reliably helpful for certain usecases. The reason I mention this is that Psywave has roughly a 50% change of being better or worse than them. It wouldnt be consistent, but of the moves on the list its relatively useful. 80% accurates not amazing, and the fact it can do functionally half of Night Shades bad, but its one of the best moves on the list for an actual run.
Shoulda preceded it with focus energy to remove crit chance. I found rage is handy when you have an op pokemon and you want to walk through an entire team of an enemy trainer’s pokemon but you don’t want to use more than 1pp.
Considering the fact that gen 1 crits ignore both buffs & debuffs on both pokemon focus energy doing the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to can actually be useful if you’re using buff moves
Man, gen 1 is so funny. Gen 1 is so broken that a move that should normally be pretty good is glitched and has the opposite effect as what's intended, making it very bad, but then the mechanic that the move interacts with is itself glitched in a way that makes it detrimental sometimes, making the very bad glitched effect actually good in some niche scenarios. What a game.
I think at some time it was changed to be a psychic-type Magnitude, but with slightly worse options. IIRC, magnitude in gen 2 averaged 70 base, and Psywave averaged 50. Still bad, but technically comparable to Confusion.
It was meant to have a chance to be better than seismic toss, but in Gen 1, only type resisting psychic is psychic and seismic toss is commonly learned and more reliable
It is a psychic seismic toss it got buffed to average out. unlike In gen 1 where it can do at times only 1 damage at level 100 in the new gens it does from 75 to 150 damage so in theory with luck it can average out better then sesmic toss and nightshade. Competitively it works now.
The worst thing is that Sabrina gives you the TM for Psywave. When I was just a kid and I just received the move, I thought it would be the "ultimate" Psychic move, like a Psychic-Type Hydro Pump give or take. Then I was utterly disappointed xD
Hey Jrose, here is the Razor Wind explanation. I am a translator from Japanese to Spanish and French. So in Japanese that move is called Camaitachi かまいたち (鎌鼬) It means something close to sickle weasel. It was supposed to be what Sneasel was based off. But pretty much it is when you get a cut suddenly on the surface of the skin. Unless you play it in Japanese, it makes no sense. But that is why it is normal and not flying type.
And yet, for some unexplicable reason, Sneasel can't learn Razor Wind in any way. Not by level-up, not by breeding - heck, not even by events. But do you know what Pokemon _can_ learn Razor Wind? *Floatzel.* What were they thinking?! If you have two different weasel Pokemon, which one would you give Kamaitachi to - a random water one or the one actually based off the yokai? Apparently the former, because screw you! _[now read this in TheAuraGuardian voice :) ]_
It would be kinda sorta not entirely useless if it was like a Normal-type Future Sight or something, but as it stands it's significantly worse than just using Scratch twice, i.e. the move that Charmander starts with at lvl 5. The trivia behind it is cool but why'd they make it so useless?
@@bluegum6438 Simple answer - gen 1. You had broken-ass moves and the other 95% were shit. Rock Throw at 50/65? (even though I personally cannot believe that wasn't just a simple coding error considering the next gen fixed and it's like, the only move with such accuracy that attacks) Submissions being like 80/80 *and* doing recoil? Slam with no additional effect, 80/75? Gen 1 is nostalgic for many people, but anyone who's honest knows it's a bug-riddled mess that's kept together by a few strings, chewing gum and a paper clip.
Focus Energy is actually helpful to faster Pokémon that rely on Swords Dance because it means they won’t crit as often and they’ll get the attack boosts that a crit wouldn’t
I get the feeling that certain moves, specifically rock throw, were balanced with AI battles in mind, with little regard for player use. Rock Throw looks like a prime example of an early game RPG enemy attack, with its bad accuracy and power.
Definitely. Same with poison. Poison is nearly useless for the player character since so many fucking pokémon used by opponents are poison pokémon and it does such pathetic damage even then. Which doesn't matter for a computer player, but a player character having to fight a bunch of pokémon, meaning they constantly take that 1/16th damage if the opponents have more than one pokémon... well yeah. It barely doing anything in battle but being able to kill the player's pokémon outside of battle (something computers don't care about) make it blatantly obvious the status effect was only made with the single player mode in mind.
game freak was trying to design a final fantasy clone but there was a programming error and they just decided "fuckit, ship it as it is" and thus pokemon red/green was born
@@primiera1484 Whoa whoa, no need to be so rude. Admittedly I chuckled, but it's only because that wasn't directed at me. _angry and disappointed upvote_
@@dbgaming274 I've heard from Judges at the time the card was misprint that the card text trumps the type of trap Counter Counter was but they still should have noticed that. It's like how Curse of Fiend is a normal spell card and normally you can only activate those during your Main Phase 1/2 but it specifically says on the card that it can only be activated during your standby phase and despite the fact it isn't a quick play spell you can still activate it during your standby phase.
@@TheGuyWhoIsSitting well comparing curse of fiend to a quick-play kinda loses one of the nuances of what's so weird about it, because curse of fiend _is not spell speed 2._ no, not even during your standby phase, a timing you can typically only activate card in if they're spell speed 2 or higher. it's still spell speed 1 like any other normal spell, so if another card or effect is activated during the phase, you can't chain curse of fiend. in that sense, it's more like a spell card you activate as if it was a _trigger effect_ and, uh, yeah just typing that out is making me realize that the card is even more absurd than i thought it was counter counter's just an obvious misprint ( plus if you _did_ assume it was a normal trap that implicitly could be chained to counter traps ... would that mean using it brings the chain back down to spell speed 2? ), while curse of fiend _actively warps several foundational rules around it_ for the sole purpose of ... a field-wide position change. i guess snapping a bunch of rules in half for such an ... effect that is indeed an effect was far easier to come up with than the "at the start of your main phase 1" condition they'd end up using later down the line ... i guess ygo and pokemon shared even more similarities early on
@@hi-i-am-atan I'm now imaging a trap card that IS a normal trap that can be chained to a counter trap whose effect is that it brings the chain speed down back to SS2 so the players can chain regular traps, QP spells and monster effects to counter traps for that chain. I wouldn't put this past them to make this as some sort of time slower archetype.
@@rolypoly4920 the only way that would not be utterly terrible is if it was a secondary effect on like a continuous or field spell. otherwise, you're going down a card to do ... what? a large amount of negation still comes from counter traps anyway, and if you're trying to negate the activation of a solemn or something using a monster effect, you've already missed the timing by playing a card to bring the chain back to spell speed 2. you'd only really enable yourself to do something like imperming the solemn - y'know, if you have imperm set in the right column to do so - or like ... chaining a set backrow to get some value out of it after your opponent solemned your solemn that was trying to stop their lightning storm? that's without even getting into the fact that having an activated effect to bring down the spell speed of the chain doesn't ... really make sense mechanically. by the time that effect resolves, the chain has already finished building and no more cards can be chained. other than having a spell speed 2 card that can be chained to spell speed 3 through some form of activation condition and having it be officially ruled that that brings the chain down to spell speed 2, the concept just doesn't really ... work
It's such a fun realization. Whenever I felt like playing a Pokémon-like game which wasn't Pokémon I drew blanks, as all that came to mind where JRPGs... Until I realized TCGs were basically what I was looking for.
Counter being here is fascinating. I know you mentioned that you were focusing on single player and not multi-player, but competitive sees normal moves used so often that Counter is a very usable and viable option on Chansey and Snorlax in an effort to beat opposing Tauros and Snorlax
@@warturocorpus4707but not in Gen 1, because the move’s damage is too unreliable. Not just numbers wise (you can roll 1 damage), but also because it can cause the game to desync. As you see, in link battles the min damage Psywave does on your side is 1, but for the opponent it is 0. If your opponent rolls a 0, your games desync
Psywave was so terrible in gen 1, that you could desync when fighting a friend because neither Gameboy can agree on how much damage it did (Short explanation, when you use it, it does between 1 and x damage, but when an opponent uses it, it does between 0 and x damage, so one Gameboy rolls a zero, the other rolls a one, and now things get weird) Desyncing like this could cause things like one Pokemon getting a status effect on one side but not the other, hitting in confusion, a glitched Pokemon because a knocked out Pokemon is still in, etc
@Dupletor Desyncing in a link battle wasn't necessarily a softlock though, the main issue was the rng not lining up, therefore causing more issues the longer the battle went, potentially leading to a plain crash
Theoretically, Focus Energy _could_ be useful on a stat-upping Pokémon, since critical hits ignore stat raises in Gen I - and thus a practically 0% crit chance would be theoretically amazing for Swords Dancers or Amnesiacs. Theoretically, anyway.
It would really only be beneficial on pokemon with extremely limited movepools. Usually with only 4 moveslots to work with you want a move useful in a variety of situations not just turning a 80% chance of victory to a 100% chance.
Oh man, that old intro music was jarring in my headphones. Can't wait to see where Rage is placed. Also, a 10 best moves could be interesting because you need to figure out where everything places under Psychic
Not really. I’d say the 3 best moves in Gen 1 are amnesia, hyper beam, and blizzard. Amnesia buffs special by 2, hyper beam doesn’t make you recharge if you get a KO, blizzard had 90 accuracy and the same damage for some reason
Psychic, body slam, blizzard, hyper beam, sleep powder, amnesia, swords dance(?), substitute(?), double team(?) I'm not sure what else, but those would probably be the first nine I would look at. Maybe add fly to the list.
What I like the most about you, Jrose, is how technical and informative you are about pokémon whilst still keeping a humouristic and entertaining tone in your videos. You’re such an inspiration and i support you 100%! Your work is just fantastic!
"Multiplayer.... it wouldn't make much difference." in gen 1, it really wouldn't, except for psywave, where using it in multiplayer can desync the two games and ruins the match because of it. In that one case, it would change depending on multiplayer or single
@Cameron Lattz counter is also great as a gimmick move on random pokemon. The classic "switch into hyper beam and then counter on the recharge" gimmick can get surprise KOs for people not expecting it
Counter is also really good since body slam and hyper beam are some of the most common moves on some of the most common pokemon. Plus you don't need to use it as a read like every other gen
Top Ten Fallen Kings. Gen 2 brought a LOT of changes, including (but not limited to) new types and splitting the Spc stat in two. A top ten pokemon who fell in power from gen 1 to gen 2 would be interesting
On the flip side, a pokemon like Magnemite is no longer one of the absolute worst pokemon with the addition of a steel type. As someone who just completed a solo run with it, believe me when I say I missed that steel typing very VERY much.
-Tauros can't spam Hyper Beam -Chansey can't use special moves anymore -Psychic types got nerfed heavily -Persian can't use its high speed to increase crit rate
You couldn't even get kinesis legitimately in red/blue. The only pokemon who learned it was Kadabra at level 15 or so, but no wild Kadabra could be found at such a low level. I think in yellow you could find low leveled Kadabra so you could get it, but it's useless anyways
I think the only way you could ever use it in red/blue was off of metronome. I remember as a kid I had the strategy guide with the move list and was like “what’s kenesis? I’ve never seen this.” And I think it got added to kadabra’s move set in yellow, but I don’t think kadabra was found in the wild, only abra, so it was a move that only NPCs had.
I have two guesses as to why rock throw was so low accuracy. 1. It was designed to be used against you early game. 2. In earlier builds of red/green, moves, in general, were much much less accurate (OHKO moves were 7% accurate btw), perhaps rock throw was simply not buffed with the other moves
Yeah, between everything you mentioned and the fact that Rage has a pretty well-known soft lock with Lorelei, I’d definitely consider it to be pretty bad.
@@onetwothreefour3957 the AI has infinite PP and will spam rest (especially if psychic moves are super effective against you). Rage also doesn't consume PP once it has been used. So, if you use rage and can't faint her Dewgong in 3 hits then you'll be stuck in a loop of rage/rest.
@@petelee2477 wait shouldn't that happen after like 30 minutes because of the glitch that makes it that if you miss once the accuracy drops to 0.2 or whatever it was? So you just wait for a gen 1 miss and then you're out after 30 turns
I remember softlocking my copy of pokemon red, I used rage, as did my opponent, and we both missed. Every single turn we were stuck in a loop of both of us missing, but because I didn't save for a long time I didn't want to reset. Eventually I gave up, but it was the last time I ever selected rage as an attack
Nah man your lying if rage misses it’s still gonna hit the next turn you would have to be so lucky that it’s pretty much impossible since u would have to constantly get the 1/256 glitch also I’m pretty sure npcs can’t get it but even if they can ur still bluffing lol
@@thunderrush_123 The thing is, if Rage misses due to increased evasion/lowered accuracy (but *not* the 1/256 glitch), it's accuracy will flip, meaning it will *hit* 1/256 times instead of 255/256 times. _GEN 1, EVERYBODY!_
@@robertlupa8273 That's insane. Ironically while that proves OP isn't lying, it also proves they weren't soft-locked. They just had a really long game ahead of them...
Didn't they change "Feint Attack" to "Faint Attack"? The former makes more sense but I'm sure the latter was to avoid the confusion while, in my opinion, only making things more confusing
@@beefmccheddar7450 Well that only proves my point lol, I guess I'm just too used to Gens 1-4 (I'm not a fan of Gen V as I feel that's when it started holding your hand too much, I also only played it to transfer Pokémon from Gen 4 to 6)
And you know what? In Italian 'Feint/Faint Attack' is translated into 'Finta' and 'Feint' into 'Fintoattacco', though I guess it's just an unlucky coincidence as they're not from the same generation.
How about Roar? It's literally just splash in trainer battles, it does nothing, and against wild pokemon it lets you escape but you can just run, so there's no point to ever use this move
It's useful in competitive battles because it gets rid of opponent stat boosts, substitutes(yes so does attacking but really passive pokemon struggle to break subs), and in gen 2 and beyond forces the opponent to take entry hazard damage.
It's useful when you the enemy sent out a Pokemon you know you can't beat. Or when a weaken pokemon is trying to switch out. Or when a trainer sent out their best & you use roar so you can kill their weaker pokemon
This top 10 reminds me of the time I was playing around hacking moves as well as changing Pokémon's stats to attempt a rebalance of Gen 1, all because of the idea of making Cut a Bug-type move so this would open up potential to balance the Psychic type (and also giving Scyther an actual Bug-type move). Rock Throw has no reason to have such shaky accuracy. I guess what they were trying to do was picturing a Pokémon throwing a pebble at an opponent and, because pebbles are small, they could miss a lot if you throw it badly or the opponent dodges swiftly.
I’d like to add another honorable mention: Slam. 80 base power was decent for Gen 1, but it’s a normal move with no additional effects with 75% accuracy. I remember putting it on my Pikachu in Yellow as a kid and being pissed with how often it’d miss. And it hasn’t been buffed at all since Gen 1 either.
I asked Jrose where the Pokemon vids were in his twitch chat whilst he was playing Mario and he got all arsey with me. It's pretty clear he has stuff going on which means he's not motivated to do the videos. I'll be honest, at first I was disappointed with his response because I watch these every day (whilst falling asleep - not that they bore me to sleep 🤣- I just find them entertaining and easy to watch). But then looking through these comments I get it, literally everyone is asking where is he, what's going on etc. Jrose; it's not because we are meaning to be pests - you have 235k subs and each of your solo runs have 300k+ views. The videos bring entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people (which is pretty crazy when you think about it), I think people are just concerned and sometimes it probably comes across as overbearing as there are thousands of people all asking the same question! Either way, you do you, we'll all be here when you're ready to come back.
Focus Energy could be useful in theory as crits ignore stat changes so if you did something like stack sword dances and tail whips, maybe in a situation where you are severely under-leveled, a crit would do a lot less damage
This might actually make sense. If you were to set up with 3 Amnesia/Sword dance, that would increase your Special/Attack 4-fold, but your crits would only deal 2x your base. With Focus energy on a high critical chance Pokemon, your average damage would increase by 50% of your base, so if you had a chance to set up three Amnesia/Sword dance on a 'free' pokemon who either deals minimum damage or nothing at all (e.g. Laurelai with a fighting/poison pokemon) you might as well use Focus energy to slightly increase your damage Granted, this is a very niche case and it's probably still not worth a move slot, but there's at least one situation where Focus energy is usable
Submission it's a decent move in certain situations, plus it's a fighting move. In Gen 1 was useful because Normal type pkmn are very common, and have it on a TM help against Rock type. I usually play full randomizer and learn that move saved my ass with type weakness. Not a perfect one but it's something. Obviously far to be the best fighting move in the game xD
@@raptors11111 It’s a decent holdover move until you get Double Edge though. I think what makes submission so bad is that it’s supposed to be the best widely distributed Fighting move in the game and it’s so bad. What makes it worse for me is that it never got buffed. It would be cool if they buffed it to 150 bp and made the recoil 1/2 damage dealt, like a fighting type Head Smash
@@primaster9360 that's the perfect explanation. Obviously High Jump Kick it's the best fighting move in Gen 1, but the signature move of Hitmonlee. You only have access to it with other Pkmn when you're playing randomizer.
I don't know about you, but I've never seen an AI opponent use Counter in gen1, or Razor Wind for that matter (do any of the trainers even have them?). And if these moves, along with Rage and Psywave, were truly intentionally bad just to make AI opponents weaker, surely the creators wouldn't have wasted TM slots with them. The others I can sort of see, especially the status moves. Rock Throw im not sure about because Rock is already an easy type to beat, especially by the point in the game any of the AI trainers actually have the move. It just looked like the typings were badly balanced.
Psywave was also buffed in 3rd gen to have the range 0.5-1.5x the user's level (instead of going all the way down to 1 damage), making it essentially a weird seismic toss/night shade. It actually saw some competitive use in this role by Bronzong.
Imagine living in the Pokemon universe, going to a stadium to watch a battle, and seeing a Magikarp and Metapod fighting each other with splash and harden.
I enjoyed this a lot - gen 1 is so funny with all it's weird broken mechanics. I love hearing about them. Definitely up for more top tens in the future!
Other moves I could potentially see as honorable mentions, Whirlwind and Roar. Basically just another Splash in trainer battles. Not even very useful in a wild battle considering you're usually better off just hitting run.
@@santasangre996 No, such moves fail in a Trainer battle. They were literally only designed with fleeing a Wild Pokemon in mind, yet any Arcanine you fight in Gen 1 loves to Roar at you to no avail
@@grunkleg.2934 I see, damn lol. sometimes I wonder the thought process behind some of the stuff in Gen 1, were they just like "yeah we need a move that forces wild pokemon out and doesnt do shit in trainer battles, also give it to a bunch of trainers"
@@santasangre996 It was probably designed and solely balanced around it _just_ being an RPG. It's why you have things like early game Pokemon being lesser mooks and weaker "equipment" you swap out for stronger "gear" later, entire types that were completely worthless, things like Onix which pretty much just function as a tough early game boss that's entirely worthless outside of that role and you can easily slay it upon becoming stronger, items and moves that have very specific, niche uses in mind, etc.
@@santasangre996 It's similar to how in Mega Man Battle Network 1, you had to use a chip (basicly a card in your deck) to escape from random encounters.
You know, I've always though that the Rock-type moves had low accuracy as a balancing mechanism for Rock resisting Normal, since Normal moves are so pervasive. A Pokemon that takes weak damage from most attacks and also has good moves in its type just becomes kinda busted.
Right. Types weren't meant to be homogeneous like they are now. How a moved worked was in relation to moves of its type, not overall. While it was a highly lacking metagame, you can tell the style and intent of the metagame has gone in another direction in recent gens. For the worse imo. Special type bug and rock moves feel so wrong. Like Power Gem and Bug Buzz make the gameplay feel so generic now, like they're moreso flavors than traditional pokemon types.
Omg this reminds me of something I wondered as a kid. How does a Hypno use Poison Gas? As a kid I always imagined it coming out of its arm pits or just farting.
Other honorable mentions: - Teleport/Whirlwind/Roar...they do nothing in trainer battles - sonicboom...goes along with your bad signature moves theme. Set 20 damage is useless after like the 2nd or 3rd gym. And I predicted take down would make the list because its an inaccurate recoil moves and double edge is just objectively better, but your 10 were definitely worse.
Submission should've been there too. iirc 85 Accuracy and 80 basepower with recoil damage. What an amazing move. It's the strongest fighting type move in gen 1 tho so that's probably why it wasn't mentioned. I'd also like to mention fissure because it's not only 35% accurate but alsp guaranteed to miss when you get outsped
@@theincrediblelapras4158 yeah true say. Fissure was terrible on any slow pokemon. Yeah and it's sad that they didn't give fighting any good moves besides like Jump Kick which I think only hitmonlee could learn. Submission is terrible its just a fighting type take down.
Just wanted to say. Your videos have been great entertainment for me, both for active watching and for background noise, and have made me want to try and do my own solo runs. Just finished my first one with Squirtle, entering the hall of fame at level 76 with an in-game time of 5:34, which given the fact that this is actually the first time I've beaten an original Gen I game (I grew up on the remakes), I'd say isn't too shabby. Trying to engineer my way through the games around the restrictions of only one Pokémon is a very fun puzzle, so thanks a lot for introducing me to it.
Constrict can actually be useful in the early game if you do a solo run with let’s say Tangela or Tentacool because it will decrease the speed of your opponent so you can then be faster and trap your opponent with bind or wrap ! And Counter is quite often used in competitive games though (Chansey for instance).
"Focus energy actively hurts you." OBJECTION! I've seen enough of your solo challenge runs to know that it's sometimes better not to get the crit because of the badge boost glitch! If you're low on PP or possibly poisoned and below half health, taking a second turn just to avoid getting a crit could actually be useful.
Counter does see some use in competitive RBY, what with all the Body Slams and Hyper Beams flying around. To my knowledge, Chansey is the only common Pokemon that uses Counter very often, but it's something.
The presentation of this video was amazing. I couldn't watch the gameplay but I was just able to listen and visualize what he was talking about. He has a wonderful marathon voice. Good return, Jrose.
4:20 I heard an idea once that the reason Rock Throw has such a low accuracy in Gen 1 is because the devs were trying to balance the game because you run into early game Pokemon (like Brock's Geodude, for example) that have the move, and if it hit every time, it might be overpowered in the early game. So that was their way of balancing it. Same as giving Vine Whip such low PP.
If Constrict had either a guarenteed speed drop or like a 50/50 shot then I think it wouldn't get such a bad rep. It would essentially be a pretty bad nuzzle, but could come in clutch in playthroughs where you need a little bit of damage but also want to lower speed to get an advantage.
Extra honorary mentions: roar and whirlwind. They literally do nothing in trainer battles whatsoever. And unlike focus energy, this was intentional, not a glitch. And theres almost no reason to use it in a wild battle, because you can just press the run button to do the same thing. Its only slightly above splash in terms of usefulness. These two definitely give rage a run for its money here, because at least rage is TECHNICALLY an attacking move. Not a great one, but it deals damage. Roar and whirlwind do absolutely nothing of any use whatsoever
What amazes me is that game freak NERFED constrict in gen II. In gen I it had a 33% chance to lower speed and in gen II onward it only has a 10% chance to lower speed.
Hey I'd like you to know that I've been having a hard time recently and that your work really helps me. I know others feel the same. So thank you for being a legend of youtuber
Regarding Razor Wind: I always imagined it being an attack where the Pokemon "throws" an array of blades at the enemy. Which explains why it is a normal attack, as not the "wind" is damaging the opponent. Maybe it is also because in german the move is called "Klingensturm (translation in english would be Bladestorm)" and the ultimate ability of the Blademaster in Warcraft 3 is also called Klingensturm. Hope this trivia entertains you a little :)
I remember making the mistake of using Rage against the Rival's Abra. I had to reset because Rage missed and Abra could only use Teleport, effectively locking us both into a potentially endless battle
Here’s the thing though. Because of how absolutely wack Gen 1’s mechanics are, Focus Energy can actually be useful. Crits do not stack with stat increases, so in those times, crits are bad for you. Quartering your chance to get a bad crit is actually good.
By the way, Tackle got buffed to 40 base power and Constrict was still 10 base power. Now as of Generation 8, Constrict was completely removed in Generation 8
My theory is that not all the moves, and all the Pokemon, in gen 1 were designed for the player to use, but rather to be a part of the adventuring experience. I like to use Zubat as an example. It's easy to defeat, but supersonic and leech life is annoying. The same is true for poison effect. It's terrible when you get poisoned. Not so.much for you to use on them. Gen 1 was just a single player game to experience. I doubt the devs thought it would become competitive or larger than it was at the time.
New challenge for you: Beating Pokémon Red only using the moves listed on this list.
You know this is gonna take like 6 months with him not saving in between Elite 4 Trainers, especially the Agatha Lottery.
@Dupletor it's not even that, it doesn't even use super effective damage. At least Rock Throw is super effective against Golbat 😂
I’ve been trying to get him to do a Rage run for so long
Yeah this should be done, it will be fun, he can probably do this on side, we have no rush
Ill say Seismic Toss and Night Shade are really useful moves due to their fixed damage, and being at your level makes them reliably helpful for certain usecases.
The reason I mention this is that Psywave has roughly a 50% change of being better or worse than them. It wouldnt be consistent, but of the moves on the list its relatively useful. 80% accurates not amazing, and the fact it can do functionally half of Night Shades bad, but its one of the best moves on the list for an actual run.
It was amusing watching Articuno using rage and getting a bunch of critical hits, completely negating the purpose of the move.
Gen I crits anulate Rage's attack increases.
@@BladeXRG thanks for the explanation!
Shoulda preceded it with focus energy to remove crit chance.
I found rage is handy when you have an op pokemon and you want to walk through an entire team of an enemy trainer’s pokemon but you don’t want to use more than 1pp.
you know it's gonna be a good one when focus energy is in the honorable mentions
Considering the fact that gen 1 crits ignore both buffs & debuffs on both pokemon focus energy doing the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to can actually be useful if you’re using buff moves
@@jbz4788 focus energy swords dance Scyther I presume
That’d be one option yeah
Man, gen 1 is so funny. Gen 1 is so broken that a move that should normally be pretty good is glitched and has the opposite effect as what's intended, making it very bad, but then the mechanic that the move interacts with is itself glitched in a way that makes it detrimental sometimes, making the very bad glitched effect actually good in some niche scenarios.
What a game.
Lmao
15:06 "What can be worse than disable"
*Crest Toothpaste ad plays*
Me: *Ah, I see*
I got an ad for Chromebooks
I got a tick tock ad
I got a rock
Get youtube vanced, thank me later
"Bitcoin!"
Focus Energy is great in gen 1.
You buff up with sword's dance. Then you focus energy since crit's doesn't care about your stat boosts. Profit!
Imagine if JRose ends up trying that for something like a Scyther run.
This is a 5,000 IQ strat
That's actually genius...
I literally suggested that for his Scyther run after the last video. I hope he actually tries this.
9999 IQ right here.
Constrict should be renamed to “Hug” because it does so little damage.
if it were a string shot that did damage it would literally be top tier.
Rename it to chikan
That's how Dragonite wraps opponents, by hugging them
gentle squeeze
@@deathclawplum I'll give you a gentle squeeze 🍑
I was always confused about why Psywave does what it does. Why not just make it a Psychic-type Seismic Toss/Night Shade?
I think at some time it was changed to be a psychic-type Magnitude, but with slightly worse options. IIRC, magnitude in gen 2 averaged 70 base, and Psywave averaged 50. Still bad, but technically comparable to Confusion.
It was meant to have a chance to be better than seismic toss, but in Gen 1, only type resisting psychic is psychic and seismic toss is commonly learned and more reliable
It does variable damage because of the way waves can go above/below the median.
It is a psychic seismic toss it got buffed to average out. unlike In gen 1 where it can do at times only 1 damage at level 100 in the new gens it does from 75 to 150 damage so in theory with luck it can average out better then sesmic toss and nightshade. Competitively it works now.
The worst thing is that Sabrina gives you the TM for Psywave. When I was just a kid and I just received the move, I thought it would be the "ultimate" Psychic move, like a Psychic-Type Hydro Pump give or take. Then I was utterly disappointed xD
Hey Jrose, here is the Razor Wind explanation. I am a translator from Japanese to Spanish and French. So in Japanese that move is called Camaitachi かまいたち (鎌鼬) It means something close to sickle weasel. It was supposed to be what Sneasel was based off. But pretty much it is when you get a cut suddenly on the surface of the skin. Unless you play it in Japanese, it makes no sense. But that is why it is normal and not flying type.
And yet, for some unexplicable reason, Sneasel can't learn Razor Wind in any way. Not by level-up, not by breeding - heck, not even by events.
But do you know what Pokemon _can_ learn Razor Wind? *Floatzel.* What were they thinking?! If you have two different weasel Pokemon, which one would you give Kamaitachi to - a random water one or the one actually based off the yokai? Apparently the former, because screw you!
_[now read this in TheAuraGuardian voice :) ]_
It would be kinda sorta not entirely useless if it was like a Normal-type Future Sight or something, but as it stands it's significantly worse than just using Scratch twice, i.e. the move that Charmander starts with at lvl 5. The trivia behind it is cool but why'd they make it so useless?
@Not my Real Name it's the "What were they thinking?!" that did it for me, haha 😄
@@bluegum6438 Simple answer - gen 1.
You had broken-ass moves and the other 95% were shit.
Rock Throw at 50/65? (even though I personally cannot believe that wasn't just a simple coding error considering the next gen fixed and it's like, the only move with such accuracy that attacks)
Submissions being like 80/80 *and* doing recoil?
Slam with no additional effect, 80/75?
Gen 1 is nostalgic for many people, but anyone who's honest knows it's a bug-riddled mess that's kept together by a few strings, chewing gum and a paper clip.
Focus Energy is actually helpful to faster Pokémon that rely on Swords Dance because it means they won’t crit as often and they’ll get the attack boosts that a crit wouldn’t
Focus energy would also work well with badge boosting too
@Stan Brule yeah it is way too situational, but it's kinda sick tbh
Also, does anyone know if focus energy activates badge boost? I'm assuming it doesn't
@@kreatona4219 it doesn't
Also the only Pokémon that can really apply this is Scyther, which is...not very good, and needs Slash in the first place.
@@PlaguevonKarma ah yeah, that's factual. So just like everything else in gen 1, it's theoretically useful but isn't because it's gen 1
I get the feeling that certain moves, specifically rock throw, were balanced with AI battles in mind, with little regard for player use.
Rock Throw looks like a prime example of an early game RPG enemy attack, with its bad accuracy and power.
Definitely. Same with poison. Poison is nearly useless for the player character since so many fucking pokémon used by opponents are poison pokémon and it does such pathetic damage even then. Which doesn't matter for a computer player, but a player character having to fight a bunch of pokémon, meaning they constantly take that 1/16th damage if the opponents have more than one pokémon... well yeah. It barely doing anything in battle but being able to kill the player's pokémon outside of battle (something computers don't care about) make it blatantly obvious the status effect was only made with the single player mode in mind.
"It's the result of a programming error" isn't a description of Focus Energy, it's a description of the whole game
game freak was trying to design a final fantasy clone but there was a programming error and they just decided "fuckit, ship it as it is"
and thus pokemon red/green was born
this comment isn't a programming error, it's a discription of your life lol
Fr how did this game get any traction when the first games were just such dumpster fires?
@@primiera1484 Whoa whoa, no need to be so rude. Admittedly I chuckled, but it's only because that wasn't directed at me.
_angry and disappointed upvote_
@@stealthyshadow567 As many bugs as there are in Gen 1, most of them are just annoyances and don't render a save file unplayable.
In Gen 1 Tangela only starts with Constrict and doesn't learn another move until Absorb at Level 29.
Petition for the Tangela solo run starts here
So how did you enjoy the tangela run?
JRose brings up Counter, Yugioh, and worthlessness and doesn't bring up the Counter Counter misprint.
What do you mean my normal trap can’t respond to a counter trap?!
@@dbgaming274 I've heard from Judges at the time the card was misprint that the card text trumps the type of trap Counter Counter was but they still should have noticed that. It's like how Curse of Fiend is a normal spell card and normally you can only activate those during your Main Phase 1/2 but it specifically says on the card that it can only be activated during your standby phase and despite the fact it isn't a quick play spell you can still activate it during your standby phase.
@@TheGuyWhoIsSitting well comparing curse of fiend to a quick-play kinda loses one of the nuances of what's so weird about it, because curse of fiend _is not spell speed 2._ no, not even during your standby phase, a timing you can typically only activate card in if they're spell speed 2 or higher. it's still spell speed 1 like any other normal spell, so if another card or effect is activated during the phase, you can't chain curse of fiend. in that sense, it's more like a spell card you activate as if it was a _trigger effect_ and, uh, yeah just typing that out is making me realize that the card is even more absurd than i thought it was
counter counter's just an obvious misprint ( plus if you _did_ assume it was a normal trap that implicitly could be chained to counter traps ... would that mean using it brings the chain back down to spell speed 2? ), while curse of fiend _actively warps several foundational rules around it_ for the sole purpose of ... a field-wide position change. i guess snapping a bunch of rules in half for such an ... effect that is indeed an effect was far easier to come up with than the "at the start of your main phase 1" condition they'd end up using later down the line
... i guess ygo and pokemon shared even more similarities early on
@@hi-i-am-atan I'm now imaging a trap card that IS a normal trap that can be chained to a counter trap whose effect is that it brings the chain speed down back to SS2 so the players can chain regular traps, QP spells and monster effects to counter traps for that chain. I wouldn't put this past them to make this as some sort of time slower archetype.
@@rolypoly4920 the only way that would not be utterly terrible is if it was a secondary effect on like a continuous or field spell. otherwise, you're going down a card to do ... what? a large amount of negation still comes from counter traps anyway, and if you're trying to negate the activation of a solemn or something using a monster effect, you've already missed the timing by playing a card to bring the chain back to spell speed 2. you'd only really enable yourself to do something like imperming the solemn - y'know, if you have imperm set in the right column to do so - or like ... chaining a set backrow to get some value out of it after your opponent solemned your solemn that was trying to stop their lightning storm?
that's without even getting into the fact that having an activated effect to bring down the spell speed of the chain doesn't ... really make sense mechanically. by the time that effect resolves, the chain has already finished building and no more cards can be chained. other than having a spell speed 2 card that can be chained to spell speed 3 through some form of activation condition and having it be officially ruled that that brings the chain down to spell speed 2, the concept just doesn't really ... work
"Pokemon is a deck-building game." Mind slightly blown.
* Pokémon TCG looks away *
@@notalostnumber8660 ha I still have the original Gameboy cartridge of the pokémon TCG
It's such a fun realization. Whenever I felt like playing a Pokémon-like game which wasn't Pokémon I drew blanks, as all that came to mind where JRPGs... Until I realized TCGs were basically what I was looking for.
@@Eichro you should look at Slay the Spire. Really solid mix of rpg and card game
This is Articuno abuse. Rage, Razor Wind, give them a break.
Can't. Locked into Rage.
@@Exponaut_R-01 Exponaut R-01, that's enough! Come back!
They aren’t that bad
Counter being here is fascinating. I know you mentioned that you were focusing on single player and not multi-player, but competitive sees normal moves used so often that Counter is a very usable and viable option on Chansey and Snorlax in an effort to beat opposing Tauros and Snorlax
i was thinking the same and pyswave is pretty good too in stall mons
@@warturocorpus4707but not in Gen 1, because the move’s damage is too unreliable. Not just numbers wise (you can roll 1 damage), but also because it can cause the game to desync. As you see, in link battles the min damage Psywave does on your side is 1, but for the opponent it is 0. If your opponent rolls a 0, your games desync
Psywave was so terrible in gen 1, that you could desync when fighting a friend because neither Gameboy can agree on how much damage it did
(Short explanation, when you use it, it does between 1 and x damage, but when an opponent uses it, it does between 0 and x damage, so one Gameboy rolls a zero, the other rolls a one, and now things get weird)
Desyncing like this could cause things like one Pokemon getting a status effect on one side but not the other, hitting in confusion, a glitched Pokemon because a knocked out Pokemon is still in, etc
I like to think that when that happens the Gameboys are telling you to remove that godawful move
@Dupletor Desyncing in a link battle wasn't necessarily a softlock though, the main issue was the rng not lining up, therefore causing more issues the longer the battle went, potentially leading to a plain crash
@Dupletor Huh. That’s really interesting. I never knew that. 😮
Counter can also desync if I remember correctly although counter is a lot better in pvp it’s not too uncommon in comp
@@Sunny92809 Yeah, I think it depends on how you move the cursor through your move list?
Theoretically, Focus Energy _could_ be useful on a stat-upping Pokémon, since critical hits ignore stat raises in Gen I - and thus a practically 0% crit chance would be theoretically amazing for Swords Dancers or Amnesiacs.
Theoretically, anyway.
It would really only be beneficial on pokemon with extremely limited movepools. Usually with only 4 moveslots to work with you want a move useful in a variety of situations not just turning a 80% chance of victory to a 100% chance.
Oh man, that old intro music was jarring in my headphones. Can't wait to see where Rage is placed.
Also, a 10 best moves could be interesting because you need to figure out where everything places under Psychic
Not really. I’d say the 3 best moves in Gen 1 are amnesia, hyper beam, and blizzard. Amnesia buffs special by 2, hyper beam doesn’t make you recharge if you get a KO, blizzard had 90 accuracy and the same damage for some reason
I think Body Slam may arguably be better than Psychic because you get it way earlier and a lot more Pokemon can use it
Psychic, body slam, blizzard, hyper beam, sleep powder, amnesia, swords dance(?), substitute(?), double team(?)
I'm not sure what else, but those would probably be the first nine I would look at. Maybe add fly to the list.
@@stormrhode2330 Add Surf as a honourable mention. Mimic instead of Substitute and maybe mention Rest too.
@@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis good calls
What I like the most about you, Jrose, is how technical and informative you are about pokémon whilst still keeping a humouristic and entertaining tone in your videos. You’re such an inspiration and i support you 100%! Your work is just fantastic!
I agree
I like how you put Kinesis on this list. It's your favorite Pokemon's signature move.
I really like the fact that he mentioned that if you are doing anything else than attacking with a Kadabra, you're doing shit wrong.
Kinesis is not even in red/blue. Only yellow.
@@ln8496 yes and no you can't obtain it legit but it does exist on the data of the game and metronome can use it
They named it Rage because that's what you're going to do when you use the move. 😂
"Multiplayer.... it wouldn't make much difference." in gen 1, it really wouldn't, except for psywave, where using it in multiplayer can desync the two games and ruins the match because of it. In that one case, it would change depending on multiplayer or single
Is there a video showing this?
Would love to see it :O
@Cameron Lattz counter is also great as a gimmick move on random pokemon. The classic "switch into hyper beam and then counter on the recharge" gimmick can get surprise KOs for people not expecting it
@Cameron Lattz I actually did make a different comment pointing that out
Counter is also really good since body slam and hyper beam are some of the most common moves on some of the most common pokemon. Plus you don't need to use it as a read like every other gen
@@generallytrash Not really.
Counter doesnt get priority and it can only be used once as the counter pokemon will only have enough HP to tank one move
Top Ten Fallen Kings. Gen 2 brought a LOT of changes, including (but not limited to) new types and splitting the Spc stat in two. A top ten pokemon who fell in power from gen 1 to gen 2 would be interesting
On the flip side, a pokemon like Magnemite is no longer one of the absolute worst pokemon with the addition of a steel type. As someone who just completed a solo run with it, believe me when I say I missed that steel typing very VERY much.
-Tauros can't spam Hyper Beam
-Chansey can't use special moves anymore
-Psychic types got nerfed heavily
-Persian can't use its high speed to increase crit rate
Articuno, my poor bb
Sad Persian noises
@@AndyBrixton999 oh yeah!
You couldn't even get kinesis legitimately in red/blue. The only pokemon who learned it was Kadabra at level 15 or so, but no wild Kadabra could be found at such a low level. I think in yellow you could find low leveled Kadabra so you could get it, but it's useless anyways
I think the only way you could ever use it in red/blue was off of metronome. I remember as a kid I had the strategy guide with the move list and was like “what’s kenesis? I’ve never seen this.” And I think it got added to kadabra’s move set in yellow, but I don’t think kadabra was found in the wild, only abra, so it was a move that only NPCs had.
Kinesis wasn't even a part of Kadabra or Zam's moveset _at all_ in Red and Blue. They only remembered to give it to them in Yellow. How embarassing
@@grunkleg.2934 Signature move without the move
Game Freak are trolls 😂
they realized kinesis was a shit move and made it unobtainable :D
Then in yellow they were like ok you want Kinesis you can have Kinesis
And he’s gone again. :(
Hope everything is okay.
I have two guesses as to why rock throw was so low accuracy.
1. It was designed to be used against you early game.
2. In earlier builds of red/green, moves, in general, were much much less accurate (OHKO moves were 7% accurate btw), perhaps rock throw was simply not buffed with the other moves
"most of the moves got better"
true. freaking constrict got it's speed drop chance reduced to 10% after RBY, and no other changes. What the heck GF?
Scyther+Swords Dance+Focus Energy= Good
Hold up
Wait that's illegal
I am pretty sure most rock type pokemon can live any hit from that scyther even at +6
@@anthonyray1071 exactly but only in gen 1 or 2 I'm sure it's fixed in gen 3
Critical hits in gen 1 ignore your buffs
12:50
I think the fact that poison keeps dealing damage outside of the battle was its extra thing.
that and it was meant to be an annoyance that the CPU uses on you
@@germmanator
Well, he was listing other side effects of other status changes, like how paralysis also lowers speed.
Yeah, between everything you mentioned and the fact that Rage has a pretty well-known soft lock with Lorelei, I’d definitely consider it to be pretty bad.
H/t to Pikasprey's wonderful video on this.
what softlock? will she spam rest at some point?
@@onetwothreefour3957 the AI has infinite PP and will spam rest (especially if psychic moves are super effective against you). Rage also doesn't consume PP once it has been used. So, if you use rage and can't faint her Dewgong in 3 hits then you'll be stuck in a loop of rage/rest.
@@onetwothreefour3957 it's not a soft lock. It's totally possible to escape. All that needs to happen is for rage to miss for 20 consecutive turns.
@@petelee2477 wait shouldn't that happen after like 30 minutes because of the glitch that makes it that if you miss once the accuracy drops to 0.2 or whatever it was? So you just wait for a gen 1 miss and then you're out after 30 turns
I remember softlocking my copy of pokemon red, I used rage, as did my opponent, and we both missed. Every single turn we were stuck in a loop of both of us missing, but because I didn't save for a long time I didn't want to reset. Eventually I gave up, but it was the last time I ever selected rage as an attack
Now I'm just imagining two very very angry pokemons punching at nothing over and over again
Nah man your lying if rage misses it’s still gonna hit the next turn you would have to be so lucky that it’s pretty much impossible since u would have to constantly get the 1/256 glitch also I’m pretty sure npcs can’t get it but even if they can ur still bluffing lol
Sounds like a programming error.
Insert Gen 1 joke here.
@@thunderrush_123 The thing is, if Rage misses due to increased evasion/lowered accuracy (but *not* the 1/256 glitch), it's accuracy will flip, meaning it will *hit* 1/256 times instead of 255/256 times.
_GEN 1, EVERYBODY!_
@@robertlupa8273 That's insane. Ironically while that proves OP isn't lying, it also proves they weren't soft-locked. They just had a really long game ahead of them...
Can we talk about the period where there was "feint attack" AND "feint"? How confusing was that?
Didn't they change "Feint Attack" to "Faint Attack"? The former makes more sense but I'm sure the latter was to avoid the confusion while, in my opinion, only making things more confusing
@@ryapowa Other way around; it was "Faint Attack" prior to gen 6 and they changed it to "Feint Attack".
@@beefmccheddar7450 Well that only proves my point lol, I guess I'm just too used to Gens 1-4 (I'm not a fan of Gen V as I feel that's when it started holding your hand too much, I also only played it to transfer Pokémon from Gen 4 to 6)
I think that had something to do the the translation of the moves name in japanese
And you know what? In Italian 'Feint/Faint Attack' is translated into 'Finta' and 'Feint' into 'Fintoattacco', though I guess it's just an unlucky coincidence as they're not from the same generation.
See you all when he finishes his solo Pokemon run challenge. In 2032.
Ironically rby ou does see some use of counter because of the omni presence of body slam tauros and snorlax.
And the rare poliwarth's submission and Persian's slash
So can we just talk about how rock throw missed 3 times in a row in the background footage?
"Counter is too niche to ever see use"
Comp Chansey: *Nervous noises*
How about Roar? It's literally just splash in trainer battles, it does nothing, and against wild pokemon it lets you escape but you can just run, so there's no point to ever use this move
They even gave whirlwind a tm
It's useful in competitive battles because it gets rid of opponent stat boosts, substitutes(yes so does attacking but really passive pokemon struggle to break subs), and in gen 2 and beyond forces the opponent to take entry hazard damage.
@@petelee2477 Roar doesn't force your opponent to switch in Gen 1 though. It literally does nothing in trainer battles
@@petelee2477 Not in Gen 1.
It's useful when you the enemy sent out a Pokemon you know you can't beat. Or when a weaken pokemon is trying to switch out. Or when a trainer sent out their best & you use roar so you can kill their weaker pokemon
The Top 10s are BACKKKKKKK!!!!
And also the best iteration of his intro song imo
@@Venak_Soliq bro same
This top 10 reminds me of the time I was playing around hacking moves as well as changing Pokémon's stats to attempt a rebalance of Gen 1, all because of the idea of making Cut a Bug-type move so this would open up potential to balance the Psychic type (and also giving Scyther an actual Bug-type move).
Rock Throw has no reason to have such shaky accuracy. I guess what they were trying to do was picturing a Pokémon throwing a pebble at an opponent and, because pebbles are small, they could miss a lot if you throw it badly or the opponent dodges swiftly.
Looking forward to the run where you can only use the moves on this list
I want only rage and bide run
@@eyalinbar4845 Onix's time to shine!
I’d like to add another honorable mention: Slam. 80 base power was decent for Gen 1, but it’s a normal move with no additional effects with 75% accuracy. I remember putting it on my Pikachu in Yellow as a kid and being pissed with how often it’d miss. And it hasn’t been buffed at all since Gen 1 either.
Is #1 Constrict? It's constrict, isn't? Top 10, 10 base power, it's all connected!
And in gen 2 onward it has a 10% chance of lowering speed
@@genesis7838 so a little. Not enough to even place it in competitive, but just a tiny bit better
Very close
@@ShockInazuma No, they made it worse because in gen 1 it had a 1/3 chance of lowering speed
I asked Jrose where the Pokemon vids were in his twitch chat whilst he was playing Mario and he got all arsey with me. It's pretty clear he has stuff going on which means he's not motivated to do the videos. I'll be honest, at first I was disappointed with his response because I watch these every day (whilst falling asleep - not that they bore me to sleep 🤣- I just find them entertaining and easy to watch). But then looking through these comments I get it, literally everyone is asking where is he, what's going on etc. Jrose; it's not because we are meaning to be pests - you have 235k subs and each of your solo runs have 300k+ views. The videos bring entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people (which is pretty crazy when you think about it), I think people are just concerned and sometimes it probably comes across as overbearing as there are thousands of people all asking the same question! Either way, you do you, we'll all be here when you're ready to come back.
Focus Energy could be useful in theory as crits ignore stat changes so if you did something like stack sword dances and tail whips, maybe in a situation where you are severely under-leveled, a crit would do a lot less damage
Specially with BadgeBoost "feature"
This might actually make sense. If you were to set up with 3 Amnesia/Sword dance, that would increase your Special/Attack 4-fold, but your crits would only deal 2x your base. With Focus energy on a high critical chance Pokemon, your average damage would increase by 50% of your base, so if you had a chance to set up three Amnesia/Sword dance on a 'free' pokemon who either deals minimum damage or nothing at all (e.g. Laurelai with a fighting/poison pokemon) you might as well use Focus energy to slightly increase your damage
Granted, this is a very niche case and it's probably still not worth a move slot, but there's at least one situation where Focus energy is usable
Counter is actually a solid move in competitive RBY play due to the fact that body slam and hyper beam see a lot of usage
Oh shit i was about to go to sleep and then boom new J Rose just drops GUESS IM UP NOW
Same here
Then this is a great advantage living in Asia, it's lunch time now.
same, im with my cat but i can wait
Same with me
I’m surprised Submission didn’t make the list. An 80% accurate 80 bp move that does recoil damage lol
Submission it's a decent move in certain situations, plus it's a fighting move. In Gen 1 was useful because Normal type pkmn are very common, and have it on a TM help against Rock type.
I usually play full randomizer and learn that move saved my ass with type weakness. Not a perfect one but it's something. Obviously far to be the best fighting move in the game xD
I wondered that too but at least it's fighting and serves a purpose. Take down is much worse i think since it's just bad double edge
@@raptors11111 It’s a decent holdover move until you get Double Edge though. I think what makes submission so bad is that it’s supposed to be the best widely distributed Fighting move in the game and it’s so bad. What makes it worse for me is that it never got buffed. It would be cool if they buffed it to 150 bp and made the recoil 1/2 damage dealt, like a fighting type Head Smash
Well there's the little detail of Submission being the best Fighting type move all the Fighting types that aren't called Hitmonlee could learn
@@primaster9360 that's the perfect explanation. Obviously High Jump Kick it's the best fighting move in Gen 1, but the signature move of Hitmonlee. You only have access to it with other Pkmn when you're playing randomizer.
These moves were designed so the AI is weaker since it attacks randomly. It really helps that a lot of AI attacks have low accuracy
I don't know about you, but I've never seen an AI opponent use Counter in gen1, or Razor Wind for that matter (do any of the trainers even have them?). And if these moves, along with Rage and Psywave, were truly intentionally bad just to make AI opponents weaker, surely the creators wouldn't have wasted TM slots with them.
The others I can sort of see, especially the status moves. Rock Throw im not sure about because Rock is already an easy type to beat, especially by the point in the game any of the AI trainers actually have the move. It just looked like the typings were badly balanced.
@@jakerockznoodles I actually see a use with Psywave kinda like False Swipe to help catch weak pokemon
The formula for Psywave changed in gen 3 and again later. It deals random between 50% and 150% of your level, instead of between 1 and 150%
It still technically does between 1 and 150%.
@@TheTakato122 Only if you're level 1, 2 or 3. What's your point?
Does anyone else just gets happy hearing that intro??
Psywave was also buffed in 3rd gen to have the range 0.5-1.5x the user's level (instead of going all the way down to 1 damage), making it essentially a weird seismic toss/night shade. It actually saw some competitive use in this role by Bronzong.
I love your content bud. I always get excited to watch your stuff.
So happy you’re back man. Do what you need to take care of yourself and make content. You make my day so much better.
Its the rule if it's jrose drop everything no matter what
Imagine living in the Pokemon universe, going to a stadium to watch a battle, and seeing a Magikarp and Metapod fighting each other with splash and harden.
Ok but can we get a Jrose11’s Pokemon Stadium playthrough? 👀
Agreed.
And I dig your Alice profile picture. Haha
@@stormrhode2330 thanks!
This!
Yes, we want to see it
Your videos are always refreshing to watch, not an annoying voice to listen to, a wholesome personality to listen to and I fucking love Gen 1
The return of the KING
I enjoyed this a lot - gen 1 is so funny with all it's weird broken mechanics. I love hearing about them. Definitely up for more top tens in the future!
Other moves I could potentially see as honorable mentions, Whirlwind and Roar. Basically just another Splash in trainer battles. Not even very useful in a wild battle considering you're usually better off just hitting run.
Theoretically it could stop a Sword Dance, Amnesia or Agility sweep i guess but I'm not sure gen 1 trainer AI is even capable of setup + attack
@@santasangre996 No, such moves fail in a Trainer battle. They were literally only designed with fleeing a Wild Pokemon in mind, yet any Arcanine you fight in Gen 1 loves to Roar at you to no avail
@@grunkleg.2934 I see, damn lol. sometimes I wonder the thought process behind some of the stuff in Gen 1, were they just like "yeah we need a move that forces wild pokemon out and doesnt do shit in trainer battles, also give it to a bunch of trainers"
@@santasangre996 It was probably designed and solely balanced around it _just_ being an RPG. It's why you have things like early game Pokemon being lesser mooks and weaker "equipment" you swap out for stronger "gear" later, entire types that were completely worthless, things like Onix which pretty much just function as a tough early game boss that's entirely worthless outside of that role and you can easily slay it upon becoming stronger, items and moves that have very specific, niche uses in mind, etc.
@@santasangre996 It's similar to how in Mega Man Battle Network 1, you had to use a chip (basicly a card in your deck) to escape from random encounters.
You know, I've always though that the Rock-type moves had low accuracy as a balancing mechanism for Rock resisting Normal, since Normal moves are so pervasive. A Pokemon that takes weak damage from most attacks and also has good moves in its type just becomes kinda busted.
Right. Types weren't meant to be homogeneous like they are now. How a moved worked was in relation to moves of its type, not overall. While it was a highly lacking metagame, you can tell the style and intent of the metagame has gone in another direction in recent gens. For the worse imo. Special type bug and rock moves feel so wrong. Like Power Gem and Bug Buzz make the gameplay feel so generic now, like they're moreso flavors than traditional pokemon types.
Haven't even watched it yet and I know it's gonna be a banger.
Everything you put out is just so polished. We all love the challenge runs, but this is fantastic, too.
I'm unsure if I've ever been here so early for it to say, "No views".
Glad to have you back, Sir JRose.
Omg this reminds me of something I wondered as a kid. How does a Hypno use Poison Gas? As a kid I always imagined it coming out of its arm pits or just farting.
Other honorable mentions:
- Teleport/Whirlwind/Roar...they do nothing in trainer battles
- sonicboom...goes along with your bad signature moves theme. Set 20 damage is useless after like the 2nd or 3rd gym.
And I predicted take down would make the list because its an inaccurate recoil moves and double edge is just objectively better, but your 10 were definitely worse.
Submission should've been there too. iirc 85 Accuracy and 80 basepower with recoil damage. What an amazing move. It's the strongest fighting type move in gen 1 tho so that's probably why it wasn't mentioned.
I'd also like to mention fissure because it's not only 35% accurate but alsp guaranteed to miss when you get outsped
@@theincrediblelapras4158 yeah true say. Fissure was terrible on any slow pokemon. Yeah and it's sad that they didn't give fighting any good moves besides like Jump Kick which I think only hitmonlee could learn. Submission is terrible its just a fighting type take down.
Just wanted to say. Your videos have been great entertainment for me, both for active watching and for background noise, and have made me want to try and do my own solo runs.
Just finished my first one with Squirtle, entering the hall of fame at level 76 with an in-game time of 5:34, which given the fact that this is actually the first time I've beaten an original Gen I game (I grew up on the remakes), I'd say isn't too shabby.
Trying to engineer my way through the games around the restrictions of only one Pokémon is a very fun puzzle, so thanks a lot for introducing me to it.
Focus Energy is useful in gen 1 in some specific cases, such as SD Scyther because when you are swords danced in Gen 1 you do NOT want a crit.
Constrict can actually be useful in the early game if you do a solo run with let’s say Tangela or Tentacool because it will decrease the speed of your opponent so you can then be faster and trap your opponent with bind or wrap !
And Counter is quite often used in competitive games though (Chansey for instance).
It decreases speed at a 10% chance. While you're whittling them away with 10 base power. Imagine putting that against Brock.
@@Aesculathehyena eh can't be much worse than most brock battles
@@Aesculathehyena In gen 1, it was one in three chance of lowering speed....slightly less horrible.
"Focus energy actively hurts you."
OBJECTION! I've seen enough of your solo challenge runs to know that it's sometimes better not to get the crit because of the badge boost glitch! If you're low on PP or possibly poisoned and below half health, taking a second turn just to avoid getting a crit could actually be useful.
Abusing a glitch so you can abuse a glitch 😂
Counter does see some use in competitive RBY, what with all the Body Slams and Hyper Beams flying around. To my knowledge, Chansey is the only common Pokemon that uses Counter very often, but it's something.
The presentation of this video was amazing. I couldn't watch the gameplay but I was just able to listen and visualize what he was talking about. He has a wonderful marathon voice. Good return, Jrose.
YuGiOh content creator here - love the reference 💕 I watch all your stuff it’s great
4:20 I heard an idea once that the reason Rock Throw has such a low accuracy in Gen 1 is because the devs were trying to balance the game because you run into early game Pokemon (like Brock's Geodude, for example) that have the move, and if it hit every time, it might be overpowered in the early game. So that was their way of balancing it. Same as giving Vine Whip such low PP.
But Brock's Geodude doesn't know Rock Throw...
@@robertlupa8273 So it would seem. But wild Geodude and Geodude owned by hikers can know the move, and be encountered as early as Mt. Moon.
Can't wait till he does the Pokémon challenge with gen 2. Seriously this dude is so entertaining
If Constrict had either a guarenteed speed drop or like a 50/50 shot then I think it wouldn't get such a bad rep. It would essentially be a pretty bad nuzzle, but could come in clutch in playthroughs where you need a little bit of damage but also want to lower speed to get an advantage.
Kind of cool that the signature move on Annihilape is Rage Fist, a take on old school rage that is actually really good.
Everytime Jrose says "celebrate.. good times.. come on!" it kills me lmfao
Actually, psywave deals between 0.5 and 1.5 your level since gen 3, making it on average as good as night shade, but way more unreliable
Extra honorary mentions: roar and whirlwind. They literally do nothing in trainer battles whatsoever. And unlike focus energy, this was intentional, not a glitch. And theres almost no reason to use it in a wild battle, because you can just press the run button to do the same thing. Its only slightly above splash in terms of usefulness. These two definitely give rage a run for its money here, because at least rage is TECHNICALLY an attacking move. Not a great one, but it deals damage. Roar and whirlwind do absolutely nothing of any use whatsoever
rember when jrose said he was coming back, i rember :(
I cant tell you how happy i am to see you uploading regularly again!
What amazes me is that game freak NERFED constrict in gen II. In gen I it had a 33% chance to lower speed and in gen II onward it only has a 10% chance to lower speed.
*Slightly related Fun Fact:* In Gen 2, Zap Cannon has a 99.something chance to paralyze instead of guaranteed paralysis.
@@robertlupa8273 also dynamic punch and confuse chance
Hey I'd like you to know that I've been having a hard time recently and that your work really helps me. I know others feel the same. So thank you for being a legend of youtuber
Regarding Razor Wind: I always imagined it being an attack where the Pokemon "throws" an array of blades at the enemy. Which explains why it is a normal attack, as not the "wind" is damaging the opponent. Maybe it is also because in german the move is called "Klingensturm (translation in english would be Bladestorm)" and the ultimate ability of the Blademaster in Warcraft 3 is also called Klingensturm.
Hope this trivia entertains you a little :)
Looking forward to your Gen II worst moves list! Enjoyed the video, thank you
I remember making the mistake of using Rage against the Rival's Abra. I had to reset because Rage missed and Abra could only use Teleport, effectively locking us both into a potentially endless battle
Had that happen to me as a kid too. Spent 2 hours pressing A before i gave up and reset.
Just wanted to say: I love your content, man. Your style is great and you are incredibly thorough. You're doing fantastic!
Here’s the thing though. Because of how absolutely wack Gen 1’s mechanics are, Focus Energy can actually be useful. Crits do not stack with stat increases, so in those times, crits are bad for you. Quartering your chance to get a bad crit is actually good.
By the way, Tackle got buffed to 40 base power and Constrict was still 10 base power. Now as of Generation 8, Constrict was completely removed in Generation 8
"Anything that doesnt do damage" - Me
Very glad you're back and doing things you like.
i noticed you havent posted a video in a long time; i hope youre doing well ! im really anticipating the next release ! :D
My theory is that not all the moves, and all the Pokemon, in gen 1 were designed for the player to use, but rather to be a part of the adventuring experience. I like to use Zubat as an example. It's easy to defeat, but supersonic and leech life is annoying.
The same is true for poison effect. It's terrible when you get poisoned. Not so.much for you to use on them.
Gen 1 was just a single player game to experience. I doubt the devs thought it would become competitive or larger than it was at the time.
I personally always thought Withdraw was really bad. And I've never even heard of it coming in handy in a challenge, either.
5:06 I demand and Exeggutor run now, dearest Jrose
"I've yet to find a use for counter"
Time for a Wobbuffet challenge run.
He means in gen 1
I agree on Constrict being so high, for one reason:
*It was never buffed. Ever.*
But you know what.
*IT WAS NERFED IN GEN TWO. WHAT*
We're missing you Jrose.... hope everything is alright 🙏
He is active on Twitch, if you wanna see him - it's actually really entertaining