Greetings to all of you, and welcome to Top 5 Fridays, where I make top 5's about Pokemon, simple as that. Pokemon has introduced a lot of cool new things in Pokemon over the years Whether it be new forms of battling, cool little minigames, or just updated methods of playing the game, Pokemon has always been able to keep a fresh spin on relatively the same game. There are so many great and not so great functions brought into the franchise, and it was not easy narrowing it down to five, but I managed to decide what my five favorite changes in Pokemon were. I will be doing my five favorite this week and my five least favorite next week. There isn't much else to say on the matter, so let's get on to the list.
5) Happiness
This mechanic might sound pointless and made specifically for casual players. However, it does provide a lot of new possibilities (and kind of a necessity) for competitive players. Ever since it was introduced as a function for all Pokemon in generation 2 (happiness was introduced in Pokemon Yellow, exclusive to Pikachu), there have been plenty of Pokemon that are greatly affected by happiness.
One of the biggest things given from happiness are actually different Pokemon. There are plenty Pokemon introduced in generation 2 or later that evolve through happiness, like Crobat, Espeon, and Lucario. It also brought us baby Pokemon, which I will talk about at a later time.
Not only that, but it also is the main basis of two moves; Return and Frustration. Return deals damage based on how high the Pokemon's happiness is and Frustration is the exact opposite, dealing damage based on how low the Pokemon's happiness is. Also. if you want to have Draco Meteor on one of your dragon Pokemon, be sure to maximize its friendship towards you, otherwise you won't be able to use it. Happiness is not only a nice fun little thing for casual players, but it is a must consider with competitive players as well.
4) Double Battles
There have been a lot of cool new battle formats introduced into Pokemon over time like Triple and Rotation battles. My personal favorite has to be double battles, introduced in generation 3. I love double battles the most because they require the most thinking while still keeping a decently fast pace. In double battles, you send in two Pokemon at once, making battles a whole lot more strategic and on edge.
Double battles are also the basis for VGC, which I approve of greatly. For any of you who don't know, VGC is the official Pokemon tournament format, and I think that double battles are perfect for the official format. Since double battles are a lot more in depth than just spam a powerful move, each match can and will be more and more intense than the last. Double battles are the greatest battle formats in Pokemon that have so much to offer in terms of strategy. Also, Pokemon Colosseum and XD, great games.
Another aspect of the game introduced in generation 3, abilities give Pokemon cool effects both inside and outside of battle. Abilities can range from raising your own stats, boosting an attack's power, or even getting full immunity from certain types. I don't plan on going in-depth on random abilities at the moment because I have plans in the future (hint hint). Abilities give the competitive community new strategies and new threats to look out for.
2) Physical/Special Split
Before generation 4, the determining factor of whether a Pokemon's attack was physical or special was its type. This factor led to weird move combinations, like how Bite and Fire Punch were special moves, or how Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb were physical moves. However, when Diamond and Pearl were released, each attack in the game became individualized, more well known as the physical/special split. With this being introduced, a lot of confusing move/attack combinations were eliminated.
Not only does the physical/special split remove confusion with some of the moves, but it made some once useless Pokemon really good, and good Pokemon became ridiculously powerful. Gengar, Crawdaunt, Hitmonchan, Sneasel, Feraligatr, and Absol are a few of MANY Pokemon that have been greatly benefited from the physical/special split. It did hurt some Pokemon like Banette and Alakazam, but I feel like the Pokemon who gained greatly outweigh the Pokemon that lost. I know some people that saw the physical/special split as a negative thing, but I feel like the outcomes of this that are negative are not as plentiful or massive as the outcomes that are positive.
Before we get to #1: I have a few honorable mentions:
- Day and Night cycle. Pokemon in real time might not be that immersive, but it does add some interesting twists like daily events and time specific Pokemon.
- Pokeathlon. Out of all of the contest-like games in Pokemon, this was my favorite. It's a set of pretty fun mini games all controlled by the stylus, and it does provide quite a bit of fun.
- Reusable TMs. Finally, after five generations, you can stop worrying about wasting your most precious TM. In Black and White and on, TMs will no longer go away after only one use, so you can finally stop worrying about using that precious Earthquake on the perfect Pokemon.
- Mega Evolution. While I understand why some people might not be the biggest fan of Mega Evolution, I personally think that it is an interesting twist to evolution that we have come to know and it makes not good Pokemon good.
1) Natures
I feel like generation 3 of Pokemon was catering to the competitive aspect of the game. Before generation three, pretty much every Pokemon in the game was the exact same, unless you decide to spend 9800 on vitamins. Basically, two basic Squirtles at the same level would have the exact same statistics. When natures were introduced, each Pokemon got their own personality. Characteristics were also introduced, giving Pokemon even more personality. With this, two Squirtles at the same level can be completely different.
Natures and characteristics might not be the most fun and interesting aspects of Pokemon to talk about, but it is a key aspect of Pokemon that has completely altered the metagame. With the introduction of natures and characteristics, Pokemon went into a new form of competitive battling that's still around to this day.
Thank you so much for reading.
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