History YMMV / PokeMon

* {{Sequelitis}}: Many longtime Pokémon fans feel the games started to decline with ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and the franchise's VideoGame3DLeap, which came with smaller and more linear regions, [[ItsEasySoItSucks a general drop in difficulty]], less PostEndGameContent of worth, [[UnderusedGameMechanic mechanics introduced in one game only to be abandoned by the next]], the removal of the National Dex (and, eventually, the exclusion of entire Pokémon species), and the games charging you extra money to allow you to transfer your old Pokémon to the new games. Notably, around this time the gaps between releases grew smaller, with at least one new game getting pumped out every year, and many fans feel that the series has suffered from decreased ambition in favor of increased profits.

* ImprovedSecondAttempt: While "alternate art" high-rarity cards garnered a lot of praise since their debut in the ''Tag Team'' sets and were one of the most coveted parts of later ''Sword & Shield'' sets, the latter were criticized by some fans for the [[CrackIsCheaper ridiculously low pull rates]] of said "alt art" cards. This got to the point that alt-art Umbreon VMAX in ''Evolving Skies'' became one of the most expensive cards in the entire ''history'' of the TCG, and alt-art Giratina V was valued at hundreds of dollars despite depicting a Pokémon that hadn't been in heavy demand up to that point. When "alt art" cards returned in the ''Scarlet & Violet'' block as "Special Illustration Rares", their pull rates were increased drastically, making them much more accessible to many players and much easier to collect.

** Several of the HM moves are considered a waste of a moveslot, not helping matters is HM moves [[ScrappyMechanic cannot be forgotten without the help of Move Deleter or Day Care]]:

** Wild Charge is basically an Electric-type Submission, but with 100% accuracy and 10 more base power — still well below the standard for recoil moves. What makes it hated is that it's often the best option for physically attacking Electric-types, putting them at an inherent disadvantage. Special Electrics get a much better deal, as Thunderbolt has the same power, no recoil, and a chance to inflict paralysis, and they also get PowerfulButInaccurate options in Thunder and Zap Cannon. Most Electric-types actively avoid Wild Charge like a plague, with only a few such as Iron Hands don't mind the recoil from Wild Charge much since it has a massive base HP and the Fire-type Arcanine runs it as a coverage option to hit Water-types. It doesn't help that the SecretArt of [[SeriesMascot the Pikachu family]], Volt Tackle, is effectively an even stronger Wild Charge that was introduced much earlier.
** Out of all the charge-up moves, Razor Wind is considered to be the worst out of them. While most charge-up moves tend to have high power to compensate spending a turn doing nothing or being semi-invulnerable for a turn, Razor Wind has none of those, only having 80 power on top of having to charge-up before executing. Worse, in Gen I to II, Razor Wind has 75% accuracy, making it possible to waste 2 turns doing nothing of value. Unlike Gust which becomes a Flying-type move in Gen II, Razor Wind retains its Normal-type despite involving wind. Razor Wind ends up vanishing into thin air in Gen VIII with barely anyone noticing its disappearance.

** Out of all the charge-up moves, Razor Wind is considered to be the worst out of them. While most charge-up moves tend to have high power to in an attempt to compensate spending a turn doing nothing or being semi-invulnerable for a turn, Razor Wind has none of those, only having 80 power on top of having to charge-up before executing. Worse, in Gen I to II, Razor Wind has 75% accuracy, making it possible to waste 2 turns doing nothing of value. Unlike Gust which becomes a Flying-type move in Gen II, Razor Wind retains its Normal-type despite involving wind. Razor Wind ends up vanishing into thin air in Gen VIII with barely anyone noticing its disappearance.

** For the first fifteen-odd years of its existence, Charizard was well-liked for being a fire-breathing dragon, in spite of being underwhelming in battle due to its typing and overly average stats limiting its usefulness. Then ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' gave Charizard ''two'' Mega Evolutions, both of which are much stronger than the base version in addition to being downright cool-looking. Charizard's popularity consequently skyrocketed, eventually leading to said popularity getting acknowledged within the video games via cameos. However, people began noticing that the games of the time were making an excessive amount of references to [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Gen 1]] and several Charizard cameos left it looking out of place. This culminated in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', where the champion's signature Charizard is [[CharacterShilling routinely shilled as being undefeatable]] and has a Gigantamax form that changes little from its regular appearance. Meanwhile, the other Kanto starters were completely absent at launch and they and the game's own [[StarterMon starter Pokemon]] didn't receive Gigantamax forms of their own for half a year. Consequently, Charizard has become one of the franchise's biggest examples of a BaseBreakingCharacter due to sheer overexposure. While Charizard still has many loyal older fans and many younger fans who can't get enough of the Flame Pokémon, many within the fanbase (especially those who don't favor Gen I) see it as emblematic of Game Freak supposedly [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to nostalgia]] at the cost of innovation, which isn't helped by Charizard's few chances at relevancy in the competitive metagame repeatedly being removed from subsequent generations.

** Lick, the only standard Ghost type move from the first generation, can cause Paralysis. The anime deliberately interpreted the attack through this trope (Ash's Charmander does ''not'' like it, for certain, and when the move is later used by Conway's Lickilicky in the Sinnoh League, depicted as the tongue rubbing Ash's Gible all over, every human watching the match reacts in disgust). Later Pokédex data for Haunter actually reveals the attack is a form of VampiricDraining, causing the opponent ''to shiver until it dies''.

*** Flash is widely hated for its unreliable accuracy for a HM move that lowers the target's accuracy. From Generation 4 and on, its accuracy was increased to 100% and it is now a TM move instead.
*** Cut's Power is sub-par at just 50, its 95% accuracy also means it has a slight chance to miss. Not only did Gen IV remove its ability to cut tall grass, but Gen V buffed Tackle's Power to 50 and its accuracy to 100%, while also reducing Cut's mandatory usage to just one segment.
*** While Rock Smash has a 50% chance of lowering the target's defense, its Power is a measly 20 in Gen II-III. This isn't as ergerious in Gen II since it's a TM move, but Gen III turns Rock Smash into a HM Move and make it mandatory to progress certain area such as Route 111 and Victory Road. Rock Smash would receives a BalanceBuff in Gen IV by having its Power increased to 40. Unfortunately for it, Gen VI then introduced Power-Up Punch, which has the same power as Rock Smash but always raises the user's Attack if it hits (which is more useful than lowering the opponent's Defense), making Rock Smash redundant. It didn't help that in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' it regained its HM status.

** Submission has a decent 80 base power, but it has an inconsistent 80% accuracy — and, more to the point, [[CastFromHitPoints 1/4th recoil damage]], when moves with recoil usually have 120 base power or more. In the gen I games, Submission was the strongest Fighting move available — if you didn't want your Machamp to have to chip away at foes with the pitiful Low Kick at the time, you were forced to use it. Later games added much better Fighting moves, fortunately, so players will tend to avoid Submission there whenever possible, and it's been removed in Gen IX.
** Wild Charge is basically an Electric-type Submission, but with 100% accuracy and 10 more base power — still well below the standard for recoil moves. What makes it hated is that it's often the best option for physically-attacking Electric-types, putting them at an inherent disadvantage. Special Electrics get a much better deal, as Thunderbolt has the same power, no recoil, and a chance to inflict paralysis, and they also get PowerfulButInaccurate options in Thunder and Zap Cannon. Most Electric-types actively avoid Wild Charge like a plague, with only a few such as Iron Hands don't mind the recoil from Wild Charge much since it has a massive base HP and the Fire-type Arcanina runs it as a coverage option to hit Water-types.
** Out of all the charge-up moves, RazorWind is considered to be the worst out of them. While most charge-up moves tend to have high power to in an attempt to compensate spending a turn doing nothing or being semi-invularable for a turn, Razor Wind has none of those, only having 80 power on top of having to charge-up before executing. Worse, in Gen I to II, Razor Wind has 75% accuracy, making it possible to waste 2 turns doing nothing of value. Unlike Gust that becomes a Flying-type move in Gen II, Razor Wind retains its Normal-type despite involving wind. Razor Wind ends up vanishing into thin air in Gen VIII with barely anyone noticing its disappearance.
** Frustration is a full-power Normal-type attack which gets stronger [[ThePowerOfHate the less your Pokémon likes you]], maxing out at 102 power at 0 happiness. This move has a direct counterpart in Return, which [[ThePowerOfFriendship maxes out at 255 happiness]] instead — and, while happiness goes up when you walk with your Pokémon, level it up, and use items on it (read: play the game normally), lowering happiness requires you to deliberately make your Pokémon faint or use one of a set of bitter medicinal items on it. Frustration is perfectly viable in competitive settings due to being effectively identical to Return there, but in-game, it's an exercise in frustration to use, and only a seriously StupidEvil trainer would ever use it past the early-game.[[note]]Most Pokémon start out with low happiness when first caught, so Frustration can be a useful [[CrutchCharacter crutch move]] until they've warmed up to you, but it will inevitably be replaced.[[/note]]
** Ever since its introduction, Hail has been a joke competitively. It took all the worst aspects of Sand (lack of a boost to offense) and Sun (setters having bad defensive typings, in this case Fire versus Ice) and somehow made it worse. Having no Pokémon with a speed-doubling ability until ''Gen 7'' (and not having a ''decent'' one until Gen 8 with the introduction of Arctozolt with its STAB Ice / Electric coverage that include its SecretArt Bolt Beak that nuke any non Ground type switch in if it goes first under Hail), and have no other types beside Ice to synergize with their weather (Sun has Grass Chlorophyll abusers, Rain has Electric- and Flying-type to spam their strongest normally [[AwesomeButImpractical low-accuracy moves]] Thunder and Hurricane respectively, and Sand has Steel and Ground not taking the chip damage as well as Sand Rush abusers). It wasn't until the introduction of Aurora Veil and a setter with great Speed (Alolan Ninetails) in Gen 7 that the weather finally became somewhat viable as a strategy. Gen 9 revamped Hail completely and replaced it with Snow, which removes the damage over time effect but boosts the Defense of Ice types by 50%.

** Pokemon has introduced several moves intended for Double or Triple Battles, and some of them are too specific to be worth using. The most notable example of it is Magnetic Flux which raises the offenses stats of the user and ally, but only if they have Plus and Minus as their ability. Players are better off using Reflect, Light Screen, or Aurora Veil that don't require specific abilities. In a similar vein, Gear Up requires the aforementioned abilites to activate, but increases their offenses stats.

** For the first fifteen-odd years of its existence, Charizard was well-liked for being a fire-breathing dragon, in spite of being underwhelming in battle due to its typing and overly average stats limiting its usefulness. Then ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' gave Charizard ''two'' Mega Evolutions, both of which are much stronger than the base version in addition to being downright cool-looking. Charizard's popularity consequently skyrocketed, eventually leading to said popularity getting acknowledged within the video games via cameos. However, people began noticing that the games of the time were making an excessive amount of references to [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Gen 1]] and several Charizard cameos left it looking out of place. This culminated in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', where the champion's signature Charizard is [[CharacterShilling routinely shilled as being undefeatable]] and has a Gigantamax form that changes little from its regular appearance. Meanwhile, the other Kanto starters were completely absent at launch and they and the game's own [[StarterMon starter Pokemon]] didn't receive Gigantamax forms of their own for half a year. Consequently, Charizard has become one of the franchise's biggest examples of a BaseBreakingCharacter due to sheer overexposure. While the Flame Pokemon still has fans, many within the fanbase see it as emblematic of Game Freak supposedly [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to nostalgia]] at the cost of innovation.

** The "pokédollar", the in-game currency used, is actually based off of Yen, and was invented for the English script. Because many people were not familiar with how Yen pricing works, it was easier to just make up a fantastical currency instead of translating it into Yen, and "Dollar" is the currency in many English speaking countries (America, Australia, Canada) As a result, inserting a decimal point after the last two digits makes the numbers sound much more reasonable.

** Several of the HM moves are considered a waste of a moveslot:

*** Cut's Power is sub-par with just 50, its accuracy means it has a slight chance to miss, and it's an HM move. Not only did Gen IV remove its ability to cut tall grass, but Gen V buffed Tackle's Power to 50 and its accuracy to 100%, while also reducing Cut's mandatory usage to just one segment.
*** While Rock Smash has a high chance to lower the target's defense, its Power is just 20. It did get its power increased to 40 from Gen IV onward. Gen VI then introduced Power-Up Punch, which always raises the user's Attack if it hits (which is more useful than lowering several opponents' Defense), making Rock Smash redundant. It didn't help that in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' it regained its HM status.

** Submission has a decent 80 base power, but it has an inconsistent 80% accuracy — and, more to the point, [[CastFromHitPoints 1/4th recoil damage]], when moves with recoil usually have 120 base power or more. In the gen I games, Submission was the strongest Fighting move available — if you didn't want your Machamp to have to chip away at foes with the pitiful Low Kick, you were forced to use it. Later games added much better Fighting moves, fortunately, so players will tend to avoid Submission there whenever possible.
** Wild Charge is basically an Electric-type Submission, but with perfect accuracy and 10 more base power — still well below the standard for recoil moves. What makes it hated is that it's often the best option for physically-attacking Electric-types, putting them at an inherent disadvantage. Special Electrics get a much better deal, as Thunderbolt has the same power, no recoil, and a chance to inflict paralysis, and they also get PowerfulButInaccurate options in Thunder and Zap Cannon. Electric-types with high HP stats like Iron Hands won't mind the recoil too much, but considering that most Electric-types are [[FragileSpeedster fragile]], the recoil will add up after a while.

** Ever since its introduction, Hail has been a joke competitively. It took all the worst aspects of Sand (lack of a boost to offense) and Sun (setters having bad defensive typings, in this case Fire versus Ice) and somehow made it worse. Having no Pokémon with a speed-doubling ability until ''Gen 7'' (and not having a ''decent'' one until Gen 8 with the introduction of Arctozolt with its STAB Ice / Electric coverage that include its SecretArt Bolt Beak that nuke any non Ground type switch in if it goes first under Hail), and have no other types beside Ice to synergize with their weather (Sun has Grass Chlorophyll abusers, Rain has Electric and Flying to spam their strongest normally [[AwesomeButImpractical low-accuracy moves]] Thunder and Hurricane respectively, and Sand has Steel and Ground not taking the chip damage as well as Sand Rush abusers). It wasn't until the introduction of Aurora Veil and a setter with great Speed (Alolan Ninetails) in Gen 7 that the weather finally became somewhat viable as a strategy. Gen 9 revamped Hail completely and replaced it with Snow, which removes the damage over time effect but boosts the Defense of Ice types by one stage. Time will tell if this can increase the weather's viability.
** Sunny Day does not fare much better than Hail, despite being made for an objectively stronger type. As mentioned above, sun's chief problem is all of its setters having poor defensive typings, leaving them vulnerable to entry hazards. Carrying Heavy-Duty Boots is rarely an option for sun setters, as they tend to prefer the lengthening effects of Heat Rock. Additionally, the series has historically had very few good abusers of Grass-type sun abilities (with the exception of Venusaur). Even with the introduction of the past Paradox Pokémon and their sun-abusing ability Protosynthesis, sun is widely viewed as a gimmicky-at-best playstyle.
** In Doubles formats, Trick Room is one of the most [[ThatOneAttack feared strategies]] thanks to being a form of speed control that can turn {{Mighty Glacier}}s into {{Lightning Bruiser}}s. Unfortunately, Trick Room is often relegated to unsuccessful gimmick teams in Singles. Due to a combination of the slower pace of Singles and the move having no automatic setters nor any way to extend its duration, Trick Room is among the weakest strategies regardless of tier. The strategy did see some success in Generation IX Singles thanks to Ursaluna being practically tailor-made to abuse it, though it's mostly due to the Peat Pokémon's absurd strength rather than the merits of Trick Room.

** Flash is widely hated for its unreliable accuracy for a HM move that lowers the target's accuracy. From Generation 4 and on, its accuracy was increased to 100% and it is now a TM move instead.
** Cut's Power is sub-par with just 50, its accuracy means it has a slight chance to miss, and it's an HM move. Not only did Gen IV remove its ability to cut tall grass, but Gen V buffed Tackle's Power to 50 and its accuracy to 100%, while also reducing Cut's mandatory usage to just one segment.
** While Rock Smash has a high chance to lower the target's defense, its Power is just 20. It did get its power increased to 40 from Gen IV onward. Gen VI then introduced Power-Up Punch, which always raises the user's Attack if it hits (which is more useful than lowering several opponents' Defense), making Rock Smash redundant. It didn't help that in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' it regained its HM status.
** Constrict has the lowest Power move of all moves, at just 10. Its secondary effect isn't that impressive either: it has a ridiculously low chance of reducing the target's Speed.

** Sunny Day does not fare much better than Hail, despite being made for an objectively stronger type. As mentioned above, sun's chief problem is all of its setters having poor defensive typings, leaving them vulnerable to entry hazards. Carrying Heavy-Duty Boots is rarely an option for sun setters, as they tend to prefer the lengthening effects of Heat Rock. Additionally, the series has historically had very few good abusers of [[LowTierLetdown Grass-type]] sun abilities (with the exception of Venusaur). Even with the introduction of the past Paradox Pokémon and their sun-abusing ability Protosynthesis, sun is widely viewed as a gimmicky-at-best playstyle.

* TheScrappy: With ''Champion's Path'' being a particularly hated expansion, the version of Machamp in the set is often mocked and used as a scapegoat for disgruntled players not being able to pull the set's [[CrackIsCheaper extremely rare]] Charizard cards due to its disproportionately high pull rate, to the point of "Machampion's Path" becoming a derogatory FanNickname for the set.

* SeasonalRot: Many longtime Pokémon fans feel the games started to decline with ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and the franchise's VideoGame3DLeap, which came with smaller and more linear regions, [[ItsEasySoItSucks a general drop in difficulty]], less PostEndGameContent of worth, [[UnderusedGameMechanic mechanics introduced in one game only to be abandoned by the next]], the removal of the National Dex (and, eventually, the exclusion of entire Pokémon species), and the games charging you extra money to allow you to transfer your old Pokémon to the new games. Notably, around this time the gaps between releases grew smaller, with at least one new game getting pumped out every year, and many fans feel that the series has suffered from decreased ambition in favor of increased profits.

** Lick, the only standard Ghost type move from the first generation, can cause Paralysis. The anime deliberately interpreted the attack through this trope (Ash's Charmander does ''not'' like it, for certain). Later Pokédex data for Haunter actually reveals the attack is a form of VampiricDraining, causing the opponent ''to shiver until it dies''.

** Many Pokémon species in particular can also become this, with the strongest examples being popular Gen I and II(-related) species that do not suffer from HypeBacklash, such as Gengar, Scyther/Scizor, Gyarados, Eevee and the Eeveelutions, Mewtwo and Lugia, as well as a few from other generations such as Absol and Mimikyu. Such species are loved by older nostalgic fans, but are also tolerated and even equally loved by newer fans for not annoying them through excessive marketing and/or an overzealous fanbase, causing many people to consider them to be above criticism. Species that ''do'' attract HypeBacklash, such as Pikachu,[[note]]through its ubiquity as the SeriesMascot and constant overshadowing of its own evolution[[/note]] Charizard,[[note]]through its association with "genwunners" and unfair marketing skew compared to the other Kanto starters[[/note]] Lucario,[[note]]through its very heavy WolverinePublicity and association with the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom[[/note]] Blaziken, and Greninja[[note]]a combination of Charizard's and Lucario's reasoning[[/note]] become more divisive, with some fans treating them as {{Sacred Cow}}s to an even greater degree and other fans expressing their annoyance towards such.

* PopularWithFurries: The franchise is a huge hit with the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom, with high amounts of fan art from the fandom and it not being a rare sight for a furry to use a Pokémon species for their fursona. ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' also gained popularity due to the [[{{Sizeshifter}} Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanics]], which essentially canonized the longstanding relationship between furries, Pokémon, and macrophilia, causing a noticeable surge in {{cute giant}}s, {{gentle giant}}s, and {{giant wom|an}}en of the Pokémon variety.

** A case could be made that every Pokémon that's not conventionally cute is at least somewhat CreepyCute (or UglyCute). With the possible exception of the Ultra Beasts, as they were designed to not look like Pokémon at all.

* CrackIsCheaper: Way too many examples to list but two incredibly notable examples are [[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Miriam and Iono's cards]] which went for '''thousands''' of dollars on sites like eBay and led to Creatures, Inc. saying they would release made to order boxes for Clay Burst so as to avert this trope.

** ''Base Set'' to ''Gym Challenge'' sets featured Trainer cards with extrodinarily powerful effects that often meant a game would be decided on the first turn of a game (In some extreme cases, the first turn was the ''only'' turn). This lead to a brief 'Prop-15/3' format [[labelnote:*]]You could play at most 15 Trainer cards in your deck, and could only have 3 copies of any individual card. Naturally, the only difference in Trainer cards used than the standard format was that people were playing ''less'' of them which only made it harder for the player going second to get into the game[[/labelnote]] which proved unpopular enough that it was only used at a single major event[[labelnote:*]]Wizards of the Coast took inspiration from their own Magic tournaments, and began the practise of format rotation afterwards, rotating out Base Set, Jungle and Fossil for their next tournament.[[/labelnote]]. Trainer cards from ''Neo Genesis'' onward were much less powerful; cards reprinting old effects often were limited to coinflip success or were simply less powerful; ''Expedition'' onward introduced Supporter cards, which you could only play one of a turn, and many of the old incredibly powerful Trainers became Supporters eventually.

** Porygon and its evolutions will never live down being the focus and namesake of the infamous anime episode that sent hundreds of children in Japan to the hospital with seizures or other ill-effects. The episode was subsequently banned from ever airing again in Japan or elsewhere, caused the show to go on hiatus for a few months, and proved to be a major stumbling block for the series early in its life. Since then, Nintendo and Game Freak have continually downplayed the line, none of which have appeared in the anime since, and seldom appear in merchandise.

* MisBlamed:
** The removal of the Game Corners had nothing to do with MoralGuardians; it was actually because the EU tightened its gambling laws.
** Since ''Pokémon'' is associated with Nintendo, they tend to get the brunt of the fandom's criticisms when something goes wrong, despite the games being developed by Creator/GameFreak, with the franchise being overseen and handled by The Pokémon Company. While Nintendo is not entirely blameless (especially since they partially own the Pokémon Company alongside Game Freak and Creatures Inc), they're not wholly to blame for the franchise's missteps either, as they don't handle the actual development of the games (again, Game Freak does) outside of QA testing via the Mario Club and occasional assistance. Their primary role is mostly to publish and market the games.

** Since ''Pokémon'' is associated with Nintendo, they tend to get the brunt of the fandom's criticisms when something goes wrong, despite the games being developed by Creator/GameFreak, with the franchise being overseen and handled by The Pokémon Company. While Nintendo is not entirely blameless (especially since they partially own the Pokémon Company alongside Game Freak and Creatures Inc), they're not entirely to blame for the franchise's missteps, as they don't handle the actual development of the games outside of QA testing via the Mario Club and occasional assistance. Their primary role is mostly to publish and market the games.