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1->''"You know something is dreadfully wrong with this mechanic when it takes this long ''JUST TO CATCH'' '''''ONE''' OF THEM!''"''
2-->-- '''LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}}''' on [[https://youtu.be/wn49ewUU-YQ?t=32m48s Roaming Pokémon]]
3
4Don't get us wrong, the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games are highly addictive and generally fun to play. That being said, many of the game mechanics that make the game very complex also tend to become irritating to many people.
5
6''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' has far too many of these, so it was given [[ScrappyMechanic/PokemonGo its own page]].
7----
8[[foldercontrol]]
9[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen I]]
10* Moves being determined as Physical or Special based on their typing. Besides being unintuitive, such as Fire Punch being a Special move, this caused balance issues that crippled many Pokémon who specialized in the attacking stat unsupported by their typing. For example, most Dark-type Pokémon introduced in Gens 2 and 3 had a high Attack stat and relatively bad Special Attack, while Dark-type moves were designated as Special-based, so they were never able to effectively take advantage of both their stats and their typing. Starting in Gen 4, each move would be classified as Physical or Special on an individual basis, breathing new life into the many Pokémon screwed over by this mechanic, while allowing future Pokémon to have more diversity in their stat distribution and still remain effective.
11* The Special stat determined a Pokémon's attack power and defense with Special attacks. This caused a glaring balance issue where Pokémon with high Special got to be offensive powerhouses and tanks that soaked up opposing Special moves, while those with a bad Special stat could barely do anything with Special moves and couldn't take a hit from them. This would be immediately corrected in Gen 2 where the Special stat was split into the Special Attack and Special Defense stats, while most Pokémon that had a high Special in Gen 1 had one of their special stats become significantly lower in the transition and most Pokémon with a bad Special had one of their Special stats significantly improved.
12* Wild Pokémon requiring you to send a Pokémon out every single encounter, in situations where you're just going to run from them anyways. Wild Pokémon encounters are the most basic and trademark part of the game (other than trainer battles), but it can get irritating when you're in an area with pesky high-Speed Pokémon that don't let you run, making you wonder "Why did I have to send out my Pokémon in the first place?!"[[note]]Except maybe in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold & SoulSilver]]'', when your lead Pokémon walks by your side.[[/note]]
13* Caves. Unlike the overworld, you're vulnerable to Pokémon encounters in the entire area, not just tall grass. Most of the time you'll run into GoddamnBats (''especially'' Zubat). Better have Repel ready! This mechanic finally died late in Gen VII, as ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' switched the series to using PreexistingEncounters over {{random|Encounters}} ones. Some caves were also dark unless you used the move Flash, meaning you had to either stumble around in the darkness or memorize the layout. Later games would increase the light level in caves, making Flash less necessary.
14* The moves Roar, Whirlwind, and Teleport all have the effect of instantly ending the battle when used in a wild encounter (they do other things, but those aren't particularly relevant for why they qualify for this trope). Problem is, they also end the batttle when used by the wild Pokémon themselves. It can be very frustrating for many players to find a Pokémon with a low encounter rate or worse a ''shiny'' only for it to use one of these moves and end the battle instantly before they can catch it. Particularly an issue with the Gen I Pokémon Abra, which can ONLY learn Teleport, essentially forcing the player to chuck a Poké Ball at it when it's got full HP and hope for the best. This was fixed in the more recent entries, with the moves failing when used by a wild Pokémon.
15* [[LuckBasedMission Safari Zones.]] You can't fight Pokémon found there, instead having to throw bait and rocks/mud to change the capture rate. You have to choose between making Pokémon easier to catch or less likely to run away, which is problematic because you only have a limited number of Safari Balls and steps.
16** Special mention goes out to ''[=HeartGold and SoulSilver=]'''s Safari Zone. This Safari Zone is customizable, with the Pokémon available depending on what environments and decorations you place. Unfortunately, getting certain Pokémon requires waiting. For example, In order to get Gible to appear, you'll need to add a certain number of plants and rocks to your rocky beach and wait up to ''200 days'' with that configuration in order for the trees and rocks to level up enough so Gible can just appear. At least in this game there's no step limit.
17** In ''Black/White'' and ''Sun/Moon'', the Safari Zone was removed entirely.
18** ''X/Y'' replaces the Safari Zone with the Friend Safari. You choose a person from your [[SocializationBonus Friends List]] and gain access to an enclosure with tall grass containing two Pokémon[[note]]or three, if the friend has beaten the Elite Four[[/note]] of a specific type based on their Friend Code, all set at level 30, and you fight them like a normal wild encounter. Not only are many of the Pokémon available this way rare, but all of them are guaranteed to have two perfect [=IVs=], there's a chance that the wild Pokémon will have its Hidden Ability, and there's a higher chance of encountering a [[PaletteSwap shi]][[BraggingRightsReward ny]] Pokémon. The four main flaws are that you can only access it after you beat the Elite Four, and that the Pokémon you have access to depends on who you have registered as your friend and whether or not you've seen them online after ''they've'' beaten the Elite Four, as well as the fact that many people have to resort to 'bartering' their Friend Code online to even have a slim hope of getting a good Safari, and then hoping that they and the 'owner' (who is a complete stranger, and most likely a foreigner) are both online at the same time. A textbook example of a 'Scrappy Mechanic'.
19** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]'''s updated Safari Zone uses standard battle mechanics as opposed to a Safari game. In-universe, this Safari Zone used to be just like the original, but the owner faced backlash from raising the price of admission when it became popular. It was later converted to a non-profit organization for the benefit of the Pokémon.
20* [=HMs=] teach your Pokémon special moves that can be used outside of battle to interact with the environment in various ways, such as cutting down trees, pushing boulders, or swimming across water. They're required to make it through the game, but they each take up a move slot and aren't always useful in battle. Each use comes with a time-wasting animation and the moves themselves cannot be forgotten until you meet the Move Deleter, who appears fairly late in the game. In fact, in Generation I there wasn't a Move Deleter at all. If you clumsily taught your Charmander Cut, be prepared to have your Charizard still have it during the Elite Four battles. It's usually recommended to just have one or two of your 'mons be dedicated "HM Slaves" so the rest of your party can focus on actually-useful moves.
21** This used to be justified to some extent, given that since [=HMs=] can (in Gen. I) be placed in storage like any other item, a Pokémon could be traded in knowing the move without the player having obtained the HM in the first place, and screen transitions cause [[PuzzleReset trees to regrow after being cut down, boulders to replace themselves after being moved or broken, and so on]]. You can also create HM Slave(s) to avoid wasting moveslots on good Pokémon, but that means going without 6 good Pokémon in caves (where they are often needed most). A player could inadvertently render the game {{Unwinnable}} by overwriting a necessary HM move in the wild and leaving themselves trapped.
22** The existence of [=HMs=] also severely limits team composition by railroading the player into having a Water-type and a Flying-type on their team. You need a Flying type because of the HM Fly, which serves as your primary means of backtracking by allowing you to instantly teleport to any town you've already visited. In Gen IV, there's also the TM Defog, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which clears fog]]. Fog is similar to darkness in other games except in addition to making navigation a pain it also cuts your accuracy by 40%, so you can't even just stumble around with near zero visibility until you somehow wind up where you're going like you could with Flash. And you need a Water type because of Surf and Waterfall, as well as Dive in Gen III and Whirlpool in the Gen II remakes. Surf is used to cross water, with Dive and Whirlpool being used to access specific areas in the water that can't be reached by just surfing on your Pokémon. Waterfall is redundant at best since it's pretty much never used outside of making sure you have the correct number of gym badges to face the Pokémon League. It seems Game Freak decided that simply having a security guard stand outside and vet people who enter like they had in ''Red and Blue'' wasn't flashy enough, and games that use Waterfall in this way will still have the security guard for some reason. Unlike other [=HMs=], such as Cut, Flash, Strength, and Rock Smash, which can be learned by a decent array of Pokémon and thus spread out among several members of your party, Fly and Defog are learned almost exclusively by Flying types and Surf, Dive, Whirlpool, and Waterfall are learned almost exclusively by Water types.
23** With the introduction of the TM Pocket of the bag, there's no longer any need for an HM to be put in the PC, thus rendering the point of the moves being unforgettable completely moot. Yet [[TheArtifact they still are impossible to forget without the Move Deleter]].
24** ''Black and White'' attempted to fix this. There are only 6 [=HMs=], and you only need to use them once during the beginning of the game. The others lead to hidden items. Players are now kept in check through extensive railroading. The Strength boulders also permanently stay down instead of resetting themselves as they did with past generations, so you don't have to worry about using Strength again if you go back through an older area. The problem with the trees still exists, though, but now they at least stay cut down for 24 hours before regrowing.
25** You can't trade a Pokémon that knows an HM to a newer game without going to the Move Deleter. It was a way to keep players from getting stuck, but it's still annoying. No surfing Pikachu in Gen V, because the surfing Pikachu has to forget Surf before you port it.
26** The Water-type move [[JumpingFish Waterfall]], which was the Goldeen line's SignatureMove in Gen I, became a HM in Gen II. In those two generations, it was effectively a PoorMansSubstitute for Surf[[note]]80 Base Power vs Surf's 95; both had 100% accuracy[[/note]], making it completely redundant as an attack, much like Strength made Cut redundant.[[note]]80 @ 100% vs 50 @ 95%.[[/note]] Gen III made the situation worse when Surf was allowed to hit both opponents in a double battle. Gen IV and later gave Waterfall some secondary characteristics that differentiated it from Surf, as well as making it a physical attack instead of special so it would be more appropriate for Water-type Pokémon with higher attack stats (like Gyarados).
27** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' got rid of this mechanic entirely, replacing it (as well as the Bicycle and Dowsing Rod items) with the much more convenient "Poké Rides", Pokémon that are completely separate from your main party and can be instantly called at any time. This however comes with the cost of removing ''all'' usage of moves in the overworld, even beneficial moves learned from [=TMs=] and level up such as Dig and Sweet Scent. It also came with another annoyance: while Surf, Waterfall, and Fly are still available as [=TMs=], Surf and Waterfall ''are not available until the postgame'' (and Strength, the other somewhat-decent [=HM=] move, is nowhere to be found, with Machamp, the Poké Ride that is used to fill Strength's original overworld use, being the only Pokémon that can learn the move naturally). The mechanics would continue to be absent in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' (where the only remnant, surfing, was now handled by the player's bicycle) and in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' (where its open world nature makes the progression obstacles redundant; progressive map traversal is unlocked as the player completes the Path of Legends and is built in to the player's box legendary).
28** While the mechanics return in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndEevee'' and ''Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl'' (as the game maps are near 1:1 remakes of the Kanto map and the Sinnoh map respectively, the progression obstacles are back), [=HMs=] themselves are still gone. In the ''Let's Go'' games they're replaced by "Secret Techniques" that are learned by your main partner and cannot be used in battle, while in ''BDSP'' all of the former [=HM=] functions are built into the Pokétch, and the in-universe explanation given is that the player is calling on wild Pokémon for help. (Amusingly, the Pokémon summoned is more often than not a member of the Bidoof line, which were prime examples of [=HM=] slave candidates in the original games.)
29* Many Gyms have gimmicks that are borderline GuideDangIt in case you want to get straight to the Leader while avoiding the other Trainers. While this is very hard to do, it is feasible (the Saffron Gym is an example) -- but only, as mentioned, if you have a guide handy so you'll know where to go (again, the teleporters in the Saffron Gym are an example; another frustrating one is the Opelucid Gym in ''Black/White'' where you have to step on switches on the dragons' hands so they'll go up or down and, depending on the hands' position, the statue's head will go up or down, enabling you to go where you want -- or not). Even if you don't intend to take on the Leader right away, you may find yourself running in circles so often to the point of being frustrating ([[RunningGag once again]], the Saffron City Gym is guilty of this; first-timers may also have a hard time with the rollercoasters in the Nimbasa Gym).
30* Pokémon and items which require a rare Pokémon to unlock. You want an Aerodactyl in ''Gold/Silver/Crystal'' without calling upon the first generation games? You need to catch a Chansey and trade it to an NPC. The encounter rate for finding Chansey? 1%. And then you have to either breed it or catch another one if you want to add a Blissey to your Pokédex. Generation III made it necessary to catch a Relicanth to get the Legendary golems, which - with its 5% encounter rate in a handful of very specific areas - has been known to require 101 consecutive uses of Sweet Scent to actually find. Oh, and if you want a Zorua in Black/White? You have two options: either a) transfer ''Celebi'' from Generation IV, or b) have one of the 3 shiny Legendary beasts, both of which were [[TemporaryOnlineContent distributed a fairly long time ago]]. Fortunately, online trading allowed you to get it relatively easily (since it is breedable), and in the sequels you can get a Zorua from a former Sage that doesn't require any event legendaries.
31* Losing battles that should have been easy wins through no fault of your own thanks to a critical hit is almost a rite of passage for competitive Pokémon battlers. Since damage thresholds are so essential in those matches, you always have to think twice about letting your Pokémon tank a resisted hit or one that should deal a survivable amount of damage, lest you see the dreaded "A critical hit!" message. If that was the only counter to the opponent's mon? Game over. As of Gen VI, critical hits have been changed to deal 1.5x normal damage instead of double, meaning they lean a little less towards random match deciders.
32* Likewise, when one's trying to catch a rare wild Pokémon, then accidentally [[NeverSayDie makes it faint]] with a critical hit. This especially goes for shiny Pokémon. [[AuthorsSavingThrow Thankfully, Generation II also introduced the move False Swipe, which will leave the Pokémon you're trying to catch at 1 HP, along with a couple of moves that let Normal-type moves such as the aforementioned False Swipe to hit Ghost-type Pokémon.]]
33* The freeze status. In the first generation, a frozen Pokémon is effectively eliminated, unless the opponent happens to carry a Fire-type move or Haze (which most players avoid using precisely for this reason). Being relegated to a 10% chance on offensive moves (or 30% in the Japanese version of Blizzard) makes it disproportionately more RNG-reliant compared to the other status effects. Further generations add a small chance to thaw yourself each turn you attack, and some ways to cure or prevent it from happening, but it's still a despised status condition due to its disproportionately powerful effects making almost every interaction with Ice-type moves a LuckBasedMission to some degree. It was replaced entirely with "frostbite" in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' (likely due to the faster-paced nature of its CombatantCooldownSystem), a status that causes DamageOverTime and a Special Attack reduction in a similar vein to burn and its physical Attack reduction, but ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' changed it back to freeze, to the dismay of many.
34* In Gen I only, there's also what fans refer to as "Gen I miss". In Gen I, the accuracy check on moves involved comparing a randomly generated number, from 0 to 255, to the encoded accuracy value and hitting if the latter is ''greater''. This meant that, in the event that your randomly-generated number was 255, your move would always miss because there's no way to have an accuracy value higher than 255[[note]]with the exception of the move Swift, which outright bypassed accuracy checks[[/note]]. ''Stadium'' attempted to fix this by instead making 255 an automatic hit, which meant that moves no longer had the 1-in-256 chance of missing, but also gave legitimately lower-accuracy moves a 1-in-256 boost to their accuracy.
35* The Name Raters, who determine whether you're allowed to change a Pokémon's nickname:
36** Creator/GameFreak could've made it as simple as including a name-changing app on whatever personal device you have depending on the region your game takes place in or maybe a function for the PC over at the Pokémon Center. Instead, you have to look for this guy and have him judge whether you can rename your Pokémon or not.
37** He won't let you change the Pokémon's name if it was obtained through a trade, migration, or an event:
38*** While "You can't change the nicknames of traded Pokémon" is a decent feature for Pokémon received from friends, it's awful for in-game trades, such as the Farfetch'd in Red and Blue, the ''only'' Farfetch'd in both of those games, nicknamed "DUX". It's also frustrating in online trades, as some people like to send out good Pokémon [[VideoGamePerversityPotential whose nicknames are so idiotic or offensive]] that you'll be reluctant to use the poor thing. Perhaps even more annoyingly, you can't even change the nicknames of Pokémon who didn't even have a nickname to begin with.
39*** You're also unable to name event-obtained Pokémon that are directly gifted to you. The least they could do is let you name the Pokémon after the delivery guy gives it to you, like any other gift Pokémon you get within the game.
40** It's even ''more'' frustrating in ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire''. One of the steps that you must take to [[GuideDangIt obtain Regigigas]] is to nickname your Regice. If, for some reason, your Regice is one that you obtained from a trade, you won't be able to nickname it. No Regigigas for you if you don't want to (or cannot) capture the one in your save file.
41** As of ''Black & White'', all new Pokémon's names are properly-cased (Raichu), so when you have your old Pokémon ([[BoldInflation RAICHU]]) from a previous generation, you can't get its name lowercased. However, if your Pokémon is one that can still evolve, its name will become lowercase once it evolves. This also affects Pokémon from the German, French and Japanese versions: they will lose their respective version names when evolved. Pokémon Bank thankfully fixes the capitalization for Pokémon without nicknames when transferring them up to ''X/Y'', but unfortunately if your Pokémon has a nickname it's going to be stuck in all caps. ''Sword & Shield'' also changed the behavior of foreign-language Pokémon to keep their foreign names when evolving.
42** ''Sword & Shield'' finally mitigated many of the Name Rater's pain points, although some issues still remain. Now, he's present in every Pokémon Center from the very beginning, and he can give a nickname to traded Pokémon that didn't already have one. Sadly, traded Pokémon with existing nicknames still can't be renamed. The feature also fails to take into account Pokémon whose original owners played the game in different languages: Pokémon whose names are different in a certain language cannot be assigned a nickname due to programming faults in the name strings. Foreign Pokémon that evolve in game don't adjust their languages upon evolution anymore either, and this is retroactively undone when transferring Pokémon via ''Pokémon Home''. This can mean that players who wish to read their traded specimens in their native language (and in some cases, in a style of writing that's legible to them) are in for a rude awakening.
43* Game Corners. Some [=TMs=], held items, and Pokémon are only available through these [[LuckBasedMission annoying gambling minigames]] unless you want to spend an obscene amount of money buying all the coins yourself. Made even worse in certain generations where the slot machines are so rigged they'd actually be ''highly illegal'' in a real-life casino. If ever there was a legitimate excuse for SaveScumming or even VideoGame/{{GameShark}}ing, this is it. ''Black and White'' finally ditched the concept altogether. Though it was more due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers stricter regulations on game content]], some found it welcome.
44** The inability for players to buy Game Corner coins in ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' is this to many. A new minigame called Voltorb Flip allows players to amass coins for free, but rather slowly relative to the number of coins needed to buy anything worthwhile. Factor in the fact that some players don't have the patience to learn how to play Voltorb Flip...
45* The Storage System in Generation I. When a box was full, you had to go to a PC and change it manually, not so bad, except it won't let you know when the box is full until you are trying to catch that danged Tauros you spent the last 20 min. looking for. Generation II had a partial fix, as Bill would call you up if your current box was full. However, you still had to go to a PC and change it manually. Better hope you're not in an area with a lot of Pokémon you want to catch. The Generation III overhaul fixed this problem by having additional Pokémon go to the next box.
46* The [[SocializationBonus trading system]], [[AmericansHateTingle in any country not named "Japan"]]. For many years, the only way to get Pokémon from other versions is to physically find another player and either player needed a link cable to connect the two Game Boys so they could trade. This wasn't a problem for kids at school since the series grew popular with them and someone was bound to have a link cable, but if you lived in a place where not many people had the games, or you didn't have many friends, you were out of luck for OneHundredPercentCompletion. People either opted to own two Game Boys, a link cable, and both versions of the current generation Pokémon games so they can trade with themselves, or went for the cheaper route and got a Gameshark or Action Replay so they can just cheat for the Pokémon they needed and get the event Pokémon that they couldn't get. It's even worse for emulator users, who frequently find themselves barred ''entirely'' from trading.[[note]]There do exist emulators that emulate connectivity, but this tends to be a low-priority feature for emulator devs, so your emulator of choice may not yet have it, and if it does, it may be unreliable.[[/note]] This trading mechanic is very popular in Japan due to how densely populated most cities and towns are, so it wouldn't be hard for players to meet other players that had the game. Outside of Japan, it is not the same case.
47** The advent of Nintendo's handhelds being able to connect to the Internet and the Global Trade System, fortunately, has largely alleviated these problems. Someone who wants to trade now only needs an Internet connection and they can search the entire planet for people offering the Pokémon they want...that is until the Switch era, where a subscription to Nintendo Online is required for anything other than local trading.
48* Mythical Pokémon; that is, [[OlympusMons Legendary-tier]] Pokémon that are only available [[TemporaryOnlineContent via limited-time real world events]], after which they're gone forever and are next to impossible to come by without cheating. Buckle up, boys and girls, this has '''many''' obvious issues.
49** Originally, events were only held at specific physical locations, such as stores or event tours, in specific cities and states. If you couldn't get there for whatever reason (such as living too far away from Washington or the one Vue Cinema in Bristol), you could forget about getting, say, the Aurora Ticket to fight Deoxys in ''[=FireRed and LeafGreen=]''. And if you lived in a country outside of Japan, America, and Western Europe? Having your very own legitimate Mew was a fool's dream, since such events [[NoExportForYou almost never came to other countries like New Zealand]].
50** Wi-Fi connection events in Gen IV and Gen V fixed it somewhat, but if for some reason you couldn't connect to the Internet on your DS (and even going to a public hotspot like [=McDonald=]'s wasn't guaranteed to work, as ''you still might not be close enough to the router''), you were screwed. Made worse by the fact that prior to the [=DSi=] and Gen V, most routers and encryption types weren't compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi. So unless you had one of the chosen Wi-Fi routers and your router was unsecured or had the easiest encryption to overcome, you still wouldn’t be getting that precious Celebi that you’ve been asking for.
51** The worst thing about this is that [[FranchiseOriginalSin the first event-only Pokémon, Mew]], was only such because one of the programmers [[ThrowItIn added it in at the last minute]] and never intended for it to be obtainable, which is why it has no bearing on Pokédex completion. Ever since then, more Pokémon have been gated off in the same manner (with the number per generation going from one to ''four''), though they're all obviously planned out ahead of time for a later release. There is ''no'' valid reason (no, not even the GrandfatherClause) for such unobtainable 'mons to exist/remain event-only in later generations, making poor Mew a FranchiseOriginalSin in this regard. Even worse, the practice of "hide now, release separately later" is ''frighteningly'' similar (if not the UrExample) to the maligned practice of "[[DownloadableContent on-disk DLC]]", that is, content that's already present in the game's code but which needs DLC to unlock it.
52** In Gen VI, the model for a few of these events changed to being serial code-based, but these also draw the ire of fans. In lieu of a wireless distribution that is limited only by time, these things are limited in terms of quantity as well, and information on which locations are doing the distributions is often scarce. Many people who have gone to stores giving out these codes have complained that even though they are supposed to be handed out for free, employees often refuse to surrender the codes unless [[MovingTheGoalposts they purchase something else as well]]. Even after inputting the code, you need to connect to [=Wi-Fi=] in order to activate it, making the process quite redundant in some aspects. At least the codes can be duplicated (legally!) through [=StreetPass=], but that requires finding somebody nearby who was able to get a code in the first place!
53** What is ''not'' mentioned about many events is that stores can choose to ''opt out''. A store chain that exists in your town is doing an event Pokémon? Watch - you'll get the ''one'' district out of your ''entire'' region that opted out. In that case, you'd better have a driver's license and a car.
54** The events can also [[BadExportForYou vary by]] {{region|alBonus}}. Americans tend to get shortchanged often on these. If you live in Europe, your event gets you a Darkrai, a Mythical Pokémon with high power and great stats. America? A Dragonite with Multiscale. Something you're likely to breed up with the perfect [=IVs=] to boot.
55*** Because of this and the sheer number of Mythicals, depending on where you live you may not be able to get all of them in a given generation. If you went to every giveaway/downloaded every [=Wi-Fi=] event in the UK during Generation V, without transferring from Gen IV you'd ''still'' be short at least one Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy and Shaymin! Gen VI mercifully averted this as every Mythical from before ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' was released over 2016, but since ''that'' was done as a MilestoneCelebration for the franchise, don't expect a similar event to happen again for a long time.
56** If you're lucky, certain events may be repeated. Some, however, are done only once and then never again. Had you missed the initial Genesect [=Wi-Fi=] event when ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' were first released in America/Europe, you weren't getting it ''ever'', since unlike Victini, Keldeo and Meloetta, it never got a rerelease during Generation V.
57** The ways of attaining Mythicals in-game has quickly devolved to the point where they are given gratuitously. In Gens III and IV, you got items that let you go to areas you couldn't otherwise go to, learn interesting things about the Mythical in question, occasionally meet [=NPCs=] not seen anywhere else (like Professor Oak in ''Platinum''[='s=] Shaymin event), and fight and catch the Mythical as your own. In short, event-exclusives were EVENTS. The last time this happened was with the Liberty Pass in ''Black/White''.[[note]]Well, technically speaking, ''Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire''[='s=] Eon Ticket is the latest, but that's merely for getting the Eon Pokémon not present in your normal version, and not for a Mythical.[[/note]] Ever since, you're always ''given'' the Pokémon itself by an NPC in a Pokémon Center with no fanfare or grandiose whatsoever. You can't even nickname them since they always have a gimmick OT like "[=WIN2011=]", so technically they're not even ''yours''.
58** Starting with Gen IV, certain Mythical Pokémon that know moves it can't normally learn (usually a mascot Legendary's SecretArt) may be given away. While a fun novelty, this can also turn some of these Pokémon from "above-average" to "absolutely incredible" (a Victini with Bolt Strike and Blue Flare can be devastating). Naturally, these events are only ever done once and rarely ever repeated, especially since they're often done to promote a new movie and are thus "irrelevant" once the next one is hyped up. This also has the possible effect of [[NoExportForYou the only event being Japan-exclusive]].
59** So long as you have a Wonder Card for the event loaded onto your cartridge, you can get the Pokémon or item (provided you haven't done so already). And ''of course'' Wonder Card data gets wiped with the save file, so we hope you weren't ever planning on starting a new game on a cart with cards of long-gone events on it. But don't fret; you can give Wonder Cards to other systems so they can access the event! ...but only some of them. As in, only the Japanese Secret Key Wonder Card in Gen IV can be sent to other players, and nothing else can. You'd think with how much trading is emphasised, that it'd extend to things people otherwise ''can't get'' (though at least the Eon Ticket in ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire'' can be [=StreetPassed=]).
60** Overlapping with the problems with the GTS introduced in Generation IV, Mythical Pokémon cannot be deposited on the service, so you can forget about trying to complete your collection via that method. It's bad enough that the majority of modern Mythicals come with Ribbons that actively prevent trading them outside of direct Link Trades, but if you try to put up a Mythical ''without'' such a Ribbon (e.g. a Darkrai caught at Newmoon Island in ''Platinum''), it still won't be allowed on. The kicker? The GTS still allows players to ask for such Pokémon (until ''Pokémon Home'' finally blocked those asks).
61** ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' took the concept of gating off Pokémon to its logical extreme; Mew is gated off by a paywall in the form of the Poké Ball Plus accessory (and no, you can't transfer one from ''VideoGame/PokemonGo''). It costs around $50, almost as much as the games themselves! And to add insult to injury, you only get one shot at obtaining the Mew you want; if you're unlucky enough to get one with a bad Nature, too bad. [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} James Stephanie Sterling]] went as far [[https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/1064862709060124672 as to liken it]] to LootBoxes. And don't think you can share it with your friends or use it for multiple games, either; each copy of the accessory can only grant a single Mew ever.
62** All this said? Some games have given fans a glimmer of hope that the mechanic may be improved or even outright scrapped someday: ever since ''Omega Ruby''/''Alpha Sapphire'' (in which [[spoiler:Deoxys appears as the TrueFinalBoss of the game]]), games have often made at least one Mythical Pokémon (both established and newly-introduced) available in-game without the need for an event, through means such as in-game encounters, DLC, non-expiring QR codes, {{Old Save Bonus}}es, or (in the case of ''Pokémon Crystal'''s Virtual Console release) making the item needed for the event available in-game. However, "traditional" event-exclusive Pokémon are still being made as of ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' (including the non-Mythical Walking Wake and Iron Leaves).
63* The Day Care. It raises your Pokémon for you. It sounds good, [[VideoGameDelegationPenalty except]] your Pokémon will not evolve if they reach their evolutionary level while in the Day Care. The Pokémon you leave in the Day Care can also learn moves, but if they already have 4 moves, one old move will be deleted. Problem is, you don't get to choose which old move gets deleted or if you even want the new move at all, which makes it a huge pain if you're breeding for egg moves.[[note]]However, this mechanic can be abused to work around another ScrappyMechanic, the HM system. By placing the HM move in the first slot and grinding up to the level a new move is learnt, the otherwise irreplaceble move will be overwritten.[[/note]] Thankfully, Generation VI won't apply the changes until the Pokémon is removed from the Day Care, so you don't have to withdraw them all the time to rearrange their movesets. Generation VII further alters the Day Care, now called the Nursery, so that it no longer levels up the Pokémon stored there, making this mechanic not an issue anymore.
64* The [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Individual_values Individual Value (IV) system]]. Natures are similar, but they're much easier to breed (or [[SaveScumming soft-reset]], in the case of pre-existing encounters) for. [=IVs=] are hidden numbers in a Pokémon's data; each stat has a number that that goes from 0 to 31, boosting the Pokémon's stat by up to 31 extra points at level 100. It was meant to make each individual Pokémon more distinct, but in the end, there are many problems. While the series values friendship and working hard as key to success, if your favorite Pokémon has bad [=IVs=], the key to success will be to breed a better one, an extremely convoluted process that involves lots of luck and possibly inbreeding. Unlike Effort Values, you can't do a single thing to change [=IVs=] without hacking the game. Do you have a Pokémon that needs to use Hidden Power? Your problems are compounded by several orders of magnitude, especially considering [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Hidden_Power_calculation all the math that goes into Hidden Power]]. Most damningly, the system is bad for Legendaries. Why? ''You can't breed for better ones.'' It's one of the biggest reasons for the massive amounts of hacking and the popularity of online battle simulators. Some even consider the IV system one of the biggest barriers for players trying to get into competitive play -- if your team [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper doesn't have perfect stats]], you have no choice but to get out of the competitive scene and go hatch a few gazillion more eggs, since only perfection is good enough for competitive play.
65** Generation VI went some ways into making the system easier to deal with. Holding a Destiny Knot when breeding a Pokémon will transfer five [=IVs=] to the offspring. Baby Pokémon, Legendaries, and Pokémon from the Friend Safari will have multiple stats with [=IVs=] of 31 when caught (two for Friend Safari, three for Pokémon in the No Eggs/Undiscovered group, most notably Legendaries and Babies in ''X/Y''). Even more, Hidden Power was changed so its damage value was no longer determined by [=IVs=] (but its type still is), being at a flat 60 damage. Some players wanted the system gone completely, but the changes have pacified them for the time being.
66** Generation VII introduced Hyper Training, which allows you to max out the [=IVs=] of a level 100 Pokémon by trading in special items. While it's worthless for breeding and can't change Hidden Power[[note]]a double-edged sword, as this makes breeding for Hidden Power easier, unless they're a legendary who can't breed, and thus are stuck with what Hidden Power they have[[/note]] due to not directly altering the [=IVs=], and it requires a lot of grinding or good luck to get the special items, it makes SaveScumming for unbreedable Pokémon '''much''' easier, especially because there are a lot of them in ''Sun/Moon''. In addition, this game's stat judge can be accessed from any PC once you unlock it, and it even shows a little graph for the Pokémon's [=IVs=]. In previous generations, the judge would only remark on an IV of 31 or 0, so your Pokémon could still have abysmal [=IVs=] you wouldn't know about unless you calculated them. In addition, it is possible to chain a Pokémon with up to four perfect [=IVs=]... by dealing with the S.O.S. system, which is detailed below.
67* Legendary Pokémon (as well as some special overworld Pokémon) can only be fought once; make them faint or run away and they disappear. [[PermanentlyMissableContent And they don't come back. Ever]]. While veterans will know to save beforehand, first-time players who are unaware that these are one-time-only encounters can easily screw themselves out of a Snorlax or Zapdos forever. Thankfully, every game since ''Platinum'' [[AntiFrustrationFeatures makes them respawn every time the Elite Four is beaten until they're caught]] -- though should a player make them disappear before then, they'll lose out on a powerful ally that makes defeating them the first time that much easier.
68* The absurdly low catch rates for most legendaries. While it is understandable that a legendary Pokémon shouldn't be stupidly easy to capture, it can be extremely excruciating to spend many minutes at a time trying to capture a legendary Pokémon at low HP while suffering from a status effect and see it refusing to stay in the ball you thrown while said Pokémon whittles down your party. Severely unlucky players can potentially waste all of their Ultra Balls (and/or other ball types in later games) and ''still'' not be able to capture that elusive legendary while another player can get incredibly lucky and get the Pokémon in the first ball or even in a weaker ball.
69* Unlike many other {{Role Playing Game}}s, ''Pokémon'' games only have one save file. While a natural consequence of the original games pushing the Platform/GameBoy's limits, it becomes less and less excuseable with [[TechnologyMarchesOn the passage of time]], and this, alongside the ever-growing number of Pokémon to collect -- including all the Pokémon and items that exist only as TemporaryOnlineContent -- actively discourages players from starting a new game, lest all their hard work be gone forever with a lot of effort necessary to completely restore it (and if you have Mythicals? Better get out your hacking tools, because you'll never get legit ones again). The advent of ''Pokémon Bank'' soothes the pain somewhat (you can simply send all your precious Pokémon there and withdraw them after starting a new save), but event-only items like Mewnium-Z will still be lost. The nature of save files on the Platform/NintendoSwitch gave players a way around this in ''Sword and Shield'', but there's no reason to believe future games will go out of their way to keep this change if it's not inherently built into the console.
70* Gating items and/or content behind Pokédex completion. While getting ten Pokémon for the Flash HM isn't too hard, some are ridiculous, such as the National Pokédex in ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' requiring players to capture seventy Pokémon, roughly half of the original Pokédex.
71* [=TMs=] being consumable items that could only be used once, while most [=TMs=] only had one obtainable copy in the game. This caused countless TooAwesomeToUse moments when you have several Pokémon you would want to teach a TM to, and it made using cheat devices or abusing glitches practically mandatory if you wanted to play competitively on cartridge or use a variety of Pokémon in the Pokémon Stadium games and the various in-game Battle Facilities, as many [=TMs=] were vital moves you would want to teach to multiple Pokémon and couldn't be learned without the TM. This was at its absolute worst in Gen 1, where level-up movepools were generally incredibly barren (with many Pokémon having even key STAB moves only being learnable by TM), breeding didn't exist yet to pass down moves, and few [=TMs=] could be reobtained (which were mostly crappy [=TMs=] at that). The following Gens would help mitigate the problem, with Gen 2 introducing breeding where TM moves can be passed down, and each subsequent Gen would increase the amount of reobtainable [=TMs=], but breeding had its limitations (only male and genderless Pokémon could pass down TM moves, and Pokémon can only breed with those in their "Egg Group", limiting the number of Pokémon you can pass the TM move down to), while most of the reobtainable [=TMs=] could only be bought at the Game Corners and Battle Facilities, making it take a lot of work to reobtain just one of those [=TMs=]. Gen 5 would finally just make all [=TMs=] infinitely reusable to much rejoicing. And although Gen 8 would introduce [=TRs=], which are effectively single-use [=TMs=], none are unique; they can all be bought from [=NPCs=] and obtained from Max Raid battles.
72* Most Stone evolution Pokémon generally learning little-to-no moves by level up in their evolved forms, requiring you to learn level-up moves in their unevolved forms if you want those moves. This was meant to balance out the ability to evolve these Pokémon at any level once you had the necessary stone, to make players choose between getting a [[CrutchCharacter fully-evolved Pokémon early that would be still stuck with bad moves later]], or [[MagikarpPower keeping your Pokémon unevolved and getting rewarded with good moves later]]. However, unless the Pokémon in question could rely on [=TMs=] to fill up its moveset with good moves (such as Nidoking and Nidoqueen), if you used a stone evolution Pokémon, this often just left you carrying it in its unevolved form a lot longer than Pokémon that evolve by other means (for example in the first two Gens, if you wanted an Arcanine with Flamethrower, which wasn't available as a TM, you had to not evolve Growlithe until ''level 50''). Additionally if you [[GuideDangIt don't already know what moves the unevolved Pokémon can learn and when]], and don't want to or can't consult a guide about it, you'll be left wondering when your Pokémon learned all the moves it could by level-up and could unknowingly evolve it before it learns a desirable move or end up waiting to evolve well past the point the Pokémon learned all its desired moves. For the extra aggravation, Pokémon that evolve by trade or through other non-level based means were not given this penalty, even though they too could be evolved at any level. This problem wouldn't be addressed at all by later Gens until finally in Gen 8, where while stone evolved Pokémon still have barren level-up movepools, they now have their unevolved form's entire moveset programmed in as their default level 1 moves, and so through a Move Reminder can be taught any level-up move they missed.
73* The Stat Experience system, the precursor to the Effort Value system that replaced it in Gen 3. While both systems work similarly in allowing you to boost your Pokémon's stats through battling, and both allow that boost to go up to a max in each stat that gives an additional 63 points at level 100, the EV system differed by having an overall cap on the amount of [=EVs=] a Pokémon can accrue (you effectively only have 127 stat points from [=EVs=] to distribute among all your Pokémon's stats, forcing you to pick two or three stats for your Pokémon to specialize in or take a generalist approach with more modest gains in all stats), whereas the Stat EXP system had no overall limit and so you could max out the stat boost on every stat. As a result, this hindered competitive individuality in Pokémon builds, as you and your opponent likely won't choose to have the same Pokémon specialize in different aspects when they can be at their max potential in every stat. It additionally made every Pokémon a lot bulkier, as they would all have their HP and Defensive stats boosted a significant amount, causing PaddedSumoGameplay where matches took a lot longer and making offensive strategies a lot less viable when even frail Pokémon couldn't be [=2HKO'd=] by neutral hits without a very strong (and usually inaccurate) move from a very strong Pokémon. Plus, if you wanted to play competitively on cartridge or use your Pokémon in Pokémon Stadium, maxing out your Pokémon's Stat EXP for every stat was an [[ForcedLevelGrinding ordeal of grinding]] that took a lot longer than maxing out your [=EVs=] in the post-Gen 2 games took and was a lot more complicated to keep track of (for reference, maxing out the [=EVs=] on a Pokémon in those games took, at maximum, 508 battles, with many ways to severely mitigate that amount, whereas maxing out your Stat EXP would take well over a thousand battles and with no way but very expensive vitamins to mitigate it in Gen 1 and the incredibly rare Pokérus in Gen 2). For the single-player playthroughs, since all in-game opponents' Pokémon have no Stat EXP at all, it made an already easy game even easier, as Pokémon you trained would become so much better at every stat than the opponent's Pokémon would be at equivalent levels, with the statistical gap only widening as you progressed through the game.
74[[/folder]]
75[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen II]]
76* Roaming Pokémon. They're Legendary, which makes them hard enough to catch on their own. They only show up randomly, and it's often hard to track which route they're on at all, not to mention they often switch randomly. They run at the first opportunity and starting in Gen 3, StatusEffects don't prevent them from fleeing; only trapping them will work, and the trapper must remain in battle. A few running Pokémon even have the move Roar, which instantly forces you out of the battle (and, in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen FireRed and LeafGreen]]'', ''[[PermanentlyMissableContent prevents you from ever encountering them again]]''). The one upside is that their HP and status don't replenish between encounters. The runners' natures and stats are determined randomly ''when they start running'', not when you catch them so [[SaveScumming save scumming]] for one that's actually ''usable'' is... not ''quite'' impossible, but close enough that only the most absolutely dedicated players will even try it.
77** Fans have since mocked the concept. ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' makes fun of roaming Pokémon unaffected by sleep [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/runaway here]] and a DA artist [[http://stephi-jk.deviantart.com/art/Can-t-Escape-Raikou-160600396 mocks]] [[http://stephi-jk.deviantart.com/art/Fast-Asleep-Entei-162032873 three]] [[http://stephi-jk.deviantart.com/art/Still-Fleeing-Suicune-166275987 roamers.]]
78** In the third-generation games, with the exception of ''Emerald'', a glitch forces all roamers to have ''horrible'' [=IVs=]. Although the HP IV is unaffected, the Attack IV maxes out at just seven and the rest of the [=IVs=] are all '''zero'''. After spending all that time and effort trying to chase and catch the roamers, it's a major kick in the shorts to find out they're far weaker than they should be.
79*** To make matters worse, the IV Judge didn't exist in the affected games, meaning that unless they are transferred to a later game, you would have no way of knowing that their [=IVs=] are so bad.
80** The fourth generation has two roaming Pokémon (well, there's five in ''Platinum'') but it's a ''little'' easier to bear thanks to a feature that allows the player to track roamers on the bottom screen of the DS.
81** It's not bad in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' though. Right before your game's respective roamer is introduced into the game's plot, Professor Juniper gives you ChekhovsGun in the form of a Master Ball. Wherever the roamer may be (be it Tornadus or Thundurus), the marquees at each rest stop will tell you that a storm is going on in that area which will save you the trouble of blindly searching for it.
82** It's even better in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', where there are ''no roamers in the entire game'' for the first time since the first generation. And for the stationary legends, you get [[SequelDifficultyDrop two Master Balls, one of which is given for free]].[[note]]For the other one, you have to defeat [[OptionalBoss Colress]] in the postgame.[[/note]]
83** The easiest way to deal with this is to simply [[GuideDangIt look up the level of the Roamer you want to catch]], put a Pokémon at or just below that level at the front of your party, buy a bunch of Repels, then run or surf from route to route on routes below said Pokémon's level. Eventually the roamer will warp to that route and you will encounter it, then just chuck your Master Ball. Tedious, but much less frustrating than hoping to encounter it the normal way.
84** ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' takes away the aggravation of fighting and capturing them, but still makes you hunt them down first. Instead of having you fight them when you stumble across them, they flee before you get to do anything (even Shadow Tag can't trap them). After encountering them like this 11 times, they'll settle down in the Sea Spirit's Den, where you can challenge them like normal.
85** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]'' follow in ''Black 2/White 2'''s stead by having no roamers at all, with Latias/Latios becoming a Pokémon fought in a regular battle instead of a roamer as in the originals. This also applies to Pokémon who were roamers in past games, such as the Legendary Beasts, Tornadus/Thundurus and Mesprit.
86** [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon The seventh generation]], at least so far, is the first generation since the originals to completely do away with this, thankfully. Ultra Beasts and Necrozma are the closest things, since they're found in random encounters, but the game outright tells you which routes they occupy (except Necrozma, but even it is always found in the same place), they don't flee the battle or roam from route to route, and they don't even have their stats predetermined until they appear, meaning SaveScumming is a valid option once more. Heck, you can knock one out and then run into it again immediately afterward, without even having to re-fight the Elite Four.
87* Evolution by friendship. Unlike LevelGrinding, trading, or use of a certain item, there's no quick way to evolve a Pokémon by friendship. You have to keep it in the front of your party, battle with it, pile on the items and/or not let it faint. Depending on the game you might be able to feed it Poffins or Pokéblocks, but it can still eat through your supplies very quickly. If you want to make your Pokémon evolve by friendship by next level, then you have no choice but to stick it in the front of your party and go running around, north, south, east and west, for literally ''thousands'' of steps. This method will take at least more than three hours. It's bad enough when it's a Pokémon you want to use, but when you just want to get it on the Pokédex it's downright annoying. Plus, since there's no set level for a friendship evolution, if you aren't careful you can potentially lose out on a good move by evolving too early/late.
88** There are ways to get around it though: Put a Exp. Share on that Pokémon and let the other Pokémon battle for it; equip the Soothe Bell, which doubles the rate of friendship gain; catch the mon by a Luxury Ball, it gains an additional friendship boost on all positive actions as well; or stuff them full of vitamins (Carbos, Proteins, Calcium, etc.) or friendship-raising berries.[[note]]However, you have to put up with the side effect of the mon's [=EVs=] dropping every time you do it.[[/note]]
89** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' eases this a little bit by allowing players to develop some hot springs in Poké Pelago. Putting Pokémon in there steadily raises their friendship... provided you don't leave them in there for too long (24 hours), in which case their friendship starts ''dropping''.
90* The low level curve in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' and the remakes, ''Heart Gold and Soul Silver''. There is a long portion of the game where wild Pokémon are at such a low level that they're not even worth using or training. For basically the entire second part of Johto after you beat Morty, the wild Pokémon are usually high 10s or low 20s, and the trainers aren't very strong, either. They're greatly disproportionate to the tougher fights such as Gym Leaders. To put that in perspective, after beating ''a Level 38 Houndoom'' in the Radio Tower in HGSS, then you can go to Route 45, which has wild Pokémon in the mid-20s (though admittedly, the Trainers on that route are slightly higher), and the Ice Path right after has slightly ''lower'' levels in fact. Then, in Kanto, the wild Pokémon are at roughly the same levels they were in Generation I and their remakes, with a few exceptions. Your best bet is to hope trainers will call you and want to battle you, or in HGSS hope to be on the right day and get certain trainers to rematch you, and even then that will only get you so far. This makes it very unpleasant to train up a new Pokémon, not to mention in [[SelfImposedChallenge Nuzlocke runs]], makes it painful to recover after a death. There was also ''Pokémon Stadium 2''[='s=] Prime Cup which required the player to have six level 100 Pokémon to compete in it. If Gen II was your starting game, then you had an absolutely miserable time raising a team to 100 because of the god awful low level curve in those games that made it tedious to train a team up for competition. And don't even get started with the level gap between Blue (the last Kanto gym leader) and the final boss, Red. Blue's highest level Pokémon are three level 58's (Gyarados, Exeggutor, and Arcanine), or in the remakes, a level 60 Pidgeot. Red's ''lowest'' level Pokémon? A level '''73''' Espeon (a level '''''80''''' Lapras in the remakes). If your Pokémon team isn't ''at least'' reached level 65, prepare for an absolute CurbStompBattle against Red, with you on the receiving end.
91** The remakes mitigate this somewhat by letting you rematch the gym leaders and the Elite Four with higher-level Pokémon, but it's still a pain to grind for levels.
92* The [=PokéGear=] and the [=PokéNav=] in the Johto games and Emerald. Normally they're phones that allow other trainers you've already battled to call you for rematches or to inform you of Pokémon swarms in certain areas, which is quite nice, except more often than not, they'll call you with some pointless information like how cute their Pokémon are, or they fed their Pokémon some berries and state they ate some themselves and wonder if it's safe for humans, or [[MemeticMutation brag about their Rattata]].
93** This was partially true for HGSS; but they gave you the option to rematch Gym Leaders with decent leveled Pokémon and they removed the limit on who can call you so you have more options available. But it was a PAIN in the Crystal version of the game since your Poké Gear space was limited, because some trainers offered wonderful benefits (there were four trainers who you could talk to that had evolution stones which were painfully rare in Gen II), decent leveled Pokémon for rematches (considering the level curve, this was needed), or insights into rare Pokémon. Decisions weren't easy.
94** ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' saved [=PokéNav=] in the form of [=AreaNav=] where it functions similarly, but the trainers are more prone to be rematched and they can have teams up to somewhere around the 50s in the postgame, making it easier to grind levels from than in the originals, where the level cap is merely 39.
95* Protect and Detect. While in metagame, they can be the line between win and loss, in normal play they're most of the time annoying. It wouldn't be as bad if not the fact some of Pokémon learn them ''naturally'', meaning you're bound to see AI spamming Protect/Detect on average Trainers, which does nothing but waste time in the long run unless it's a battle facility.
96* Baby Pokémon. Much ire could be directed at them, but the main issue with them involves breeding. Baby Pokémon cannot breed at all, not even with a Ditto. This requires evolving them in order to breed them. Some Pokémon can bypass this by not having the proper incense when breeding[[note]]So if you put a Sudowoodo in the Day Care and it can breed, the resulting egg will yield a Sudowoodo. If the Sudowoodo parent is holding a Rock Incense, the resulting egg will yield a Bonsly instead; all of these debuted in later generations.[[/note]], but some will hatch as babies anyway[[note]]Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Togepi, Tyrogue, Elekid, Magby, Smoochum, Riolu, and Toxel, all but the last two debuting in Gen II[[/note]], complicating the process [[note]]That being said, Gen IX removed the Incenses, streamlining the process[[/note]]. If you want to chain-breed, or breed for good [=IVs=] for the ones mentioned above, put on your patience hat. Most baby Pokémon evolve by friendship (see above), and a few evolve by level (Tyrogue at 20, Smoochum/Elekid/Magby/Toxel at 30). So, you have to grind their levels or friendship just to get to the next step in the breeding process. Also, some Pokémon can only learn egg moves as a baby,[[note]]Roserade can only learn Extrasensory if it hatched as a Budew; it will not learn it if hatched as a Roselia,[[/note]] complicating this further. At least wild baby Pokémon, in ''X'' and ''Y'', are guaranteed to have three perfect [=IVs=]. (This was dropped starting with ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''.)
97* Pokémon that require trading to evolve are obnoxious enough, but the ones that also require a specific item to be held while trading in order to evolve are even worse. The items they need to hold are either rarely held by wild Pokémon, found only by Pickup users near the level cap, or the item is only available ''once per game.'' Fortunately, the one-of-a-kind items are purchasable in battle facilities starting with Generation VI, but some of them are removed from being sold in Generation VII, forcing players to get them the hard way. In some games, the trade-with-item evolutions are rare wild encounters, which can also help somewhat for those who just want them for Pokédex completion.
98** Don't even bother trying to search on the GTS for these Pokémon. Out of a selection there will be ''one'' Pokémon at the most with the required item... and the offerer either wants a Legendary for it or ''the evolved Pokémon you're trying to find''. Every single time. Try to search for its evolved form and the results are the same but less in number. If you offer something and ask for the unevolved Pokémon, there's no guarantee it'll have the necessary item, even if you specifically request it holds the item. The Porygon line is the worst, as it needs to be traded while holding a specific item '''twice''' with different items each time to fully evolve!
99** Generation IV tried to fix this with Sneasel and Gligar, both which evolve into Weavile and Gliscor respectively by holding an item, but the requirement is through level up on a specific time of the day instead of needing to be traded. This however doesn't stop the developers from introducing more item trade evolutions in the ''very same generation'', let alone subsequent ones.
100* From this generation onwards, evolutionary stones can't be purchased anywhere at all, and finding them (or, in the case of Generation III, items needed to trade for them) require a bit of patience and luck. ''XY'' and ''Sun/Moon'' featured stone shops, but only for the "common" stones (Leaf, Fire, Water and Thunder); the other stones are either rare items or locked to some other gameplay feature.
101* Evolution Stones in this generation are stupidly rare. Later generations at least put some of them as items on the ground in easy to spot locations but Gen II and its remakes don't even do that. They can only be found through registering certain trainers (and good luck working out [[GuideDangIt which ones give what]]) in the [=PokéNav=] and [[LuckBasedMission hoping when they actually call they will give it]]. The other way is through the Bug Catching Contest that is only held on certain days. The remakes also add the Pokéthalon but once again only certain stones are available on certain days, it is very tedious to rack enough points for just a single stone, and most are not available until after the National Dex.
102* The move Hidden Power. This is a move that can be any type... but it's all dependent on the Pokémon's [=IVs=], [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Hidden_Power_(move)/Calculation and the math involved is staggering]]. Normally, one may brush this off as a gimmick move... until learning that for many Pokémon in competitive play/the Battle facilities, it can be the difference between usefulness and uselessness: as an example, you'll never see an Electric-type special attacker that ''doesn't'' have an Ice-type Hidden Power.[[labelnote:Why?]]Electric-types don't typically learn many, if any, moves that counter their one weakness; [[DishingOutDirt Ground-types]] (which are immune to Electric-type attacks). Dragon-types and Grass-types are also resistant to Electric attacks. As such, an Ice-type Hidden Power (which is strong against all three) is the best possible counter they have. This also applies to other types, such as a Fire-type desiring a Grass-type Hidden Power to counter all of its weaknesses.[[/labelnote]] While it's a pain to breed a Pokémon to have the type you want, the issue is worsened if it's a Legendary or Mythical Pokémon, which can't breed (and god help you if it's also a roamer, whose [=IVs=] are set when they start running around the map, making soft resetting for the type you want a Herculean task). This can also mean that [[DoWellButNotPerfect your Pokémon better be one that can stand to have some less-than-perfect IVs to get the type you want]].
103** Prior to Gen VI, not only did the type of Hidden Power vary, but so too did its damage output (ranging from 30 to 70), meaning even if you got the type you wanted, there was no guarantee it'd be at the best strength. Gen VI made all Hidden Power variants have 60 base power; consistent, but ten points lower from the strongest pre-Gen VI variant. Also, despite the type being introduced that gen, Hidden Power is completely unable to be a Fairy-type move.
104** If Hyper Training would be useful for one thing, it'd be changing your Pokémon's Hidden Power type to a more favorable one. Unfortunately, said type is set in stone no matter what (a double edged sword, since now a Pokémon need not have inferior stats just to counter a type that would otherwise wall it).
105** Legendaries having three guaranteed perfect [=IVs=] from Gen VI onwards means they can never have a Fighting-type Hidden Power. While not so much of an issue for most, it is for Necrozma, who learns very little in the way of attacks that counter Dark- and Steel-types which can resist its Psychic moves very well (it can learn Brick Break and X-Scissor, but it has a higher Special Attack stat and can't learn what few special Fighting-type attacks exist), and as such finds itself having a difficult time against them.
106** As frustrating as Hidden Power's obtuse mechanics are, its surprising removal in Gen VIII caused quite an uproar, as it removed crucial type coverage for many Pokémon without much compensation. There really is no winning this one.
107* The inability to receive gift Pokémon from [=NPCs=] when your party is full. What makes this aggravating is that some of them can only be found in deep dungeons, occasionally the ones that need [=HMs=] to traverse through to reach them. This means that no catching wild Pokémon no matter how rare it is before getting that gift Pokémon. ''Sun'' and ''Moon'' eventually removed this restriction except for gift Pokémon given through online events, which usually occur in Pokémon Centers anyways.
108* Headbutting trees. In Johto and Kanto there are trees across the two regions that can be headbutted in order to find wild Pokémon inside. Most of the time it yields nothing in return, not helped by that Pokémon only obtained through this method [[GuideDangIt cannot be located by the Pokédex]]. It gets an even worse successor in the form of Honey trees in the Sinnoh games (detailed in Gen IV below).
109** A [[http://37.97.147.73/Headbutt%20Grid.htm webpage]] made around the time Gold and Silver were re-released on 3DS Virtual Console makes this considerably less tedious. Just enter your trainer ID and the area you're in, and the page will tell you what Pokémon can be encountered there and what tree(s) to headbutt to encounter them.
110[[/folder]]
111[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen III]]
112* The Pokéblock system in Generation III. It seemed like Contests in that it could be seen as a minor gimmick you can move on from and forget about. However, it's necessary to evolve the already elusive Feebas into Water-type powerhouse Milotic. Cue hours spent tending to Berries, making Pokéblocks and stuffing its ugly face with them until it reaches the right Beauty value. To make matters worse, a Pokémon could only ever eat a certain number of Pokéblocks across its lifetime, and its Nature would alter the potency of the Pokéblock's effects; if your Feebas had the wrong Nature, it couldn't ever become a Milotic. Don't forget that Pokéblocks take the place of bait in Hoenn's Safari Zone (as well as the fact that there's always a chance that a wild Pokémon won't like the Pokéblock thrown at it). Want that rare Phanpy to not run from you? Better make more Pokéblocks! Game Freak thankfully fixed their mistake with Feebas in ''[=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]''. Massages from Daisy will raise a Pokémon's Beauty, and nature will not affect it. It is still a GuideDangIt moment, but hey, at least you don't have to find the right-natured Feebas, then be nearly perfect at blending rare berries, then PRAY that the Pokéblocks/Poffin are high enough quality to bring Feebas to a high enough Beauty. Fixed even further in Generation V. Feebas evolves if traded while holding a Prism Scale. The old method still exists, if anyone transferred a Feebas capable of evolution. Gen VI offered the best of both worlds, removing the limit on the number of Pokéblocks a Pokémon can eat.
113* Speaking of Feebas, just ''finding'' one is a ScrappyMechanic in and of itself! They appear only on Route 119 in ''six'' specific squares chosen at random (and Route 119 is particularly large). Worse, even on the right square you only catch a Feebas 50% of the time per fishing attempt, making it even harder to tell which squares are the right one. It's even ''more'' annoying in ''Diamond/Pearl/Platinum''. In those games, Feebas only appear in ''four'' random squares in the lake in the bottom of Mt. Coronet, and they only have a 35% chance of appearing per fishing attempt. Worst of all, unlike in Generation III, the specific squares that Feebas appear ''change daily''! It's enough to make you want to tear your hair out. It's thankfully far less of an issue in ''Black/White'', as they're fairly easy to find on Route 1 in Unova. In ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', this is also remedied- there ''are'' certain squares with a 100% chance of containing Feebas (they change during the day/night, but the squares during each time are ''always'' set). If you fish in any other square, there's a 5% chance of finding them.
114* The third generation introduced the split between the Regional Pokédex and National Pokédex. Basically, rather than allowing old and new Pokémon to be found wherever you go, a la Generation II, now you can only catch the newest ones (with a few old standards like the [[SarcasmMode fan-favorite]] trio [[GoddamnBats Zubat, Tentacool, and Geodude]]) until you unlock the National Dex which will finally allow you to encounter older Pokémon. The catch? The National Dex can't be obtained until you've pretty much finished the main game. True, you can trade regardless of what Pokédex you have[[note]] except in ''[=FireRed, LeafGreen=]'', and ''Emerald'', which prevent trading in Pokémon not in the Regional Dex before your get the National Dex[[/note]], but it does seem like the developers were a little too keen to ensure you used the new Pokémon.
115** In the Sinnoh-based games, you can't even access the National Dex until after you've seen every Pokémon in the Regional Dex. If you're not careful, you might miss some, but it's generally easy to do. The problem is that many don't appear until late in the main game. On top of that, only 5 of the 22 new evolutions of Pokémon from earlier games are in the Sinnoh Dex in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', and Tangela and Tangrowth aren't in either game, period. Thankfully, ''Platinum'' expands the Sinnoh Dex to include all of the new evolutions among others, and ''Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl'' let you catch Pokémon outside the Sinnoh Dex in the Grand Underground before getting the National Dex.
116** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' take this to its logical conclusion: the Regional Dex for Unova doesn't have ''any'' of the prior 493 Pokémon. This is a bit of a mixed blessing: no more [[GoddamnedBats Goddamned Zubat]] but no more old favorites like Eevee, Skarmory, Blissey, or ''Pikachu''. That's right, even the ''SeriesMascot'' is getting the boot until you get the National Dex.
117** The second Unova regional Pokédex seen in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' has 300 Pokémon, with nearly half of them returning from other regions. This includes Zubat, though. (Thankfully, they're much less common.) However, unlike the previous game where only 1 Pokémon cannot be seen without trading (Rufflet or Vullaby, depending on the version), in the sequel game there are plenty more of which you won't see. Normally this would you mean you can "see" the missing Pokémon via breeding (for some odd reason some of the wild Pokémon are already evolved with no trace of the starting form) or evolving. However, there are Pokémon who you won't be able to see at all. Rufflet or Vullaby is among them. The starting and final forms of the starter Pokémon you didn't pick won't also pop out. Do note that you won't be able to seek Pokémon you haven't seen in your Dex yet, you cannot ask specifically for those on the GTS either, and that you won't be able to visit the Nature Preserve without a complete Unova Dex.
118** The Kalos Dex in ''X''/''Y'' is so large it had to be split into three. Fortunately, the National Dex is unlocked by beating the Elite Four, and you only have to see every Pokémon in the three regional dexes to unlock the Oval Charm. Unfortunately for completionists, Pokémon transferred up from older games only count for a lesser tier of completion[[note]]signified by said Pokémon lacking a blue pentagon in their status screen, as well as the Pokédex showing a Poké Ball marker instead of a Kalos symbol marker[[/note]]; you'll have to breed new ones in ''X''/''Y'' for it to fully count (and you're out of luck with Legendaries unless you have ''Omega Ruby''/''Alpha Sapphire'', and the less said about [[TemporaryOnlineContent Mythical Pokémon]], the better).
119* ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'''s evolutionary system is this to many people - before you obtain the National Dex, if you have a Pokémon that attempts to evolve into a Pokémon introduced after Generation I (e.g. Golbat attempting to evolve into Crobat), it will automatically cancel the evolution. Eevee is also incapable of evolving into Espeon or Umbreon due to the fact that the games have no time system, meaning it can only evolve through RSE or XD. Ironically in the latter, you're given the opportunity to receive an item that allows you to evolve Eevee into its Generation II evolutions - a Sun Shard for Espeon or a Moon Shard for Umbreon. They sure sound like the kind of items you wish were in FRLG, and what makes this worse is that the Platform/NintendoGameCube, and thus XD ''already has an internal clock system anyway''.
120** ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' are guilty of a similar situation, but to a lesser extent. They may have updated the Johto Pokédex to include the evolutions of several Pokémon who evolve while knowing certain moves, but didn't RetCon any areas to allow Magneton, Eevee and Nosepass to evolve into Magnezone, Leafeon/Glaceon or Probopass respectively, despite the range of possible areas (near the Power Plant's generator, Ilex Forest/Viridian Forest or the Ice Path).
121* The EV system has been mostly well-received, but, up until Gen VI and beyond, there is absolutely no visual indicator to help illustrate a Pokémon's progress, making EV training a chore. If you lose track of the points you gained, tough luck; the games certainly won't tell you unless you'd have been keeping count via external means.
122* Introduced in Gen III, abilities and natures, much like [=IVs=] (Individual Values) mentioned above, are in the game to add variety to individual Pokémon, but also like the [=IV=] system, they're subject to randomness and can make or break a Pokémon's competitive viability. These traits can be influenced by breeding, but getting the correct combination on the right Pokémon is still time consuming and challenging.
123** Abilities passively grant Pokémon specific effects, which can often be very important. A good number of Pokémon only have a single ability, but most species can have up to three. Generally speaking, abilities and their effectiveness vary greatly from Pokémon to Pokémon, but usually only one of them is ideal, and the others are not as useful. Abilities are usually hard-coded and were permanent until Gen VI introduced an item called the Ability Capsule. The Ability Capsule is an item that, when used, can change the ability of a Pokémon into the other ability (if the species has another). However, this doesn't work on hidden abilities (you can't change the ability to a hidden ability, nor can you change it to a normal one). Also the Ability Capsule costs a whopping 200 battle points (100 in ''Sun/Moon'') and is consumed after use. The ''Crown Tundra'' expansion finally introduced an item that can change a normal ability to a hidden ability, but not vice versa, and it costs 200 Dynite Ores.
124** Natures passively increase one of a Pokémon's stats while lowering another. This is annoying but not too important for casual play, but for competitive play, trying to get a 'mon with its necessary nature becomes a hair-pulling experience. Out of the 25[[note]]though really more like 21, since 5 of them raise and lower the same stat to cancel out and become neutral, making them functionally identical[[/note]] natures, only a select few of them are actually useful competitively, and even so, a nature that's great for one species would be terrible on another. As such, you'll likely have to burn through a lot of suboptimally-natured Pokémon until you get the right one, since was no way to change the nature of a given Pokémon until Gen VIII. When ''Sword & Shield'' finally introduced nature mints to change a Pokémon's nature[[note]]technically it only changes the statistical effects while retaining the other aspects of the base nature, like its preferred berry flavors[[/note]], they were still only available in the postgame Battle Tower and at 50 BP apiece, meaning that grinding enough to get even one would take a while.
125*** This is thankfully much better in Gen IX, since ''Scarlet & Violet'' makes mints buyable after beating at least six gyms and purchasable with standard Pokédollars, of which you'll naturally have an abundance.
126** In later games, getting a good Nature and IV set on [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement certain plot-relevant Legendaries]] can be time-consuming and difficult, since after catching it, you tend to be thrust into a BossBattle and/or at least one lengthy cutscene, and you can't check the Nature in battle. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' is perhaps the worst instance of this, since after catching the version dragon, you go into ''two'' boss fights, then the credits roll, ''then'' the game saves, meaning that your Reshiram better not have an Adamant Nature[[note]]which boosts Attack but lowers Special Attack; not ideal for a Pokémon with Special Attack as its highest stat[[/note]], because you're stuck with what you got! Your only other options are to either purposely lose the subsequent boss fight(s) and check it afterwards, or somehow fill up your PC so that you ''can't'' catch it, allowing you to fight it traditionally later on.
127** Another game that was bad about this was, ironically, the Gen III remakes, ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire''. While past games typically only had one Legendary where soft resetting was especially tedious, this game has ''three'' - the mascot Legendary, Rayquaza, and Deoxys. For the mascot, you have to sit through a four/five minute long cutscene before you can check its stats. For the latter two, you have to first catch Rayquaza, then fight Zinnia, then watch a cutscene, then fight Deoxys, and ''then'' sit through a whopping '''ten minute''' cutscene you ''cannot skip'' before you're allowed to check either one's stats. The kicker? [[CheckpointStarvation You can't save between any of those moments]], and for Deoxys, you can't Synchronize it as the game automatically puts Rayquaza at the lead of your party, and no, you can't change the order beforehand. No wonder everyone just [=KOs=] them and beats the Elite Four again to make them respawn without the lengthy plot guff. Thankfully, ''Sun and Moon'' allows players to immediately check a Pokémon's summary after its capture, making it much faster to soft-reset for a Pokémon with an ideal nature.
128* Okay, so [[BrutalBonusLevel The Battle Frontier]] makes for a pretty good side challenge for the competitive gamer and whatnot, but why is grinding Battle Points necessary to get anything?[[note]]The Battle Tower was first used in ''Crystal'', but it awarded vitamins ''directly'' rather than the Battle Points currency.[[/note]] By the time ''[=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]'' came around, the list of things that could only be bought with BP amounts to [=TMs=], evolution items, training items, held items, and even Move Tutors. It wouldn't be such a bad idea if [[NintendoHard it didn't take forever to grind that many points]]. The only way you'll get a sizable amount in a decent time is to actually get the chance to challenge a [[{{Superboss}} Frontier Brain]], but even provided you make it to them, they could still easily whoop your ass and ruin your streak without so much as a consolation prize. Apparently, Game Freak thinks only [[AGodAmI gods]] deserve to teach their bugs how to bite things or something.[[note]]It doesn't help that the shards, the payment for Move Tutors in Platinum, are easier to grind in this game but instead are reserved for ''berries''.[[/note]]
129** Thank God for the Trainer House in Viridian City in ''[=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]'',[[note]]carried over from the original games but no prizes were awarded there[[/note]] where you can battle Cal and other Trainers whose Pokéwalkers you interacted with and win 1 BP per victory. Made better by the fact that you can have up to 10 people (plus Cal) and just have them put low-level Pokémon in their teams when they interact with you. You can get up to 11 BP per day this way, which really adds up fast.
130** Meet [[http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2528665&postcount=2228 Quick Claw Horn Drill]], the champion sent by the RandomNumberGod to smite those who had the unholy thought of setting some sort of world record at the Battle Frontier.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Quick Claw makes the Pokémon holding it move first in its bracket regardless of Speed 20% of the time (ignoring Trick Room if it's set up). Horn Drill (and similar moves in other types, HD being the most (in)famous) is a OneHitKill whose accuracy depends on the level of Pokémon (30 + [user's level - target's level]), automatically failing against Pokémon of a higher level (though they worked differently in Generation I).[[/labelnote]]
131** The difficulty of racking up Battle Points was ''finally'' changed in ''X and Y'', where you get Battle Points after every trainer you beat instead of having to fight through a group of trainers just to receive one measly BP. You can also take breaks without having to resume in the middle of a challenge, and can change up team members if somebody's underperforming instead of having to drag them along for the full seven matches or so.
132** While the Move Tutors in ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' charge BP for their moves again, they're much cheaper than they were before. In ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'', the "cheapest" moves cost 32 BP while the most expensive ones cost 64. In ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'', the cheapest moves cost 4 BP while the most expensive ones only cost 16. Combined with the Battle Maison's more generous BP system, this makes it much easier to teach Pokémon new moves. ''Sun and Moon'' made things harder by introducing the [[SequelDifficultySpike brick walls]] that are the Battle Royal Dome and the Battle Tree, but ''Ultra Sun and Moon'' (at least partially) corrected that problem by tying Move Tutors to the less difficult and more generous Mantine Surfing.
133** Move Tutors that teach a wide variety of moves in the Battle facilities (beyond {{secret art}}s exclusive to certain Pokémon), for some unknown reason, are always absent from the first set of games in a generation[[note]]WordOfGod has stated that certain features are removed from newer entries of games or later readded to both entice people to buy the new games and also to keep the older ones unique. Whether or not this is the true reason behind them, those changes are '''extremely''' controversial among the playerbase due to both well-liked or useful features being removed, something that this page's Generation VII page can attest to.[[/note]], only to return for the third version/sequels/remakes. This is especially noticeable when going from the end of one generation to the start of the next; ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire'' has a vast array of moves that can give certain Pokémon an advantage, but ''Sun and Moon'' lacks these entirely.
134* Berry trees in ''Ruby & Sapphire'' and their remakes have to be replanted after harvesting. Especially when needing to use berries to make Pokéblocks, because if you pick one of every berry of a certain color for that purpose and never re-plant any, you're out of luck!
135* Mirage Island. It is the only way to obtain the Liechi Berry, but getting to it is frustrating. You have to go to an old man in Pacifidlog Town and hope he sees it on a given day. For him to see it, the ID of one of your party Pokémon has to match a randomly generated number. The chance of getting there is quite small. Fortunately, the Liechi Berry was also held by a Shiny Zigzagoon... in ''giveaways''. What makes this a little better than normal giveaways is that the Zigzagoon with the Liechi Berry is a prize given when you get the Berry Program repaired, one of the ways being directly from EB Games or [=GameStop=] at a roughly 3-year campaign (from 2004 to 2007) or from a couple of specific versions of [=GameCube=] Interactive Multi-Game Demo Discs. You can see the problems here: on top of the same problems that physical events that distribute Mythical Pokémon have, you also needed to make sure that the version of the Demo Disc (which rotated) is the one that has the Zigzagoon.
136* e-reader items. Some Berries and extra trainers could only be obtained with an e-Reader card, but the E-Reader didn’t sell well and only the first set of game cards for gen III were released in the US. Furthermore, for ''[=FireRed=]'', ''[=LeafGreen=]'', and ''Emerald'', while the Japanese releases still had e-Reader support, this was removed from international releases.
137[[/folder]]
138[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen IV]]
139* While Rock Smash always one of the weakest HM moves, it at least had the mitigating factor of breakable rocks having the chance to contain rare Pokémon. In the Sinnoh games however, this secondary function was removed, with breakable rocks never containing wild encounters. This means any breakable rocks encountered after Floroama Town (the first town inaccessible until you obtain Rock Smash), serves no purpose beyond wasting the player’s time, and Sinnoh is '''littered''' with them. Thankfully, ''[=HeartGold & SoulSilver=]'' would restore Rock Smash’s ability to encounter wild Pokémon and add the ability to find rare items from breakable rocks.
140* The Global Trade System (GTS) in the Generation IV games was an excellent concept, especially for people who've missed event-only Pokémon, but its terrible execution prevents it from being useful. Some of its flaws, in no particular order:
141** You can only search for Pokémon you've seen in-game. This makes it nearly useless for completing the National Dex since there are many species which you will never encounter unless you follow obscure steps to make it possible for them to appear, and many others that you simply won't ever see unless you get one ''somehow''. It doesn't help that battling other players and playing the special battle formats don't fill out the "seen" entries.
142*** Fixed in Generation V. In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', over 100 Pokémon are unobtainable via normal gameplay, but most of them (such as the Eeveelutions, Garchomp and Scyther) are used by NPC Trainers during the postgame - if you battle the NPC Trainers, you record the unobtainable mons as "seen", allowing you to trade for them over the GTS. This was probably done to make the GTS a bit more of a help in completing the National Dex.
143*** Even better in Generation VI, as while you still can't outright search for Pokémon you haven't "seen", there is an option called "What Pokémon?", allowing you to type in the name of ''any'' Pokémon to search for it.
144** Search results are heavily limited (a maximum of 7 results per search) and they restrict it even further if you haven't been using the system much. You start with 3 search results and get upgraded to 5 and 7 by having made trades recently. While this was presumably done as a way to encourage people to be active in trades, it comes across as punishing players for not being able to use the system well by making it harder to use. The only way to work around this and find more search results is to restrict your searches - say, look for a level 9 or under male, then a level 9 or under female, then a level 10+ male, then a level 10+ female, etc. (Luckily, this mechanic has been removed in Gen. V, letting you get up to 7 search results every time, regardless of how much you use the system, and in Generation VII, you can see every single Pokémon of that species up on the GTS at a time.) And you will need to refine your search results, because...
145** The system has no way of filtering or enforcing a concept of reasonable trades. It is largely clogged up by trade offers that are absolutely ridiculous (Offering a level 1 Bidoof and asking for a level 100 Deoxys) or even impossible ("I'd like a female Porygon-Z, please").
146*** The impossible ones are often done on purpose, with people exploiting a {{Good Bad Bug|s}} that lets you clone. Others store mons on the GTS when their PC boxes are nearly full. A few others seemed to enjoy taunting people with shinies that can’t be traded for.
147*** The above has gotten even worse in Gen. V, as people seem to actually be looking for hacked Pokémon this time. You can't even search for a Pansear without seeing people asking for Lv. 9 and under Zekrom and the like. And if you deposit a Pokémon yourself, expect hours to go by with no results, due to the limited search results... all clogged by the aforementioned Lv. 9 and under Zekrom requests. The saddest part is that you can't even submit such a Pokémon, as the game detects illegitimate Pokémon and refuses to let you trade them. [[FridgeLogic Why Game Freak couldn't enforce the converse of that restriction and block requests for untradable Pokémon is anyone's guess.]] They finally got the beginnings of a hint on this one in Gen VIII, with an update to ''Pokémon Home'' that disallows asking for some (though not all) impossible trades.
148** GTS trades won't allow you to filter or even ''see'' the ability or the nature of a Pokémon on display, leaving the thing for Pokédex purposes only, as bad as it is for that purpose already.
149** GTS Negotiations is a slightly less awful alternative. Instead of leaving a Pokémon and waiting days for a trade, you can hook up instantly with that one guy who decided to fire up the feature at the exact same time as you! And you can propose not one, but a whole three of Pokémon for your partner to pick one while you pick one of his three proposed! You can exchange for Pokémon you have not seen yet[[note]]yet you cannot specifically ask for them because their name won't show up in line-building until you register them[[/note]]! What is best, you can see Abilities and Natures[[note]] assuming he didn't disconnect during the Mon picking phase where these cannot be seen because you didn't put a Zekrom up for grabs[[/note]]! Too bad that Game Freak, understandably, was afraid [[NewMediaAreEvil kids would spread swear words through their E-rated or PEGI+8 game's multiplayer features]], reducing your communication possibilities to four bland, ambiguous emoticons (:D, D:, <3 and !) and a single sentence built out of premade lines with a handful of words for you to fill in. At least you can ask for a specific mon or two in that line, but no one seems to read it and/or have what you are asking for. Some players were reduced to attempting to communicate through nicknames of their Pokémon.
150*** This would soon fall into the same predicament that the regular GTS fell into (as seen in one of the aforementioned notes): Sooner or later, you will find one of those kids who want that Lv. 9 or under Zekrom. If you try to propose something reasonable, such as starter-for-starter or fossil-for-fossil, they will immediately start spamming the D: option, then RageQuit after a few seconds. These kids turned GTS Negotiations into a NonIndicativeName due to their absolute refusal to make any negotiations.
151** Sometimes in Gen. V, you can't even CONNECT to the darned GTS because it's so flooded with people trading blasted Magnemite. (see the Join Avenue area in that gen's section) You'd think that the powers-that-be would update the servers used for the GTS sometime to handle higher loads once they realized what people were doing.
152** Generation VI fixes a lot of the issues with the GTS. You can search for any Pokémon if you know its name, even if you never saw it, you get more than seven results, and you can even filter the results not to show people requesting (most) Legendaries or Pokémon you don't have in your PC. While the "impossible trades" thing is still an issue and the results are flooded with requests for Legendaries even with the "special Pokémon" filter active (the filter, until Gen VIII, only accounts for Pokémon that are not tournament legal, rather than including all Legendaries, so you still get people looking for Entei and Latias), it's a step up. Gen VII takes this even farther by extending the "Special Pokémon" filter to include Legendary and Mythical Pokémon.
153** Also as of Gen VI, you are now allowed to write a small note with a deposited Pokémon. This may sound good on paper, but it makes it ''remarkably'' easy for MagnificentBastard [[SnakeOilSalesman Snake Oil Salesmen]] to scam people out of their hard-earned Legendaries by saying the Pokémon has perfect [=IVs=], its hidden ability, is hacked, etc. when they don't. Given you can't check a Pokémon's stats or ability on the GTS, you will not know.
154** Clumsy censorship in the GTS: The GTS would refuse to allow Pokémon with certain strings of characters in their names (which would often fall victim to the ScunthorpeProblem). It got worse in Gen VI: you can't even ''name'' the Pokémon with names with those strings in the first place, even if you never intended to trade them at all! The banned strings include banned words in other languages entirely, even if they're perfectly harmless in your native language, and can be really obvious when you try to name a Pokémon "Violet" or "Spike" -- not only perfectly valid names, but there is a ''prominent character in'' X ''and'' Y ''named "Viola"'', which is also banned! The filter frequently fails to catch legitimate swears, particularly ones containing "ass", and the online filter is not immune to being bypassed via hacking. If you transferred a Pokémon from a previous generation with a nickname the system deems inappropriate, it'll simply wipe its name when it comes over. So if you wanted to keep the nickname, and its nickname was not explicit yet blocked by the system, you'd have to figure out what nickname was closest to the original that is not blocked in the present generation and then go back to the previous game and rename it there. Infuriatingly, several of these blacklisted words under certain circumstances such as adding another character to either end, render them able to pass through the filter while other blacklisted words are left without the distinction.
155** As of Gen VI, the GTS refuses to allow Mythical Pokémon like Mew or Genesect to be traded... not that it stops players from being able to search for them in the first place. While certain ribbons are present on a handful to prevent trading the Pokémon over the GTS, even the ones that lack such ribbons (such as a Victini caught on Liberty Island) are locked out by virtue of their ''species''. This is especially infuriating as Mythical Pokémon are '''exactly''' the kind of Pokémon that the GTS would be most useful for getting, yet they're the one kind that the GTS will refuse to take! Hackers have also learned how to bypass the block and upload Mythical Pokémon to the GTS, and often you'll find them with banned names just to rub salt in the wound. Gen VIII simply forbids trading mythicals period, hacked or not.
156** ''Sword and Shield'' don't include the GTS natively- instead you have to use the ''Pokémon HOME'' app on a smartphone or tablet (for whatever reason, GTS isn't available on the Nintendo Switch version of the app). It's not improved at all over the ''Sun and Moon'' version of it, though one update did, at long last, filter out any requests for Mythical Pokémon (though it didn't filter out impossible requests based on level). Also, Pokémon that evolve through trading don't evolve when traded via ''Pokémon HOME'''s GTS.
157** The GTS also had a problem with people clogging it with giveaways, where good, often genned Pokémon are given away to those who post certain low level mons with specific messages or nicknames. That has frustrated people searching for the species in question but who aren’t in the giveaway and wouldn’t consider trading, say, a Talonflame to get something like an Abra. Game Freak began banning people who trade too many times in a short period, but that sometimes also catches innocent traders by surprise too.
158* To prevent a recurrence of the "unable to transfer" debacle in Gen III, from this generation onward, each generation is able to transfer Pokémon from the immediately previous generation to the present one. However, Pal Park and Gen V's Poké Transfer only allowed transfer of 6 Pokémon at a time with the actual transfer ''being a minigame''! These restrictions were fixed with Gen VI's Poké Transporter, which sent ''all'' of the Pokémon in the first box of your Gen V game[[note]]but ''only that'' box[[/note]] followed by booting up the Transporter to conduct the transfer, but that had its own problems: You had to constantly reboot between the Gen V game to the Transporter to the Gen VI game to access the bank, then repeat per box. If your copy of the Gen VI game is physical,[[note]]as opposed to digital[[/note]], then you must continuously switch the game cartridges back and forth. Not only is this a huge annoyance, but the constant and repeated use has actually caused damage to the springs in some 3DSes, resulting in either a cartridge getting stuck or the system being unable to read them.
159* The Honey Tree mechanism. There are 21 trees throughout ''Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum'' in which one can slather with honey, and between six and 24 hours later could come back to find one of a number of Pokémon there. The species is set once you slather the tree, so there's no real way to [[SaveScumming manipulate]] what Pokémon appears (you can save ''before'' you slather the tree but that usually means you've just wasted the last 6-through-24 game hours). It's also incredibly likely that a player will forget to check a tree after slathering it, and after 24 hours the tree resets you'll have to slather it again. Oh, and a number of Pokémon can ''only'' be obtained from these trees (without trading at least). One of them is the infuriating Munchlax, which only appears in ''four trees'' out of twenty-one, and the game gives you ''no indication'' as to which four trees these are. And to make it worse, it only has a '''one percent''' chance of appearing on those four trees. It could potentially take ''months'' to find one. There's also a bug that rarely causes two of the Munchlax trees to be the same, leaving the player with only three possibilities. Thankful, these Honey Tree Pokémon appear more regularly in later generations, but it's telling that this type of "wait hours for one Pokémon to show up" mechanic has never been attempted past this generation.
160* This was the first generation to feature Pokémon that evolve depending on what gender they are, which later generations would follow suit. The problem, however, is that the gender ratio for these kinds of Pokémon tend to be geared towards the Mon that ''doesn't'' evolve. For example, in this particular generation, there's Vespiquen. It evolves from Combee at Level 21, but only if it's female. And the only way to obtain a Combee is through the aforementioned Honey Tree mechanic. There's roughly a 20% chance of finding a Combee AND a 12.5% of it being female. Didn't find a Combee? Too bad, the species is decided when you slather the tree, so you'll have to try again and wait another six hours. Gender can be decided, though. So you can save beforehand and keep restarting until you get a female. Or just get one of either gender and breed with a Ditto until you get a female.
161* Catching Beldum in ''Diamond/Pearl/Platinum'', which has the same catch rate as an average Legendary, is around Level 52, shows up only on a certain day (it IS a swarm Pokémon after all) and the only move it knows is [[TakingYouWithMe Take Down]]. Metang and Metagross can be found in the wild in Generation V, and while they lack Take Down and can appear on any day, they still have the lowest possible catch rate. Later generations have also done nothing to fix the line's catch rate, leading to [[SarcasmMode fun times]] for people trying to catch Metang in ''X and Y''[='s=] Friend Safari or Beldum at Mount Hokulani in ''Sun and Moon''.
162* Serene Grace Flinch makes many competitive battlers' blood boil. There are three mons (Jirachi, Togekiss, and Shaymin-S) with access to a move that has a 30% chance of causing the opponent to "flinch", a.k.a. miss their action for that turn, and the ability Serene Grace, which doubles the chance of any added effects taking place - to 60% in this case. Togekiss frequently combines this with paralysis, which adds an additional 25% chance of skipping a turn. Jirachi frequently combines this with a Choice Scarf, making outspeeding it nigh-impossible outside of mons with normally overkill Speed such as Speed Forme Deoxys. And Shaymin-S has access to the move Seed Flare, which has a whopping 80% chance with Serene Grace factored in to double the damage of its flinching move. Any of these mons can easily flinch an opponent over and over and over until even should-be counters are dead. When Shaymin-S was nominated for banning by Website/{{Smogon}}... well, let's just [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-round-1-pokemon-suspect-voting.84270/page-3#post-3215668 quote the overseeing moderator]] on the results:
163-->''"That's right folks, we just made history. Smogon just had its first unanimous vote ever! I would like to take this time to thank Shaymin-S for being so annoying that literally every voter wanted to ban its ass."''
164* The lack of Fire-types in ''Diamond and Pearl'' (''Platinum'' fixed this). There were only two lines in the basic version: the Chimchar line which was great and the Ponyta line which really wasn't. Now, Fire-types were not always in every team to begin with and had drawn the short end of the stick quite a few times. However, ''Diamond and Pearl'' made it so that [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome Fire was going to be a mainstay in the game]]; which such instances being Bug-type specialist Aaron, the Bronzor line being painfully common (half of them with Levitate, in which case Fire WAS the only way to hurt them), and Steel-types growing in overall use (Byron's Gym is even dedicated to them). It really hurt many players who wanted to use a different starter, or didn't want to use the Ponyta line. It's made even worse by the fact that one of the members of the Elite Four is supposed to be a Fire-type specialist, but due to the lack of Fire-types only two out of his five team members actually have the typing.
165** ''Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl'' unfortunately stuck with the pre-''Platinum'' Pokédex, meaning that all of the same problems are still listed in here. Thankfully, the Grand Underground does allow access to Houndour/Houndoom and Magby/Magmar/Magmortar, but the latter is a version exclusive to ''Shining Pearl''. Also Bronzor and Bronzong got nerfed in between, so they're guaranteed to be hit super effectively by Dark and Ghost moves.
166* In ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'', you can get Rayquaza if you have Kyogre and Groudon in your game. Kyogre is in ''[=HeartGold=]'' and Groudon in ''[=SoulSilver=]''. You have a Gen III game and decide to Pal Park the other one in? Bless you, poor child -- you can only get to Rayquaza if ''both'' of them come from the Embedded Tower, meaning you'll need to have a friend or [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo both games]] to get the green dragon!
167** Still, at least it was only just that one trio. [[FranchiseOriginalSin Fast-forward to]] ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'', and there are ''three such trios!'' [[note]]Dialga and Palkia for Giratina, Tornadus and Thundurus for Landorus, and Reshiram and Zekrom for Kyurem.[[/note]] Jump over to ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', and that number gets bumped up to ''five!'' [[note]]The three trios from ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', plus Raikou and Entei for Suicune, and Kyogre and Groudon for Rayquaza.[[/note]] Thankfully, though, the Pokémon required don't need to come from the same area or even generation.
168* In order to catch Regigigas in ''Diamond/Pearl/Platinum'', Regirock, Regice, and Registeel must be transferred from ''Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald''. Meaning that if you didn't have (someone with) those games, Regigigas is forever gated off to you, and even if you do have them, you still might not be able to transfer them if you're not playing on an original model DS/a DS Lite, since from the [=DSi=] onwards, the DS family scrapped the ability to play GBA cartridges! What makes this worse is that ''Platinum'' DOES allows you to catch the Regi trio natively... but only with an event-only (because of course it was) Regigigas that, statistically speaking, you don't have (and if you do have it, there's not much point in using the Regi trio to wake up the normal one). Thankfully Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl fixed this by allowing the three Regis to be caught at Ramanas Park.
169* Anything having to do with fog. This weather condition had only one real purpose: Reduce the accuracy of moves used while active. It couldn't be manually called with a move or ability, and it didn't really interact with anything. It existed solely to make traveling certain routes a pain in the ass. Even ''Pokémon Battle Revolution'' wasn't safe, as fog would sometimes show up during battles in Courtyard Colosseum. The move Defog was introduced in this generation to deal with fog... and that's really all it was good for aside from reducing the opponent's evasion, which wasn't much help. Worse yet, Defog was an HM, resulting in a Pokémon being stuck with it unless you made it to the Move Deleter in Canalave City. Thankfully, fog has been saved by later generations: While it stopped being a weather condition ever since ''[=HeartGold=] & [=SoulSilver=],'' Sliggoo can evolve into Goodra in foggy areas as a substitute for rain ever since ''Sun & Moon,'' and foggy sections of the Wild Area in ''Sword & Shield'' now instead cause permanent Misty Terrain, a change that was carried over to ''Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl''. As for Defog, it gained the very useful ability to remove entry hazards in ''X & Y'', making it a popular move in competitive battling.
170* The bog and snow mechanic. Swampy and snowy areas are filled with invisible holes that cause the player to get stuck, forcing him to repeatedly tap the direction buttons to get out. The most loathed Safari Zone in the series, the Great Marsh, is ''filled to the brim'' with them.
171* Saving game progress in Gen IV can be a bit annoying due to how using the PC extends the length of the saving process. If you save the game after using the PC in any way, even if it's just a newly caught Pokémon automatically being sent to PC storage due to currently having a full party, you get hit with "saving a lot of data," which takes ''much'' longer to save the game compared to just a normal save. It may not seem all that bad a few times, but if you're someone who tends to save the game a lot, the time wasted from "saving a lot of data" starts to ''really'' add up.
172[[/folder]]
173[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen V]]
174* The Pokémon Dream World. It was originally for getting Pokémon with new or different abilities, but everything about it was a pain:
175** It's the only place to grow berries in the 5th Generation games; berries cannot be transferred from a Generation IV game (so no internet connection means no berries), and you started off with only 6 berry plots and a maximum of 15.
176** A mechanic punished you for inactivity on the Dream World. If you go more than 100 days without using the Dream World, all of your berries, save for one of each kind, were taken away and converted into Dream Points.
177** It crashed all the time. That's annoying enough in and of itself, but it also means you might not have been able to water your berries, so you might have lost them through no fault of your own.
178** A lot of the mons simply weren't available on the Dream World, so their new abilities couldn't be obtained legally. Many aren't available as females, so you can't breed their good abilities onto Pokémon with Egg Moves or better [=IVs=]/natures.
179** The sheer amount of time to "tuck" a Pokémon in: it could take upwards of five minutes to send one to the Dream World from the cartridge and about that much time to retrieve it from the Dream World, and you had to do this every time you wanted to get a single Pokémon from the Island of Dreams.
180*** Game Freak [[DevelopersForesight thought they would be smart]] and make it so that Pokémon with the abilities that prevent sleep (Vital Spirit and Insomnia) couldn't be tucked into the Dream World. In a case of DevelopersForesight [[Administrivia/TropesAreNotGood backfiring spectacularly]], this completely prevented Vigoroth and Delibird without Hustle from ever being able to be used in the Dream World. The latter case is even more infuriating as Delibird's Hidden Ability (the very ones ''available'' from the Dream World nonetheless) is Insomnia.
181** Also, visiting the Island of Dreams threw you in a random location instead of choosing which part of the Island you wanted to visit. Stack that on top of Pokémon ceasing to approach you for the rest of the day after you visited the island enough times, and it could get pretty aggravating, especially if there was a certain Pokémon in a certain location you were after.
182*** Sending in certain types would increase the chances of visiting a specific location- Normal-types tended to visit Dream Park, Water-types tended to visit Sparkling Sea, and Dark, Ghost, and Psychic-types tended to visit the Spooky Manor, and so on, but good luck trying to get to Windswept Sky reliably- you were less likely to visit that place because all but one Flying-type is dual-typed.
183** Earning enough Dream Points to unlock berry plots and Island of Dreams locations was also a pain, since the only way to increase them is to water other people's berries (you could only water 30 berries per session), complete minigames, log on to the Global Link once a day, and gain a Dream Pal. Good chances are your only option is to grind up minigames, which tended to be tedious (I'm looking at ''you'', Blow Out the Candles) and only gave 20 Dream Points apiece.
184** Finally, you could only choose one Pokémon to take with you. No matter if you befriended tons of potentially useful mons, even a rare female Fossil Pokémon- nope, it's only one you get to take per visit. And once you've taken that one, there was no more going to the Island of Dreams.
185** There was no way to add any of your real-life friends as dream pals. Instead, you had to rely on an ever-so-slight chance that you'd encounter their dream home when you decided to venture out and visit other people's homes. Otherwise, your "dream pal" list was gonna be full of total strangers that you can't communicate with beyond vague, fill-in-the-blank phrases.
186** Many Hidden Abilities are only available on Pokémon obtained from the Dream World. Need a Corphish with Adaptability, Lileep with Storm Drain, Carvanha with Speed Boost? Hope you got one before it shut down, or you'll have to find somebody else who did.
187** As of December 10, 2013, the Pokémon Dream World for ''Pokémon Black/2 & White/2'' [[TemporaryOnlineContent has been shut down]], preventing players from using the original Dream World and collecting the Pokémon with available hidden abilities, along with growing and collecting berries and obtaining alternate C-Gear and Pokédex skins in their games. This is to replace it with the new Pokémon Global Link for ''X & Y'', while players were given compensation with Miles and medals based on their prior progress.
188* Black City and White Forest, in [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite the original games]]. Both are cool places, but to keep them at their best, the player must regularly use Entralink and the C-Gear. Thus, these locations are fairly useless to anyone without a lot of ''local'' friends who play a lot of Pokémon. Adding to that, they discourage casual playing. For Black City or White Forest to be anything resembling worthwhile, you have to get there (which requires beating the entire story) in LESS THAN A WEEK. For players with such pesky responsibilities like work, school, studies, relationships, or just wanting to play something else entirely while playing Pokémon when on the go, this seems to be a complete impossibility. It's thus implied that the player must fire the game up and talk to all available residing people ''almost every day'' to keep them from leaving. The sequels opted to ditch the SocializationBonus aspect and have both areas contain a unique BonusDungeon instead. Due to the scarcity of regularly rematchable trainers starting from this generation onward after the removal of the VS Seeker, along with the high levels of the Pokémon in these facilities' later zones, this change was extremely welcomed by many a player.
189* The Join Avenue is one of the greatest {{Game Breaker}}s of the franchise. It's therefore understandably tedious to grind up to Game Breaking levels, but just making some use of it takes a good deal of time. [[AntiPoopSocking You'll only get a set number of daily visitors]] based on your Avenue Rank. You'll have to decide between either building few stores to rack up points early (which level up the Avenue and bring in more daily visitors), or building a variety of stores to ensure you will not have any visitors who dislike everything you have ([[GuideDangIt even with their "I want to go there!" speeches]]). Another source of visitors are other players whose [=IDs=] you have registered through the C-Gear's features (unlikely except if you live in Japan) and online battling and trading. To give you an idea of the impact the Join Avenue had on the GTS, ''Black 2 and White 2'' gave birth to the "Magnemite Stock Market". Magnemite are [[DiscOneNuke available early on]], easy to catch (they have a good catch rate and one of their abilities is Sturdy), and being part-Steel they are drawn to you if your first Pokémon in your party has Magnet Pull (which is Magnemite's other ability). They became the premier ID exchanging vessel and the most demanded, the most offered and the most exchanged Pokémon in the GTS, and remained that way for the generation's lifespan.
190* In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', Pokémon Breeders will always confront you for battle when you pass by their line of sight, even if you've already defeated them and regardless of your level. This is reset whenever you leave the route and come back. You can avoid them by hugging the edge of the path, because unlike most trainer classes Breeders have a limited line of sight, but this is not something you will think about when you're in a hurry to get somewhere, leading to a completely pointless battle.
191** With a little practice, you can easily dodge them by passing by at the moment their backs are turned, or simply taking the long way around. This can still be annoying when your monsters are low on health and "the long way around" happens to be a big patch of grass/sand, though.
192* This generation introduced a mechanism known as Shiny Lock, which exists solely to prevent certain Pokémon from being shiny when encountered. At first it was only really used to prevent obtaining the shiny forms of Reshiram, Victini (which is itself an event-exclusive), and Zekrom, but ever since it was introduced there have been more instances where Pokémon cannot be shiny when the player encounters them. It gets really obnoxious in Generation VII, where all four Tapu, Necrozma, Solgaleo, and Lunala are shiny locked no matter what game you're playing.
193** Generation VIII finally introduced a beneficial case for the mechanism: since a player's badges now restrict the levels of Pokémon that can be caught, Pokémon that are too high a level to be caught will never spawn as shiny.
194** Even worse is Generation IX's Indigo Disk DLC, which shiny locks '''every single''' returning Legendary Pokémon, much to the furor of shiny hunters everywhere.
195* The VS Seeker and phone numbers' removals mean that outside of rivals, the Elite Four and Champion, the Game Freak employees, Nimbasa's sporting arenas, and in [=B2W2=] Breeders, the Striaton triplets and Black Tower/White Treehollow, NPC trainers cannot be rematched. This is frustrating not only because trainers' Pokémon give more experience than wild ones, but also because the experience scaling system causes problems with grinding as there is no cap as to when the experience reduction for Pokémon of a lower level than your own stops.
196** Generation VI remedied this by ditching the scaling and overhauling the experience system to allow every participant to gain the same experience without it being split, or 50% if the Exp. Share was used, and also through the Battle Chateau's ability to alter the levels of trainers and the Lumiose restaurants in ''X'' and ''Y'', along with Secret Base battles being easily accessible via non-expiring QR codes instead of [[SocializationBonus directly linking with other players in the originals]], special rematchable trainers with high-leveled Pokémon and the return of the Trainer's Eye rematch system in ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'', but with higher level caps. In all four games, Lucky Eggs are also much more easily obtainable through wild Chansey in Friend Safaris for the former pair of games, and wild Pelipper found through [=DexNav=], Happiny and Chansey in the latter pair of games.
197** Generation VII however brought the scaling system back, removed trainer rematches again, limited Lucky Eggs to one per file by removing them from the Happiny line's wild held item pool, and made it so that the highest-levelled trainers in the game have Pokémon whose levels don't exceed 70. To many, this is ''even worse'' than it was in the mechanic's debut games since the pool for rematchable trainers are even smaller with even lower levels for most of them save for the Elite Four and GAME FREAK Morimoto.
198* The fact that male and genderless Pokémon can't pass on abilities, especially when figuring in Dream World abilities. Want a male-only species like Sawk or Tauros with its DW ability but can't connect to the Dream World for some reason? Sorry, you're out of luck unless you can get someone to trade you one. Ditto with the starters - when released from the DW, they're always male only. At least with females, you can trade or have one bred for you with its DW ability. As of Generation VI, this is no longer an issue for male Pokémon, albeit only while breeding with Ditto.
199* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' introduce the Hidden Hollow/Grotto mechanic. It allows the player to get Pokémon with hidden abilities without using the (now inaccessible) Dream World, but the chances of a Pokémon actually spawning in one of them are very small and most of the time it's just an item (like early game healing items that are already useless by the time the mechanic is introduced or mulch, that could be used only in the already mentioned Dream World and now it's just BetterOffSold). Also, after the Hollow/Grotto has been emptied, it can take a lot of time before it's refilled with something else (there's a 5% chance of it happening every 250 steps taken).
200* The final games of Gen V finally bring a hard mode to Pokémon (referred to in-game as "Challenge Mode"), meaning that more skilled players no longer must rely on {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s to keep their single-player experience fresh. Unfortunately Challenge Mode is crippled by strange, seemingly arbitrary restrictions. Only ''Black 2'' players can unlock it, while ''White 2'' players instead get an Easy Mode. However, Challenge Mode is only obtained after you have already beat the Pokémon League, mitigating much of the appeal. You can't enable Challenge Mode and then restart the game without losing it. In order to play the entirety of ''Black 2/White 2'' with Challenge Mode, which is what most players looking for a difficulty boost would obviously want, you must have someone gift it to you. Except it can't be via wireless- only the terrible infared port, used through the top of the cartridge, works. In conclusion, to play Pokémon with the sort of difficulty option 90% of games let you select from the start, you must either A: own two DS's and two ''Black 2/White 2'' games, one of them being a copy of ''Black 2 you already beat'', or B: have a friend you can meet in person who owns ''Black 2'' and has cleared the Pokémon League. It may not be an insurmountable obstacle if you live in Tokyo, but it's a series of completely unjustifiable restrictions for the majority of older Pokémon fans, who are the sort of people who would '''want the option in the first place'''. All these restrictions apply to Easy Mode too (substituting "White 2" for "Black 2" where appropriate), which means anyone actually needing that lenience is unable to obtain it.
201* The fact that every time you switch systems, the Dream World and Join Avenue take mostly a whole day (24 hours for the Dream World, and later reduced to 20) to reset, and all your friend codes get wiped out if you try to connect to the GTS on different systems. Some folks still switch between a [=3DS=] and a [=DSi=] or classic DS for lack of a [=3DS=] compatible Action Replay or for Pokémon Bank purposes, and it's aggravating.
202* Remember that constant annoying alarming sound whenever your current Pokémon was on very low health? Here it's an entirely different alarm-like soundtrack that will replace the awesome music you really wanted to listen to. This will get on your last nerve in the difficult last battles where instead of the phenomenal battle themes (Like the Elite Four, N, Ghetsis, etc.) you will mostly hear that god-awful music.
203* All Gym Leaders in ''Black & White'', ''Black 2 & White 2''[[note]]except for challenge mode[[/note]], and ''X & Y'' have been limited to three Pokémon. This has drawn the ire of quite a lot of people since it helps render them [[AntiClimaxBoss anti-climax bosses]]. In previous generations, even the fourth or fifth leaders would have at least four Pokémon. They also reduced the number of Pokémon that the Elite Four uses from five to four and because you can now fight them in any order, the levels of their teams are the same. Things got worse in ''X & Y'' when the Elite Four became the only one in the series post Generation III who ''don't'' update their teams during rematches.
204* Poor, poor Victini. Not only is it a Mythical Pokémon (see the Gen I folder for why that's already bad), but it has an amazing SecretArt in V-create which, at 180 base power, is the ''strongest'' Fire-type move in the series... and it's event-exclusive too. Not as in it's exclusive to Victini, but that ''only certain'' Victini events come with it (natch, they're all gone by now), and there's no way for any other Victini to learn it naturally. This can be infuriating for fans of the little guy, especially since the 20th Anniversary Victini released for Gen VI games didn't come with V-create. Alleviated as of ''Sword & Shield'', where the move is now in Victini's level-up moveset and can be obtained with a Move Relearner.
205* The way experience was generated in this generation was a bit irksome, especially as there was no cap as to when the experience reduction would stop, but many worked around it and didn't find it (too) invasive. However, the developers thought this would make experience grinding easy, and as a result, made certain (and tragically, fan-favorite) Pokémon have extremely high levels to obtain evolution. Some examples include Pawniard to Bisharp (52), Larvesta to Volcarona (59), Rufflet to Braviary (54) and damning enough Deino-Hydreigon (64!). When Gen VI abandoned this mechanic to revert to traditional experience yields, the evolution levels were left intact and made training and evolving certain Pokémon an absolute chore, especially in combination with the amount of Lucky Eggs that could be obtained combined with the Gen I-esque Exp Share mechanics. Then ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' brought the experience scaling mechanic back, and this time without any rematchable trainers outside of the Battle Buffet and League or reliable places like Black Tower and White Treehollow to grind...
206* For those looking to create "living Pokédexes" with every Pokémon form, Kyurem's formes and the way they're handled are this. When fused, the DNA Splicers hold the data of Zekrom/Reshiram, allowing it to be recovered.[[note]]Incidentally, this means if you create one Kyurem form, then hack in the other and defuse it, you will still get the Pokémon used to create the first one back.[[/note]] This, however, prevents Black/White Kyurem from being traded, stops another Kyurem from transforming until the first one defuses (meaning both forms can't be in the same game at the same time), and on ''Pokémon Bank'', they can't even be deposited. Thankfully, Necrozma's formes in Gen VII use two different key items to store Solgaleo/Lunala, allowing both formes to be present in one game (but the trading/Bank problems persist).
207[[/folder]]
208[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen VI]]
209* Pokémon-Amie has a minigame where you make facial expressions as an on-screen indicator shows. Simply starting the minigame requires lots of background light, the [=3DS=] facing you in such a way a face indicator shows up, and tilting your head enough that it starts. The biggest problem is that the game barely recognizes the expressions. You'll be grinning like an idiot and tilting your head, yet the game won't recognize you and your Pokémon will be disappointed. If it tries to ask for a smile, you'd be lucky if it even recognizes the "small smile." At least you don't have to use this minigame at all if you want to max your Pokémon's Affection. When ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' retooled Pokémon-Amie into Pokémon Refresh, they wisely dropped this minigame.
210* The Poké Transporter and Pokémon Bank's hack detection is (controversially) wonky. Sometimes it will let blatantly hacked Pokémon like shiny Legendaries with perfect stats through, or Pokémon with unreleased Hidden Abilities (like Snivy with Contrary or Totodile with Sheer Force). Other times, it will refuse to let ''perfectly legal'' Pokémon through; event Legendaries are frequent victims.
211* Horde battles have a rare chance of one or more Pokémon having their Hidden Abilities. Great! Is the Pokémon a species that doesn't appear in the Friend Safari? Is it an ability that requires you to scan each member with Role Play or Skill Swap? Get out the patience hat, because that's what you'll have to do to find one. Pokémon in hordes have their Hidden Ability at about a 5% chance. You'll have to go through a lot of them to find one, and if you ''do'' find the right Pokémon, you'll have to withstand all their attacks while trying to scan and trim the horde to the last one.
212* Wonder Trade. It's a blind trade, you offer something for trade and a random partner is found to trade with you. The problems are:
213** The feature gets flooded with ComMons. People start using it as soon as they get the game, in hopes of getting good Pokés. But all they have at that time are junk Pokémon from early in the game. And some are just lazy, wanting something for nothing. Either way, you'll get a lot of Zigzagoon, Wurmple, and starters, and only rarely will you get decent Pokémon.
214** It's also possible that you'll get obviously hacked Pokémon (which are a ''very'' hot-button topic in the fandom). Like a Shiny Arceus.
215** Though not as common as it once was, some people use the feature to [[{{Troll}} piss off other players]], frequently by giving a Pokémon a vulgar/offensive nickname (while the games have a built-in censor, it is easy to bypass) and trading it; or alternatively, trading a trade-evolution Pokémon (like Haunter or Kadabra) with an Everstone[[note]]An item that prevents evolution[[/note]] included.
216** It’s also been possible to get Pokémon hacked to be malicious and game-corrupting. Players reported getting Pokémon that turned into bad eggs in gen VI. These are the game’s attempts to interpret corrupted data and have a bad habit of turning other Pokémon in the P.C. box into more bad eggs. And you can’t release them, just trade them away to another game or reset your save file. In gen VIII, people were sending out Pokémon that rendered the now named Surprise Trade unusable by crashing the game when the player tried to retrieve the incoming Pokémon.
217* Despite being the defining gimmick of Gen VI, Mega Evolution suffers quite a bit in ''X and Y'':
218** Some of the Mega Stones are version exclusive in ''X'' and ''Y''. Much like version-exclusive Legendary Pokémon, there is only one Mega Stone of each kind in the game. Because of how rare they are, you'll have to give up one of your version's Mega Stones in exchange for another, meaning it's impossible to have all the Mega Stones unless you have [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo both versions of the game]]. Oh, and don't expect the stones' versions to match up with the versions for their corresponding species: while Houndoom and Aggron are exclusive to X, their Mega Stones can only be found in Y, with the reverse being true for Tyranitar and Manectric. ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' fix this by having all the Mega Stones available in each version, but ''Sun'' and ''Moon'' made it worse by only adding less than half of every Mega Stone available in the games, with most of them costing 64 BP ''each''.
219** Your options for Mega Evolutions pre-Elite Four are very slim; out of twenty-five Mega Stones, only six can be obtained.[[note]]If one counts the event-exclusive Blazikenite, that number goes up to seven.[[/note]] All the rest can only be found in the post-game, for only one hour each day, and they're almost all in [[GuideDangIt very out-of-the-way places]].
220* Vivillon has 18 different patterns in game, but they're region specific. So to get them all you either need to hope you have spare Legendaries to give up in the GTS, or get lucky with the Scatterbugs you receive from Wonder Trade. It's not for nothing that its National Dex number is [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]].
221* The Friend Safari. This place replaces the older Safari Zones, but instead of having a set list, it depends on the player having a large number of friends registered on their 3DS system. This is fairly uncommon outside Japan, so people would go onto message boards and barter friend codes (more often than not, the original poster wouldn't reply). If the player managed to get someone's Friend Code, then a Safari would be available; however, the third Pokémon is unavailable unless the 'owner' has entered the Hall of Fame, and Hidden Abilities are locked off unless both the 'owner' and the player are online at the same time. This is extremely difficult to manage when the Safari came from a complete stranger, as you cannot negotiate a certain time or ascertain whether they have become Champion. Furthermore, this is the ONLY place to get some Hidden Abilities, and the third slot often contains the most sought-after Pokémon. Additionally, the player cannot access their own Safari, so even if they have a great Safari, they would have to look for a similar one; not to mention that one cannot change their Safari type or contents whatsoever (it's based upon the 3DS's Friend Code). Truly a Scrappy Mechanic, which Game Freak wisely dropped in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in favour of a normal area with the 'Safari Zone' name.
222* The only way to farm evolutionary stones in ''Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire'' aside from frisking [[GuideDangIt certain]] wild Pokémon is to play the Secret Super Training minigame and get them as prizes. This wouldn't be so bad if you got one each time, but they're randomly selected among other items such as [[HealThyself Soda Pops]] and miscellanious items regardless of your performance, so you might either be lucky and get a stone immediately or sit and shoot at balloons for half an hour.
223* The ability to request specific Pokémon in the GTS became especially problematic in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', where the player needs Dialga & Palkia to obtain Giratina, Tornadus & Thundurus to obtain Landorus, and Reshiram & Zekrom to obtain Kyurem. Each member of these pairs is exclusive to one version, and GTS offers for them usually require you to give up your own version exclusive (if they aren't already asking for a level 100 Mythical), rendering the whole purpose of them moot. It doesn't help that your only other options for these mons is to either get lucky with Wonder Trade or find someone who has the version exclusive you need.
224* The attractions on the PokéMileage Club allow you to get valuable items that are otherwise hard to get in-game outside of a one-of-a-kind overworld item (such as Protectors and Whipped Dreams). The problem is, the prize you get for completing them [[LuckBasedMission is completely random]], meaning you can blow your entire budget of Poké Miles and still not get what you're after. You wanna get more? Be prepared to walk ''one thousand in-game steps'' just to get one measly Poké Mile. And the attractions that hold the items cost 100 Poké Miles per play (for those who can't do the math, that equates to walking ''one hundred thousand in-game steps'' just for one shot at Balloon Popping). You'd have a better chance slogging through the [[BrutalBonusLevel Battle Maison]] to get the same item directly. How many points you get per balloon is totally random too, and even then they don't influence your chances of getting the prize you want. In other words, the points are pointless.
225* Evolving Sliggoo into Goodra is a level of pain previously known only to the damned. It must level up to at least Level 50 while it's raining. To start off with, [[GuideDangIt it's not exactly an easy conclusion to make]], but once you do find out about it, you'll realise just how frustrating it is. Despite learning Rain Dance via level up, leveling up when it's in effect won't evolve Sliggoo; it has to be raining in the overworld itself. Fortunately, every game includes a place where it is always raining (''X & Y'' have Route 14, the route where Goomy can be found, ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire'' have Route 120, ''Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, & Ultra Moon'' have Route 17 and Po Town, and ''Sword & Shield'' always have at least one section of the Wild Area that is raining), and using a Rare Candy allows the evolution. Gen VII onward made this even easier by allowing Sliggoo to evolve in foggy areas (those being Ula'ula and Poni Meadows and the Lakes of the Sunne and Moone, as well as fog being a rotation weather in the Wild Area in ''Sword & Shield'').
226* Some ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire'' players have a tendency to decorate their Secret Base and position their Friends in such a way that obtaining that Base's flag is impossible unless you recruit the Secret Base's owner into your friend list, or even ''block the entrance off from the rest of the base entirely''. Heaven forbid if you Street Pass more than '''five'''[[note]]the minimum number of friends you can recruit at a time[[/note]] Secret Bases with such arrangements. This makes the Flag Collection sidequest (already a ''very'' time-consuming chore) pad out much, much longer than it should be.
227* Language locking. All mainline games from ''X'' and ''Y'' onward have allowed the player to choose their language at the start of the game, and all Pokémon caught in the game are assigned a language identifier based on the player's choice that they retain if traded to other games in other languages. While a very nice feature for accessibility and for language learners, there is one caveat: unlike other video games, the language ''cannot'' be changed afterwards without deleting all saved data, to avoid inconsistencies with the language ID of Pokémon caught in-game (which could also lead to easy abuse of the "Masuda method" to obtain Shiny Pokémon more easily). This has prevented many players from changing their game language out of curiosity, and has also caused trouble for players who have tried playing the game in a foreign language and find themselves unable to switch back to their native language (for various reasons such as familiarity, difficulty with the new language, etc.).
228[[/folder]]
229[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen VII]]
230* Not only do ''Sun'' and ''Moon'' have the shallowest range of Pokémon available in-game in terms of the percentage of all Pokémon available at the time of all main-series Pokémon games (discounting Magearna and Marshadow, there are 384 Pokémon available out of 802, less than 48%), not only being a huge contrast to the past three sets of games but managing to surpass even ''Black'' and ''White'' (games already infamous for their extremely shallow range of Pokémon, especially during the main game where only Pokémon introduced in those games were available) in variety, and that's before the now-defunct Dream World is taken into consideration; but the majority of Pokémon introduced in this generation have godawful speed, which hinders their viability in-game and in competitive play.
231** Many of the Gen VII Pokémon have ''extremely'' low appearance rates. A special mention goes to Mareanie and Dhelmise -- the former can only be encountered when a Corsola (itself a rare Pokémon found via fishing, though slightly more common in bubbling spots) calls for help, and the latter can only be found in Seafolk Village, being an extremely rare fishing encounter that is slightly more common when the fishing spot in can be found in is bubbling.
232** In addition, the National Dex no longer exists in the games -- every Pokémon in-game is identified in the party or PC by their Alola Pokédex number. Gone are the days of easily being able to check which Pokémon you own and/or have seen. In order to check the entries, cry, animations etc. of Pokémon not in the Alola Dex, you'll need to use Pokémon Bank... only, you can't check said animations, since you only have a small picture of a Pokémon to look at, and no 3D models. And don't expect any newly-written entries, either -- all of it is cribbed from the Gen VI games. On the plus side, having only the Alola Dex to complete makes getting the Oval and Shiny Charms much easier.
233** ''Sword'' and ''Shield'' infamously took this one step further: not only is there no National Dex, but if a Pokémon isn't in the Galar Dex, it can't even be ''transferred'' into the game. The Expansion Pass reintroduced a lot of the Pokémon that weren't included at launch, and made them available to people who didn't buy the expansion through trades and ''HOME'' transfers, but if your favorite didn't make the cut, or you wanted a living Pokédex in Galar, you're still out of luck.
234* The Rotom Pokédex will not allow you to access the minimap until it is done talking to you, a common occurrence in a cutscene-heavy Pokémon game such as ''Sun'' and ''Moon''. The minimap itself is quite small compared to that of ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''[='s=], and the directional marker doesn't work in most areas that aren't a populated area or traditional route, especially in caves.
235** It gets worse in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' -- there, the Rotom Dex will [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper give you advice that it freely admits you never asked for]]. Said advice covers up the minimap until it's done talking, and while you can speed it up, you can't outright skip it. Oh, and if you go into a different menu? ''It talks to you again, blocking the minimap until it finishes.''
236* The S.O.S. system. Unlike Horde Battles which were their own kind of battles, ''any'' wild Pokémon on Alola, with a few exceptions,[[note]]Minior, Wimpod, Oranguru, and Passimian[[/note]] can summon allies to their aid, and in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', they can keep doing so infinitely outside of the 50/50 chance that this ability fails (in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', [[AntiFrustrationFeatures they only call one ally per battle]] unless you use an Adrenaline Orb). This will be the bane of your existence for several reasons:
237** If you're trying to catch a single Pokémon, this can lead to battles dragging out ''far'' longer than one would like (especially if their attacker has low offense and/or the Pokémon has a low catch rate), due to you having to KO one of them to catch the other (because apparently if so much as one more Pokémon is present, your character suddenly gets the aiming capability of an {{Imperial Stormtrooper|MarksmanshipAcademy}}). Should the capture fail, they could then bring in another ally, and the cycle repeats ''ad nauseum''. Fortunately, wild Pokémon are far less likely to summon an ally if they're suffering a status condition, [[GuideDangIt not that the game ever tells you that]]. More annoying, it's the ''only'' way in this game to obtain Pokémon with their Hidden Abilities, and they require almost obscene kills before they (infrequently) show up. And may the Tapus help those who want a specific gender to it, too (e.g. a female Eevee with Anticipation).
238** There are some Pokémon that can ''only'' be caught in the wild through this method. One example involves Corsola either calling for help and getting Mareanie or another Corsola. If your luck is bad, you're sitting through a lot of time knocking out Corsola and can end up running out of healing items and [[ManaPotion Leppa Berries]], making things even worse. On the flip side though, the S.O.S. method is phenomenal for StatGrinding... but if you're trying to catch a Pokémon whose EV yields aren't good for your current party, you'll be feeding them a lot of EV-reducing berries afterwards. If a wild Pokémon is defeated and the other Pokémon isn't of the same evolutionary family as the one originally encountered, the chain will be broken and it will not call for help. In many cases it's ''far'' easier to simply use Poké Pleago's Isle Evelup and wait for a day to max out [=EVs=] instead.
239** Calling for help is a free action for wild Pokémon, independent of its actual turn. This means that even if you're not trying to keep a Pokémon alive, they can still drag the battle out for longer than intended because they can call in a new ally as soon as one is defeated, even if they already attacked that turn, and they suffer zero penalty for spamming this tactic (outside of the coin toss that no-one comes) since they're still able to attack you (or, god forbid, spam debuffs to make killing each one more and more difficult and drawn-out). This means virtually ''any'' Pokémon can become GoddamnedBats, and DemonicSpiders just got a whole lot more demonic. You'd better have an effective move that hits multiple targets and hope that no-one survives it.
240** It is entirely possible for a wild Pokémon at full health to successfully call for help at the end of the first turn. Unlikely as it is, it doesn't change how incredibly aggravating it can be. [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown This combined with the possibility that it can do so right after beating down your Pokémon to critical health]], it makes most wild encounters painful.
241** As they start as regular battles, the levels of Pokémon called by this mechanic are not lowered unlike in Horde Battles, so you are basically handicapped if your lead Pokémon is around the same levels as the Pokémon in the area.
242* The removal of Super Training, Horde Battles and the Macho Brace has not sat well with a lot of fans, as StatGrinding is now more obtuse and difficult (forcing one to rely on S.O.S. Battles -- themselves a contentious mechanic -- for the best and most efficient results, or Isle Evelup which, although it allows multiple Pokémon to be trained in a group, is incredibly slow even at its highest level). The EV-boosting items, also capable of passing down [=IVs=], still require Battle Points to obtain. However, both of the battle facilities are extremely relentless in these games, and [[Catch22Dilemma you'll probably need competitively-bred Pokémon (the very things that will entice many a player to grind BP to purchase the aformentioned items in order to breed and use Pokémon ready for battle facilities) to make much leeway through them]], meaning that it might take a long time before a player will have amassed enough BP to afford the items.
243* Evolution Moves are moves that certain Pokémon are now guaranteed to learn on evolution, no matter the level. However, some moves you'd think would be these, aren't, such as Alolan Marowak's Shadow Bone, which only it can learn at Level 27. Cubone evolves into Marowak exactly one level later, so the only way to get it is to use the Move Reminder, who isn't found until the Pokémon Center outside the Pokémon League. Even worse, there was a (now patched) [[GameBreakingBug bad glitch]] where these moves would sometimes overwrite any other moves a Pokémon would happen to know at this level, screwing over certain Pokémon like Kadabra.[[labelnote:For clarification...]][[MagikarpPower Abra learns no attacks by level up, but Kadabra learns Confusion at Level 16 (when Abra evolves)]]. However, Kadabra now always learns Kinesis on evolution... taking priority over Confusion, which it wouldn't learn. This means you're stuck with a SquishyWizard that can't hurt anything for several more levels. By contrast, a Crabrawler evolving at Level 37 will attempt to learn Crabominable's evolutionary move Ice Punch and then Ice Hammer, its signature move that it normally learns at that level.[[/labelnote]]
244* When collecting Zygarde Cores and Cells in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', the game neglects to tell you how many are left on a given island, or indeed how many are left overall unless you check the Zygarde Cube manually in the bag. Furthermore, some can only be found at either day or night, and some still can't be found until the post-game. And you'd better keep a checklist of what Cells you have and haven't collected, because the game won't, potentially leading to [[LastLousyPoint a scavenger hunt just for the last one]]. Mercifully, ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' completely replace the sidequest, and make Zygarde easier to obtain.
245* Alola is not kind with location-based evolutions -- the zone where Magneton, Nosepass and [[RecurringElement the regional early Bug-type]] Charjabug need to level up in to evolve only comes in on the fourth island, near the game's ending. For reference, such zones appeared near the middle in past games. Crabrawler has it very bad, however; it needs to be leveled up in Mt. Lanakila, which is the region's ''Victory Road'', and as an early-game Pokémon, it doesn't have the stats to support itself until then. One wonders why the Ice Stone (otherwise used exclusively on Alolan Vulpix and Sandshrew) couldn't have been the requirement to evolve it instead. The Ice Rock, required for Eevee to evolve into Glaceon, is located within the mountain as well, whereas the Mossy Rock to evolve it into Leafeon is in the Lush Jungle, less than halfway through the game.
246** ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' alleviate this for the electric-based location evolutions and Crabrawler. The electric evolution location is now Blush Mountain while a small area of Mt. Lanakila is available as soon as the base is reached.
247* The new fishing mechanics can be a pain. Now, there is a 1 in 3 chance of getting a Pokémon encounter (the other possibilities are nothing and an item). Due to the limitations of fishing zones and the removal of multiple fishing rods the high encounter rates for Magikarp cannot be lowered outside of bubbling spots. Good luck finding a Pokémon that is not Magikarp. It got so bad that you could offer up a Pokémon caught by fishing for something very nice on the GTS market.
248* Menu navigation can be somewhat annoying now that players can no longer completely exit menus by pressing X. While irritating to casual players, imagine how bad it must get for hardcore players and breeders. Don't even get started on how annoying it is with the Pokédex.
249* Clothing options:
250** The amount of clothes available in ''Sun'' and ''Moon'' has not only been reduced from the amount (and variety - long sleeved clothes apart from ripped jeans aren't available either) available in ''X'' and ''Y'', but now some types and/or colours are version exclusive as well. To obtain clothes exclusive to the other version, you'll need to find someone wearing them in Festival Plaza and hope to dear god that they'll offer the article of clothing you want, and then purchase it off them. The clothes available in the Gracidea boutique in Hau'oli Mall can reach up to hundreds of thosands of dollars, and in turn thousands of Festival Coins when offered in the Plaza.
251** ''Scarlet'' and ''Violet'' are even worse about it -- your clothing options are limited to four seasonal variations of a school uniform, with designs that range from ugly to mediocre. Each game has its own set, with no way to even get the equivalent from the other game.[[note]]Which makes sense from a lore perspective, but doesn't make it any less annoying for players who wanted their characters to look cool.[[/note]] To add insult to injury, the uniform colors like to clash with the in-game accessories. A few players admitted to picking ''Violet'' because they found the purple uniforms more tolerable than the red-orange ones. Another customization issue with these games is that hats are incompatible with almost all hairstyles.
252* The Festival Plaza is what happens when you take ''Black 2'' and ''White 2''[='s=] Join Avenue, combine it with Gen VI's PSS, remove the best parts of both features, and add a couple more obnoxiously frustrating mechanics to create an incredibly loathed game feature.
253** On the Join Avenue side of things, shops cannot be leveled up anymore, certain shops are now truly version-exclusive [[note]]While ''[=B2W2=]'' would offer a random set of NPC[=s=] per day to allow the player to have people to direct to shops or hired as shopkeepers in the case they had no other players to connect to, throughout the pool of possible guests every version-exclusive type of every shop was available. In ''Sun'' and ''Moon'', the shops and even ''certain ranks'' offered by Sophocles are now completely version-exclusive outside of a set few kinds such as the basic tiers of several restaurants, bouncy houses and goody shops, and every rank of fortune tellers, haunted houses and lotteries.[[/note]], only a certain amount of guests will want to be recommended somewhere to allow the plaza to level up. To generate more, you'll either have to wait a certain period of time or participate in a mission online to refresh the current range of guests. Even at high plaza ranks, Sophocles will frequently offer low-star facilities. In order to gain shops from guests, you'll need to purchase them with Festival Coins, something that Join Avenue didn't require you to do. Whatever shop is offered is the one in the first slot of the other player's plaza, and the highest-tier shops usually require more than a thousand FC[=s=]. If you are offered a shop you already have, ''the price is doubled''.
254** There are not only more varieties of shops in Festival Plaza than there were in Join Avenue, but also less slots. If you get rid of a shop, be prepared to either fork out a lot of coins to get it back or have horrible luck at Sophocles offering it to you when you level up.
255** The colours that dye houses focus on are version-exclusive. You can dye items other colors using berries (pastel at one-star buildings, dark at three-star buildings, and pastel/dark at five-star buildings), but you'll need nearly a hundred berries spread across three kinds to dye a single article, with many options requiring berries not available until Poni Island that also take several days to grow. In addition, the colours of dyes tend to have a slightly different hue from store-bought clothes of the same colour. While purple and green dyed clothes happen to be truer purples and greens than store-bought and blue-tinted purple and green clothes, blue dyed clothes are more teal or turquoise than they are blue in contrast to store-bought blue clothes.
256** The internet-based communication features are now accessed from Festival Plaza. The main appeal of the PSS was being able to access features such as the GTS, Battle Spot or other players, friends or passersby alike, from regular play in the overworld without having to go someplace else to do those things. Inversely, part of Join Avenue's appeal is that its single-player features can still be accessed offline, especially in the light of the Nintendo DS' Wi-Fi shutdown. In addition, the player listings for friends and guests are all cramped up into one small list that is much smaller than any of the PSS's lists, unless any of them have been registered as VIP[=s=]. You'll also need to exit Festival Plaza if you want to organise Pokémon in your boxes, requiring that you also disconnect from the internet.
257** When doing certain communicative features in Generation VI, Poké Miles were automatically given to the player. When doing these things in Festival Plaza, you must manually talk to the player you just did something with in the castle to receive some FC, or you will miss out on them the next time the guest in the castle changes when you communicate with someone else.
258** People who whisper "Do you know how I feel?" will ask to be directed to a random shop. Unlike the people in Join Avenue who did this, they have a chance to be disappointed by whatever you recommend to them. In a similar vein, when people ask to be directed to another guest with a high rank in a certain gameplay category, the game will offer you a list of about ten people to choose from instead of all of the current guests in your plaza. It is very likely that the person with the highest rank for the requested category will not be an option. Unlike Black & White's vague request examples, which required a bit of GuideDangIt levels of research to manipulate, there's '''no''' way to predict what those who use this phrase want.
259*** Remaining offline for a period of several days causes the majority of the guests' rankings to level out, potentially making it difficult to select a guest with a high rank when requested. If that wasn't bad enough, unlike in Gen V where Join Avenue's popularity rewards were set depending on whether or not the guest was an NPC or another player, the FC payout in Festival Plaza depends on whether or not the guest is a regular guest or VIP (with the registration process for that known to be extremely unreliable, especially if you're online) and that's before the game punishes you for not going online for several days by reducing the FC payout.
260** If your internet connection falters during an online trade, you will be banned from trading online for several days. Similarly, if you lose connection to the internet during a mission, it immediately ends and you will receive no reward for it regardless of your progress.
261** Signing up for a global mission requires you to acquire your game's Game Sync ID. However, as with many features involving the Pokémon Global Link, it is filled with a myriad of bugs. Many people have discovered that they need to completely connect their games to the PGL in order to be eligible for a global mission despite what the games and official sources say. This would be easy if you didn't need to make a Trainer Club or Daisuki Club account before you can make a Global Link account, and easier if the username/password recovery system of the PGL actually worked.
262*** On a similar note, Game Freak set the goal of the first global mission as catching 100 '''million''' Pokémon within two weeks. Only a small fraction of the Pokémon games bought ever end up being connected to the PGL, mostly due to the tedious registration methods, and by the time the mission started many people had already completed their Pokédexes and thus the main incentive for catching Pokémon was rendered unimportant for them. Needless to say the mission completely bombed, a fate that many of the frustrated players had predicted when they were only 1% of the way to the goal two days into the mission.
263* The Battle Royal and Battle Tree are infamous for being '''absolutely unforgiving''' by the standards set by previous battle facilities, even early on in the Royal's Normal Rank and the Tree's regular Single, Double and Multi Battle challenges. You'll definitely need Pokémon with high [=IVs=] in order to even consider making progress, because even the basic rank modes have Pokémon usually seen in the Subway and Maison's Super modes.
264** Unlike the Battle Subway in Unova, which more than likely because it was available relatively early in the game akin to the Battle Royal, the Royal will throw fully-evolved Pokémon from other regions at you from the get go, with some even Mega Evolving. In Battle Royals, NPC contenders also frequently tend to gang up on a single opponent as the match ends when one person has all of their Pokémon faint. That single opponent is often the player, especially at higher levels.
265** The Battle Royal Dome has the maximum level be 50; any higher, and it's lowered for the match. That's all well and good; what isn't is that Pokémon lower than that ''stay at the same level'', leaving them to get creamed by Pokémon much stronger than them. What's more, you're first able to take these on just after clearing the first Akala Island trial, when your team is likely around the mid-to-late 20s.
266** What makes this even worse is that the game makes you watch a cutscene about how great Battle Royals are and fight a tutorial Battle Royal against Pokémon around your level as part of the story. However, if you then turn around and decide to do a Battle Royal, you'll face the aforementioned lvl 50 'mons, making the Battle Royal essentially a postgame feature that Game Freak decided to hype and tutorialize halfway through the second island. At the very least, the Battle Royal still gives you 1BP when you lose, so slowly grinding battle points by repeatedly losing [[CurbStompBattle hopelessly over-your-level battles]] is a viable (if depressing) way to get some of the BP items they sell at the Battle Royal Dome.
267** Early on in streaks of the regular-tier challenges, the game will begin selecting opponents of difficulties usually unseen until the super mode challenges or ones designed to counter your teams, and regardless of whatever challenge type you're already taking the game, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard in tradition with older battle facilities]] will eventually start to skew the RNG away from your favour when it comes to things like stat reductions, accuracy or status afflictions, or spew illegal Pokémon. While the Soul Dew has been nerfed and is now allowed for player use in battle facilities, unlike in previous games where the NPC opponents were allowed to despite the player not being allowed to, the game now has opponents with Pokémon with illegal movepools in their teams. The most infamous of this was the Shell Smash [[InfinityMinusOneSword Kommo-o]] (which, as it turns out, was a glitch: the 1.1 patch removed that combination from the Battle Tree).
268* Hyper Training can only be used after the game is beaten, and only on Pokémon at level 100. However, Pokémon in ''Sun'' and ''Moon'', due to the return of Gen V's experience scaling system, the removal of ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''[='s=] rematchable NPC trainers in places like routes and landmarks, the lack of a facility such as Nimbasa Stadiums, Black Tower, White Treehollow or the Battle Chateau, and the Lucky Egg from Happiny and Chansey's wild held items in tandem with the trainers in the post-game Battle Buffet and the wild Pokémon in Poni Gauntlet's levels not exceeding 60 and the Elite Four and challengers' Pokémon's levels not exceeding 70, grinding is much, much more strenuous than it was in the previous generation.
269* Pokémon Refresh may have removed the minigames that people had mixed opinions on, but by doing so it also made it much harder to reduce hunger and enjoyment to allow those to be refilled to gain more affection. If you don't use a Pokémon in battle, its hunger and enjoyment will slowly fall as you walk around, and adding onto that Poké Beans fill hunger more quickly than Poké Puffs do, meaning less of them can be fed to a Pokémon before it gets full. Thankfully, rainbow beans can alleviate those problems. Although rare, they increase affection by 100 points, enough to trigger the experience boost and one of the requirements for Eevee to evolve into Sylveon.
270* The Apricorn Poké Balls, once exclusive to [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver the Johto games]], are back. However, you can now only get '''one''' of each per save file, even less than the already-scarce Master Balls. With their situational catch rates, you'll probably want to save before attempting to use it on a wild Pokémon. It's somewhat alleviated in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', as you can get a second set if you have Pokémon transferred from the Virtual Console releases of the Gen II games, but their limited supply still makes them TooAwesomeToUse. They return again in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', but once again you only get one of each, including the Dream Ball from Gen V.[[note]]Which has been changed to be more effective against sleeping Pokémon.[[/note]] So yet again, most players will never use them.
271* In a similar situation to the Safari Zones in previous games, Pokémon encountered at Isle Abeens can be shiny. They're even worse than shinies found at the aforementioned facilities, as '''there is nothing you can do''' to influence whether you can keep them or not apart from the initial interaction.
272** On the flipside, there's no way to "shoo" any ComMons or undesirable wild Pokémon from Isle Abeens (without taking them and releasing them shortly thereafter). If you refuse to take them into your party/box they'll stay there forever until you do, taking up space for any more wild ones to show up.
273* While Mega Evolution already got a raw deal by being locked off until the postgame, over half the Mega Stones are outright ''gone''. If they're not in the Alola Dex and aren't a Kanto starter, they likely can't ever Mega Evolve. Even worse? The ones that ''are'' available cost ''64 BP each''. Have fun slogging through the Battle Tree, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which is oh-so-happy to use a Mega Latios and other Mega Evolutions when you the player can't!]]
274** Though not by playing the game, you ''could'' get the other Mega Stones... as entry gifts for online competitions, which, natch, were TemporaryOnlineContent. Not only were Game Freak effectively holding hostage something that ought to have been obtainable in-game from the outset (or at least patched in/released via Mystery Gift from the get-go), but participating in said online contests required a Global Link account -- which itself is not without problems.
275** ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' thankfully came to the rescue by including every Mega Stone in-game, as well as all the Pokémon that can use them.
276* While the ability to transfer Pokémon from the Virtual Console versions of ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' is appreciated, it does have flaws:
277** They always get their Hidden Ability; while this is usually good, it's not so much if said Hidden Ability is [[PowerUpLetdown lacking compared to one of the line's other abilities]] (Mewtwo, for instance, gets more mileage from Pressure than the more situational Unnerve). [[ObviousRulePatch And yeah]], no Machamp with [[AlwaysAccurateAttack No Guard]] and [[OneHitKill Fissure]].
278** They always get at least three maximum [=IVs=], but you can't soft reset to ensure they go into the stats you want them to (hope you didn't play through the entire game to get a Timid Mewtwo only for its Special Attack IV to turn out as zero!). This also means that getting the Hidden Power type you want on them is a complete crapshoot (especially for the unbreedable and late-game Legendary birds). However, you ''can'' [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2_tQ5QWEAE_5y5.jpg influence their Nature via their EXP number]], [[GuideDangIt but you're not told this]].
279** Thought you could send in a Mew using the [[GoodBadBugs Mew glitch]]? [[NoFairCheating Too bad -- the Bank won't allow it to be transferred]].[[note]]That is, unless you use the [[GoodBadBugs 8F arbitrary code execution glitch]] to fool the game into thinking the Mew's OT and ID match that of the only legitimate Mew ever distributed ([[NoExportForYou in Japan, natch]]).[[/note]] We would like to remind you that said Mew glitch is the ''only'' reliable way to get Mew in any recent game, as otherwise [[TemporaryOnlineContent it is entirely impossible to obtain outside of limited-time-only events rarely drip-fed by Nintendo]] (itself a giant Scrappy Mechanic). We would ''also'' like to remind you that using ''Sun and Moon'' with ''Pokémon Bank'' before October 2nd, 2017 netted you Mewnium Z -- a Z-Crystal only Mew can use, and the best way of getting a Mew into those games ''does not work''.
280* Transferring from Gen VI to VII is, once again, a one-way trip. While this could be excused in earlier generations due to hardware differences and the like, it's harder to excuse here as both Gens are on the same console with the same service (''Pokémon Bank'') being compatible with each other.
281* With the release of the Pokémon Bank upgrade, you can now transfer all the Pokémon that can be stored in the Bank to ''Sun and Moon''. However, some discoveries were made where certain Pokémon, after being transferred to ''Sun and Moon'' cannot be traded online or Wonder Traded, only locally (most likely, these are poorly-thought-out attempts at hack detection, rather than deliberate exclusions):
282** Gen III or Gen IV Pokémon that aren't obtainable in Alola cannot be traded online if they're in Apricorn Balls (despite the fact that a number of them can be caught in these balls in ''[=HeartGold and SoulSilver=]''). Gen I and II mons are fine. This issue was fixed fairly early on so trading these monsters is possible.
283** Fossil Pokémon that are found in Alola (Cranidos, Shieldon, Tirtouga and Archen) cannot be traded if they've hatched in ''Sun and Moon'' and have their Hidden ability. Ones that originated from ''XY/ORAS'' and earlier are fine for trading.
284** Pokémon with hidden abilities that are species that are found via Island Scan (such as Chikorita with Leaf Guard) are unable to be traded.
285** Gen II or Gen IV monsters that evolved from a Gen I monster that originated from the Virtual Console Gen 1 game cannot be traded (which would make things super awkward if you evolved a Virtual Console Seadra into a Kingdra via trading as you can't trade it back afterwards).
286* You still can't transfer items. While normally an inconvenience, the aforementioned absence and ransoming of over half the Mega Stones makes this limitation ever more apparent.
287* If the various convoluted ways of evolving Pokémon before weren't enough, ''Sun and Moon'' introduce version-exclusive evolutions. Now it's not enough for you to have another game (or know someone with one) to trade to, but it has to be the ''opposite'' version of your game as well (and just about everyone will invariably have the same version as you)!
288** While there are only two Pokémon that evolve this way, it stings for Lycanroc, given how the ''Moon''-exclusive Midnight Form [[LowTierLetdown is worse than its Midday counterpart in just about every way]]. But at least you can catch both forms at Vast Poni Canyon based on the time of day.[[note]]Though must one wonder why they don't evolve into either form based on the time of day regardless of version, which would be more thematically appropriate. ''Sword and Shield'' would later do exactly this when Lycanroc returned in the Expansion Pass.[[/note]] The same can't be said for [[spoiler:Cosmoem, which evolves into the mascots]], so getting the other evolution is a real pain if you want to keep it and not trade it for someone else's.
289* Z-Crystals, unlike Mega Stones, can't be traded from game to game. [[ObviousRulePatch While it makes sense for the eighteen universal Z-Crystals since they act as surrogate Gym Badges]], it's detrimental for Z-Crystals in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' that were TemporaryOnlineContent.[[labelnote:Those being...]]Snorlium Z, Mewnium Z, Marshadium Z, and Pikashunium Z.[[/labelnote]] Hope you weren't planning on trading to get them if you missed those events, nor were you thinking of starting a new playthrough of those games if you DO have them! Mercifully, ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' allows you to get all the Z-Crystals in-game, even the event-exclusive ones.
290* Closed trades in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' as well as ''Sword and Shield'', require a four digit-code, rather than just directly linking with someone via their friend code as in past games. With hundreds of players communicating at once, you'd be surprised how likely it is that someone will input the same code as you and your friend by sheer chance. If you're trying to do a tradeback[[note]]Trading a Pokémon, then immediately having it traded back to you.[[/note]], either for a trade evolution, or just for Pokédex completion with a rarer Pokémon (Arceus forbid that you and your friend are swapping Box Legendaries when this happens), you might end up kissing it goodbye if you don't double-check your friend's in-game name before doing the trade and consequently trade it with a random person that then bails.
291* Starting in the ''Let's Go'' games, online battles are limited to 20 minutes, down from 60 minutes in the previous games, with no way to increase it or turn it off. The time limit doesn't pause for animations (which cannot be turned off in multiplayer), including the 40-second Dynamax animation, which rarely leaves enough time to complete a 6-vs-6 Single Battle. Alleviated somewhat by ''Scarlet and Violet'' patch 1.2.0 adding the ability to host competitions with battles up to 60 minutes long.
292[[/folder]]
293[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen VIII]]
294* The Exp. Share returns, as a game mechanic rather than an item, for ''Sword and Shield''. Unlike in games prior, it ''can't be disabled'', to the disappointment of players who believe it made leveling up teams of mons too easy. The only way to make Pokémon gain EXP individually like they used to is to only carry one at a time while putting the rest in storage, or by feeding them Candy attained from Max Raid Battles. Unfortunately, unless you're made of money, you have to bring them out to fight if you want them to get [=EVs=].
295* Unlike the Global Trade System in Generations VI and VII, the Y-Comm's online trading will not let players look for Pokémon they haven't seen yet. The Global Trade System itself was moved to ''Pokémon Home'' rather than implemented into the game proper, which mean those who want to mass breed and deposit will have to transfer over their specimens to ''Home'' first.
296* Pokémon has always had some weird evolution requirements, but Gen VIII takes it to a whole new level.
297** Want a Sirfetch'd? First you have to find a Galarian Farfetch'd. Easy enough. Now you have to use it in battle and have it make three critical hits in one battle. Good luck doing that without knocking out your opponents. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A21XpvDE2mM Someone found a way, however.]]
298** The most ridiculous new evolution method goes to Runerigus, where here you have to take a Galarian Yamask, have it take at least 49 points of damage, and then go under a specific arch in the Dusty Bowl. [[LoopholeAbuse Anyone who thought they could get smart with it]] by letting one with at least 99 [=HP=] faint and reviving it will be displeased to learn the 49+ damage missing must be from battle. [=YouTuber=] Alpharad compared this evolution method to the infamous "[[UrbanLegendOfZelda/{{Pokemon}} Mew under the truck]]" rumor due to how ridiculous it is.
299* Gigantamax Pokémon are AwesomeButImpractical for several reasons -- they're awesome in concept, but after reading all the precautions below, do you still want them?
300** Gigantamax Pokémon are already quite rare on their own -- spawning at a low rate from purple beams that are uncommon themselves - but what makes them even harder to obtain are their ridiculously low catch rates. The host is lucky enough to get a catch rate of 20, but all of their allies are stuck at a laughable catch rate of '''''three.''''' That's the same miniscule catch rate as most Legendaries, but at least those are static encounters where you can throw any many Poké Balls as you need. Against Gigantamaxed Pokémon, you can only throw one ball per attempt! Unless you're quite lucky, they can easily break out of even the best balls[[note]]Such as Dusk Balls at night or Repeat Balls if the base Pokémon is registered in the Pokédex (both of which give a 3.5x modifier)[[/note]] without a single shake, and as a result it may take a lot of time and frustration before a Gigantamax Pokémon is finally caught.[[note]]This one is only an issue to players without the DLC. With the DLC, obtaining Gigantamax Pokémon is a ''lot'' easier, as all it requires is giving Max Soup, made with three easily-obtainable Max Mushrooms, to a Gigantamax-capable Pokémon.[[/note]]
301** When a Pokémon Dynamaxes, its moves are replaced with Max moves that have special effects in addition to high damage. Gigantamax Pokémon have special G-Max moves for one type of attack with exclusive effects... and they completely replace the Dynamax version of the move. This proves to be a problem when the Max move has a better effect than the G-Max move[[note]]For example, Gigantamax Drednaw swaps out Max Geyser for G-Max Stonesurge, which applies Stealth Rock to the arena; Stealth Rock can already be applied easily without using a special move, while Max Geyser creates very useful rain weather that boosts Drednaw's Water moves and activates Swift Swim (which is Drednaw's Hidden Ability, meaning that G-Max Drednaw will likely have it even though it can't use Max Geyser)[[/note]]. Gigantamaxing doesn't give any other benefits aside from the G-Max move, so while this is only a problem for some Pokémon, having the status can actually make the Pokémon weaker that it would be with base Dynamaxing.
302** If you can't defeat the Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokémon in a Max Raid battle before they make Pokémon on your team faint four times or 10 turns have passed, you'll be automatically ejected from it. While this isn't a problem in one and two star raids, three and four star raids will have a hard cap on how much you can reduce the Pokémon's HP at once, at which time they will put up a barrier that lowers damage taken, block all status effects, and can take two to four hits to break, and the five star raids have two hard caps with barriers that can take three to ''seven'' moves to break[[note]]Though they still take some damage through the barrier, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome which is why many people use Eternatus and Crowned Zacian in Max Raid Battles]], because they can do ''a lot'' of damage through the barrier[[/note]]. On top of that, if you decide to go alone, or you don't get enough people to join in time, you will be stuck with random AI partners with Pokémon that range from ok to completely useless, and none of them ever Dynamax[[note]]Which is a problem because a damaging Max Move will take two hits off of a barrier instead of one[[/note]]. This can make higher level raids a disaster if you happen to get bad teammates or ones with types that are weak to the Pokémon you're fighting, and your side ends up with four fainted Pokémon through no fault of your own.
303** You have to grind the Battle Tower out the ass for Mints and Bottle Caps you want if you want to optimize your Gigantamax Pokémon's stats for competitive play, if you're going to use it competitively at all, because the Gigantamax factor cannot be bred into its descendants...that is, if they were allowed in Ranked Online Matches at all. As of now, all Gigantamax Pokémon are seemingly arbitrarily banned from Ranked Online.[[note]]But with the DLC, you can add the Gigantamax factor to any compatible Pokémon easily, including bred Pokémon.[[/note]]
304** The Max Raids present in the Wild Area persist until all of them have been beaten, or when the date changes. If you're stuck with ThatOneBoss that happens to be present, you'll either need to get some help online, or wait for the next day to refresh the dens and their precious Watt yields.
305* Dynamax itself is a very divisive mechanic, even without Gigantamax as a factor. Due to copying both Mega Evolution (giving all Pokémon a powered up form) and Z-Moves (with all moves having powered up forms and effects), it leads to [=PvP=] battles becoming overcentralized on the mechanic, as a few stat boosts can lead to that Pokémon dominating. Not helped is that status moves are all, by default, switched to Max Guard, meaning there's very little you can do with more passive Pokémon that might Dynamax, as well as stripping them of their ability to heal through moves. This penalizes any defensive or passive Pokémon that would use it, encouraging it to be used more for offenive pushes or to protect a sweeper via the added bulk. All of these factors mean that while it's alright in the story (where enemy teams are not as optimized) and manageable in [=VGC=] (a far more fast-paced meta game that uses the Double Battle format, meaning Pokémon can be focused down quickly), it becomes quickly overbearing in [=PvP=] since most prefer the Single Battle format. These factors lead to Smogon banning the mechanic in their rulesets after much debate.
306* The Wild Area is overall a welcome new mechanic to the game. However, the fact that badges now determine which Pokémon you can catch is ''not'', especially since you can easily run into Pokémon outside of your badge level cap in the wild area. Not only can you not ''catch'' these Pokémon for a leg up if you're having trouble, if the Pokémon's speed dramatically outmatches your own (which, given the high level, is ''very likely''), you can't ''run'' from them either without using a Poké Doll. So if you have only two badges and accidentally draw aggro on a level 60 Machamp and have no Poké Dolls you are capital-S ''Screwed!''
307* A handful of Pokémon will only spawn in certain parts of the Wild Area ''during certain weather.'' And their spawn rates are usually very low. Unless you cheat by manipulating the system clock, it could be a couple of days until the weather is right to find a rare Pokémon, and then it's usually a long wait until you can actually find one. It may be even worse for Pokémon that only spawn from moving grass, because there's no way to see what the encounter will be and you have to waste your time watching battle intros and running away from the common spawns you didn't want. If it happens to be one of the Pokémon that spawns in the Lake of Outrage area, you had better catch it before beating the game, because afterward, the grass there becomes crowded with overworld Pokémon and gets several aggressive fast species that are difficult to avoid and will waste your time while you try to find an empty patch of grass for a hidden encounter.
308* Gen VIII online matchmaking is very quickly became a scrappy mechanic on its own. Aside from the aforementioned issues with finding partners for trade and battle, you can also join in other players' raid battles by selecting their stamp on the online menu, and others can join your battles by doing the same. The problem is that stamps update very inconsistently, and it's impossible to know if a stamp is still "good" or not without selecting it, waiting for the "connecting" message to disappear, and then getting told you couldn't connect or the stamp is invalid. Broadcasting you want people to join a raid battle with you is also iffy, as it's been discovered that, whether due to how the stamp system works or some other unknown-at-this-time factor, those requests are sometimes ''not even broadcast'', meaning nobody is even seeing it and you have to either quit the battle or go in with NPC partners.
309* The game forces your Nintendo Switch to constantly have Local Wireless connected, even if you're not using the Y-Comm. Aside from the increased battery drain, this can be annoying for those who don't have their Switch system set to autoconnect for their internet. The game will override this and switch to Local Wireless, resulting in your internet being disconnected every time you attempt to do anything. Even a Mystery Gift is impossible to do without switching internet connection to autoconnect.
310* Max Raid Battles as a whole are exciting and spectacular at first, and are optimal for level grinding due to the Exp. Candies they reward for a success. However, this task quickly becomes a chore when the spectacle wears off, since the battles are very time-consuming. Even with the battle animations turned off in the settings, there are several unskippable animations during the fight besides, the hard damage caps before each barrier goes up force the battle to have more turns, and the fact that there are multiple Pokémon besides yours fighting makes each turn longer. Even without animations, grinding with Max Raid battles will involve a bit of waiting between each button press for your next attack.
311* Examples specific to ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'':
312** The player's inventory is laughably small, but it can be upgraded for a fee. Your first upgrade costs only 100 Poké dollars, but said upgrade only adds ''one'' extra slot rather than several slots. You can keep upgrading your inventory to get more slots, but the price increases exponentially. Buying all the item slot upgrades will have you spending nearly ''4 million Pokédollars'' total and getting a lot of money in general isn't easy to do, as catching Pokémon and doing research tasks only gives you so much, while the best ShopFodder such as Star Pieces and Nuggets can only be collected through space-time distortions or finding one of the Miss Fortune Sisters on the overworld (both which occur at random).
313** Several sidequests involve having a complete Pokédex for a requested species. Getting a complete Pokédex requires several tasks that are either grindy (e.g., defeat a certain Pokémon X number of times with a particular type of move) or difficult to complete (e.g., seeing a certain style performed X amount of times, as you can't depend on wild Pokémon to speed up the process, as only Alphas use them). This is thankfully quite downplayed, as reaching the TrueFinalBoss only requires you to ''catch'' every Pokémon, and completing the Dex only requires ten research points for each Mon rather than doing absolutely everything listed. In this regard, the only issue is Unown, who has [[CollectionSidequest catching all 28 forms as its only task]]. Still, if you want true HundredPercentCompletion, prepare for trouble and make it double.
314** The Ride Pokémon mechanics are annoying and finnicky. To mount, you need to select your Pokémon with a menu in the bottom right of your screen with art of the chosen 'Mon's face. After you stop switching the chosen Pokémon, there's a delay before you actually change to ride that one so the game can confirm your selection, so you have to select it preemptively if you want to do so without stopping. If you haven't memorized the order, you'll need additional time to find the one you need, taking your eyes off of any hazards ahead to look at the menu in the corner of the screen. The problem of navigating the menu gets amplified by two of your mounts: Ursaluna can't jump and only runs faster than Wyrdeer if there's a buried item ahead, making it highly situational for traversal, while Sneasler is even slower and its use case (climbing walls) is context-specific and in some cases redundified by Braviary's flight, so as a result, these two become annoying weight in your Ride Pokémon list that will slow you down if you don't switch off their selection fast enough.
315* After you obtain the National Dex in ''Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl'', you gain the option to rematch all gym leaders once per day by talking to them in their respective gyms. For Roark and Gardenia, this is not an issue as they can be reached by simply walking straight from the entrance, but for the others, you have to ''redo their gym puzzles from scratch'', which range from mild inconvenience (Fantina), a tedious long trek (Byron) to an unholy amount of going back-and-forth that just wastes too much time (the rest), ''every time you want to challenge them''. Compare this to ''Platinum'' where you can challenge only some gym leaders every day, but they are all clumped together in a single post-game area and thus you can (if you're confident) immediately lay on them all in one swoop.
316[[/folder]]
317[[folder:Exclusive to or Originated in Gen IX]]
318* The high-level Tera Raids have... problems, particularly online with random players. Not only are they massively laggy in a battle where time isn't on the team's side (and that clock does not pause), there's also another problem: while the 5 Star Raids are progress locked to prevent those who haven't beaten the main story from joining, there's not a ''level'' lock that prevents players with underleveled Pokémon from joining. 5 Star Raids are always level 75, which is at least 5 levels higher than most players will be at upon completing the main story, but since levels are not displayed during raids newcomers will often be left wondering why their aces that had carried them so far are suddenly unable to do much of anything. As a result, many teams end up failing because of one player since damage output is crucial and every KO takes a huge chunk of precious time away.
319* As mentioned above, the clock in Tera Raids does not stop. This includes battle cinematics, like, for example, Terastalizing your Pokémon, which is basically a requirement when the Tera Pokémon creates a shield. Not to mention having to watch it do a special animation before doing a type-matching attack in this state. You also lose time in things like watching your Pokémon having circling birdies every turn its confused. These are all minor time consumers, but when time is of the essence they WILL add up. Oh, but the absolute worst example of this? The clock doesn't stop if you ''put the console in sleep mode'', even if you're playing offline. So, if you have to take a break for whatever reason and return to the Tera Raid? Once you return to the game you're informed that the Tera Pokémon just threw your ass out of the cave!
320* Only 8 online raids are displayed at a time (9 if you include the Random option), and the option to refresh the list manually only becomes available when enough time has passed for the list to refresh on its own. This can get incredibly frustrating when trying to find certain Pokémon, especially since Tera Raids are the only way to obtain Pokémon that are normally [[VersionExclusiveContent exclusive to one version]] without trading or visiting the world of a friend with the opposite version via the Union Circle. Raids that are tied to online events are also a bit of a double-edged sword, since the fact that they take priority over regular raids means there'll always be a few of them available means it's very easy to avoid missing out on the event. On the other hand, they take up some of the 8 slots available, so if you aren't interested in the event or are specifically looking for something not connected to it, it cuts down your options even more until it ends.
321* The cheers in Tera Raids (Go All Out which boosts attack, Hang Tough which boosts defense, and Heal Up which recovers HP and removes some status effects) have several issues that make them as much a liability as an asset: You only get three cheers per raid (regardless of what cheer you use out of the three), using a cheer uses up your turn (thus your Pokémon can't act), the cheers don't cover all situations (such as Heal Up not removing some status effects or there is no cheer that boosts accuracy in a mode where ''hitting the enemy is important''), and their effects are not consistent (in particular, Heal Up can either heal a lot of HP and save your team from imminent KO, or recover ''practically nothing'' and waste your time).
322* The Let's Go function of the game is a cute feature on its own, but when you have to level up specific Pokémon with it, it becomes a serious chore. The player must walk a thousand steps for several Pokémon to evolve ''while'' that Pokémon is following you with this feature. Most of the time, the Pokémon following you will be too slow for you to run, and certainly too slow to ride Miraidon/Koraidon. If you get too far away, the Pokémon retreats back to its ball to catch up. This means you have to slowly walk everywhere with the Pokémon, and if you don't want to battle every Pokémon with gumption, you don't want to do this in wild areas. Even if you do run about with the Pokémon for ten minutes, there's no in-game pedometer, and this makes it impossible to tell if you've hit the necessary number of steps to evolve it. It's not even clear if the game expects you to do so after the steps, or if it's running a collective total[[note]]it's the former[[/note]], and you end up having to guess. Run about in a town for ten minutes in circles, go level the Pokémon, find out it apparently hasn't made the necessary steps yet, go back and do it again. This also functions as a serious GuideDangIt because without an NPC or an online forum explicitly telling you to do this, you'd only find out on pure accident after dragging your Pokémon halfway across the world. Even then, if you wanted two, you aren't made explicitly aware that you did so by making a thousand steps since it evolves after you hit a thousand steps ''and then level it'', making it easy to assume you just had to hit a level requirement. That being said, there are ways to bypass this if you're just looking for Pokédex completion[[note]]You can acquire Rabsca from 4-star Raids after you get 6 Gym Badges, and the other two (Pawmot and Brambleghast) from 5-star Raids after you beat the final storyline. Additionally, Brambleghast can be found in the wild, albeit very rarely[[/note]], but it doesn't change the fact that the evolution method is more cumbersome than it's worth.
323* The Gym Challenges are another cute-but-intrusive feature. Before being allowed to challenge a Gym Leader, you must first complete a minigame. They're fairly short, but they're ''so'' short that many players feel they could've been dropped from the game without any great loss, and many of them painfully highlight the game's optimization issues (the Cortondo and Artazon challenges are ''especially'' guilty of this). The Cascarrafa challenge tries to shake it up by "skipping" the challenge in lieu of an actual sidequest, but said sidequest ends with you being jumped by an especially-{{Jerkass}} Gym Trainer followed by the Gym Leader throwing you into an ''impromptu'' Gym Challenge right after, so what was supposed to be a funny detour ended up being a kick in the teeth for the player.
324* Pokémon Centers provide a HintSystem where you can tell Nurse Joy that you aren’t sure where to go, and she’ll provide a destination for you from any of the remaining 18 story beats. The issue people have with the system is that she simply points out the nearest destination with no regard as to the actual difficulty of it, making it quite possible for her to suggest you take on a boss that has much higher levels than you currently have, especially since quite a few areas have abrupt level jumps compared to the neighboring locales. It's also possible for her to suggest areas you can't access yet without flat-out ignoring her advice[[note]] Such as facing the False Dragon Titan before you have access to the cover legend's swimming ability[[/note]].
325* Sandwich preparation is subject to a physics system that will cause ingredients to move when colliding with each other. When making sandwiches with very few ingredients, it's tolerable, but as you involve more ingredients, the system starts working against you more and with less predictable results. The frustration is elevated by the fact that, if an ingredient falls onto anything that isn't the sandwich bread or another ingredient, it disappears and is unusable -- yes, including if it falls onto the clean plate you're building the 'wich on -- and lost ingredients can cause the final sandwich to have entirely different Meal Powers to what you were expecting it to have.
326* The higher spawn rate of Pokémon combined with items that increase shiny encounter rate make Scarlet and Violet one of the easiest games to find a specific shiny you're looking for in. However, unlike previous games where shiny Pokémon were visible in the overworld, there are no visual or audial cues for shininess besides the alternate color until you engage the shiny in battle. This can make shiny hunting Pokémon whose shiny palletes look nearly identical to the originals, such as Slowpoke or Tandemaus, a nightmare.
327* With "Challenge Gyms in any order you please" being a big selling point, a lot of players assumed levels would scale based on progress, increasing the more story beats you hit, and anything goes regarding what order to hit those story beats in. Nope, every Gym Leader, Titan, Team Star Boss still has a fixed level, and there is a certain order you're expected to challenge them in if you don't want to be over- or under-leveled. Wild Pokémon reflect this too; if you go to an area you're not supposed to be strong enough to enter yet, not only are the high-level wild Pokémon harder to catch while also providing piddly Exp despite their high levels, but they'll also have obedience issues until you get the proper Gym Badge. (The fact that Pokémon you caught yourself can disobey you, a mechanic previously exclusive to traded Pokémon, is arguably a Scrappy Mechanic in and of itself.) For being shilled as the first mainline WideOpenSandbox, the fact that there's still some implicit railroading is disappointing.
328* Once you beat the main campaign, you unlock [[spoiler:the ability to use your rideable Koraidon/Miraidon in battle. There are two problems with this. In order to change Koraidon/Miraidon to battle form, you must have an open party slot or make room for it, which is meant to adhere to the "6 Pokémon at a time" rule but means you need to always keep an open space for it if you intend to use it. The more annoying aspect is that if you board Koraidon/Miraidon at all, it will automatically shift back to ride form and remove itself from your party, and will not automatically shift back if you dismount, meaning you must repetitively go back into your party menu and tell Koraidon/Miraidon to change back into battle form prior to any fight. Using the second catchable Koraidon/Miraidon does let you get a version that behaves like a normal Pokémon, thankfully, so you aren't strictly required to use your personal one.]]
329* Continuing with the precedent set with ''Legends Arceus'', this game's day/night cycle is based on a timer instead of the Switch's internal clock. Unlike ''Legends Arceus'', there's no option to skip to certain times of day, which makes certain time-related features more frustrating to deal with. In particular, outbreaks of night-exclusive Pokémon won't spawn during the day and the nighttime lighting can make it even harder to distinguish shiny Pokémon from their regular counterparts.
330* Shiny hunting for Pokémon that spawn in water is much harder than usual, since the water's surface filters and distorts what's under it, which mutes the Pokémon's palette and can leave you second guessing if each one is shiny or not. This can make Pokémon whose shiny palettes are already hard to tell apart from their normal ones like Basculin, Arrokuda, and especially Tynamo (who has the problem of being absolutely tiny on top of it) a nightmare.
331* Blueberry Quests in the Indigo Disk DLC is the only way for you to farm BP (you can earn BP from other sources, but they are one-time only), which is needed to procure certain goods and services in Blueberry Academy, some of which can't be obtained elsewhere (such as the opportunity to catch past starters) thus making BBQ indispensable for players who want those things. However, BBQ comes with a slew of problems that can drive players up the wall.
332** BBQ are tedious, repetitive, and very stingy with the rewards. To give one example, the most BP you can earn from one quest is 40 BP, but you need to sink in '''12,000 BP in total''' to be able to catch all past starters and complete your Pokédex.
333** Playing with others online can help speed up the process and even opens up group quests that grant substantial BP (400-600), but this still requires multiple players (or multiple Switches) with the DLC. As for the group quests themselves, they range from even more tedious to being potentially ''impossible'' to complete with strangers as some of them require full cooperation from all players, which can be difficult (to put it mildly) thanks to miscommunication and/or ignorance. Lastly, completing multiple group quests is ''mandatory'' to catch past Legendaries[[note]]Depending on your version, the items to access half of them will be accessible by doing a certain amount of normal quests, and the items for the other half will require group quests.[[/note]], so if you want them, have fun screaming.
334** Throughout Scarlet/Violet, you cannot take photos while you're riding Koraidon/Miraidon. Normally this is at worst a mild inconvenience for photo bugs, but with some BBQ requiring you to take photos of wild Pokémon, this limitation becomes a hair-pulling disaster as you have to dismount to take photo, then mount again to continue with your journey.
335*** In a similar vein, one BBQ requires you to sneak up on a wild Pokémon, which in most cases can only be done by tiptoeing. Problem is, your mascot legend cannot tiptoe, so you have to dismount, sneak up, then re-mount. And sometimes, the Pokémon can turn around to notice you just as soon as you throw a Pokéball at it to start the battle, invalidating the BBQ and forcing you to try on another Pokémon.
336** Another BBQ requires you to catch Pokémon. Given that you likely have already caught a lot of Pokémon from the base game and ''Teal Mask'', you will find yourself burning Pokédollars to buy more Pokeballs, then having to release those Pokémon or transfer them to your other games (if you have them) as you may have almost completely filled up your meager 32 boxes.
337* Pokémon that spawn in the overworld can spawn at any time... including far from you, close to the despawn zones. [[ShaggyDogStory This ends up resulting in said Pokémon disappearing as quickly as it came in]]. If it's a rare Pokémon you're trying to find... or god help you, a Shiny, this can be infuriating, especially since it's no fault of your own.
338* The Synchro Machine allows you to deal with exploring and [=KOing=] wild Pokémon without dealing with the [[ArtificialStupidity sometimes buggy AI]] of your sent out Pokémon. Neat! However, this comes with a caveat; ''you'' can KO Shiny Pokémon, even though your Pokémon can't in Let's Go mode. If it's a Pokémon with a subtle change, or you accidentally press the Y button too quickly, then you won't notice until it's too late. And if you do find a Shiny while in Synchro Mode, and you don't KO it on accident... You better hope you activated it near the Shiny, otherwise, when you get back to your trainer, it'll have despawned due to it being far away. All of this can make Synchro Mode much more of a headache than it needs to be in regards to Shiny hunting. [[note]]Though it does have a case in [=KOing=] spawn-clogging wild Tera Pokémon, as they're another case of a Pokémon that can be KO'd in Synchro Mode but not in Let's Go mode.[[/note]]
339* Auctions, first introduced to the player via the aforementioned Cascarrafa gym challenge, have few fans. On the surface, its simple, as you the player compete by bidding with 2 [=NPCs=] over 1 or more of an item. The problem is, things get stupidly expensive very quick, especially since even the cheapest rivals, the children can singlehandedly bring things up many multiples of the base price of the item, with the elderly bidders being the absolute worst. Even more so, this is one of the few methods of getting apricorn balls, and the only method of getting items associated with legendary pokemon [[spoiler:and Atticus's special clothing items.]]
340[[/folder]]
341[[folder:''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon'' series]]
342* Several moves had their effects changed, mostly to accomodate moving from a turn-based battle system to a dungeon crawler. Some changes, however, serve to be frustrating. Two examples are Spite removing all of a move's PP as opposed to only four, and Knock Off potentially rendering a held item permanently unusable. Probably the worst of all is Teeter Dance, which confuses all enemy Pokémon in a room (and it used to hit the entire floor, ''including user''). This wasn't much of an issue in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam Rescue Team]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Explorers]]'' since the only Pokémon that could learn the move before Generation V was Spinda, an uncommon and [[JokeCharacter extremely weak]] species. However, in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity Gates to Infinity]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon Super Mystery Dungeon]]'', the much more common Lilligant can learn the move as well. And they ''will'' spam it. Repeatedly.
343* In the first two games, in addition to the PlayerPersonalityQuiz determining which Pokémon you start with, certain choices of starter are restricted based on your gender. If you're a male player who wants to play as Vulpix, Eevee, or Skitty, or a female one who wants to be Phanpy, Shinx, or Riolu, you're out of luck unless you enter the other gender for your character. Fortunately, you can choose these Pokémon as your partner regardless of your gender, unless they share a type with the Pokémon you did get.
344* In ''Rescue Team'' and ''Explorers'', the {{escort mission}}s were very difficult: The Pokémon you had to escort was ALWAYS level 1/5, no matter what dungeon you went to. Second, you were limited to a single teammate, since you can't enter a dungeon with more than three Pokémon. Three, unless you manage to recruit a Pokémon, the escort will ''always'' be in the back, meaning enemy Pokémon can easily attack them. It's also impossible to change the escort's AI, meaning they will gladly attack enemies they have no hope of defeating. Their pathfinding is also prone to wandering off if you go around multiple corners. They can also wander into water or lava if they can float or swim. Later games made it more bearable by having the escorted Pokémon scaled up in level to fit the dungeon.
345* Monster Houses spawn a large number of enemies that will all attack your party. If you spawn in one, or the stairs is in one, then you have little hope of beating one unless you have certain items that apply status effects to the entire room. Sky Tower in the original games is the worst offender for these. The selection of Pokémon in it includes Aerodactyl with Pressure (lowers your PP quicker) and Agility (raises the speed of EVERY enemy Pokémon by 2), ghosts like Shuppet who can sneak through the walls and attack you while you can't attack them back and who have Curse which takes away a quarter of your health each turn, Shedinja who can only be brought down by certain types of moves (and can ''also'' sneak through walls), Koffing who can and will poison you, Lunatone who can send you to sleep rendering you helpless... Get all these lovely creatures in one room, multiply their numbers by 5, give them a fierce desire to murder you and that is what Monster Houses are all about. And what if you enter one so your teammates are unable to help you? They'll either stand idly by and watch you get slaughtered or prance off to find a way around to get to you and get knocked out themselves, which is usually what will happen unless you spawn in one.
346* Perish Song. The hit rate is fairly low, but once you've been afflicted, you're boned unless you can reach the stairs in 3 moves or are packing a Heal Seed or two.
347* ''Explorers of Sky'' hit a few new lows with these things:
348** The Grudge Trap surrounds you with enemies, and then gives all enemies on the floor the Grudge status, which drains the PP of the last move you used when you KO it. The status condition never wears off, can't be destroyed by anything, and the dungeons these appear in are ones which prevent you from bringing items in for refills (or allow limited items, which isn't quite as bad but still difficult). To add on to that, if you've already used ''any move'' while on the floor, even if you knock out the foe with the Grudge status completely with your normal attack, the last move you used loses all its PP. The only way you'll be safe is if the foe is knocked out by an effect that wouldn't give you any EXP afterwards (recoil, Pass Scarf, etc).
349** The Random Trap randomly chooses one of the possible types of traps, then applies the effects to ''your whole party'', whether or not anyone else stepped on it.
350** Destiny Tower, the new BrutalBonusLevel, keeps all traps invisible, whether you've stepped on them or not, and whether you are using any item that normally makes them visible.
351* Aegis Cave from ''Explorers'' is a mandatory mission that ends up being incredibly tedious if you aren't lucky. All you do is try to solve three word puzzles by spelling out the words ICE, ROCK, and STEEL. To do this, you have to collect stones with the correct letters on them from the Unown. Unfortunately, the Unown that drops the letter you need must be randomly chosen for the list of available {{Mon}}s, then it has to randomly spawn, then you have to ''find it'', and then, after all that, it only drops the damn stone 1/4 of the time! If you don't get the stones you need, you will have to redo the same few floors over and over until you do. You will have to do this again if you want to go back to recruit the legendary Golems, potentially multiple times because only Regigigas is a guaranteed recruit.
352* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'', several features from the main-series Gen V games are carried over. One of them is that [=TMs=] are infinitely reusable. However, you can't teach a Pokémon a TM unless they're in a dungeon and since they're no longer consumable, they're left in your inventory. This means that you have to take two items (the TM and a Deposit Orb, to send it back to storage) and go into a dungeon, just to teach somebody a new move.
353[[/folder]]
354[[folder:Other Games]]
355* The save system in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', that forces you to reach a PC to save your progress, instead of saving anywhere like most of the other games (save the ''Mystery Dungeon'' games).[[note]]In ''Videogame/PokemonXD'', you could usually save anywhere as normal.[[/note]]
356* ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger'':
357** The first game allows players to play a Ranger Net mission that rewards them with a Manaphy egg, which can be sent to any Generation IV game after beating the game... but not only do you need two separate Nintendo DS systems to do so, you also only get one egg per cartridge. Not per save file, ''per cartridge''. See, even if you reset the game, the mission remains completed. While [[ObviousRulePatch obviously done to prevent massive quantities of Manaphy eggs being sent to one game]], the PAL version of ''VideoGame/PokemonChannel'' did the same thing with Jirachi and pulled it off ''without'' killing the game's resale value (because [[JustHereForGodzilla who plays either game for anything other than that endgame prize?]]). Thankfully, one can take solace in that external hardware can be used to completely wipe all save data.
358*** The two sequels made Ranger Net missions downloadable [=Wi-Fi=] events, but it had the same problem as getting Mythical Pokémon in the main games - be there at the right real-world place/have a compatible router at the right real-world time, or kiss that Darkrai/Deoxys/Manaphy egg/Shaymin goodbye forever. Oh, and the once-per-cartridge thing from the first game also returns, and deleting save data externally means deleting the mission itself, too.
359*** Some Ranger Net Pokémon have random natures... but some are hardcoded, and can be detrimental. ''Guardian Signs'' could let you get a Heatran that knows Eruption; a move Heatran can't normally learn that does more damage the more HP it has (as such, fast Pokémon like Typhlosion benefit a lot from it). Its Nature is set to Quiet, which boosts Special Attack but lowers Speed, meaning that poor Heatran (who's already on the slow side) is going to have a hard time using Eruption without other Pokémon outspeeding it and attacking first.
360* ''VideoGame/MyPokemonRanch'': This Platform/WiiWare program is basically a Pokémon storage system for Generation IV. There's one problem -- any Pokémon deposited into the ranch ''can only be withdrawn to that same file!'' The program warns you of this repeatedly, showing that this was not an oversight. This means that if you delete your D/P save file after depositing Pokémon, they are trapped in the ranch permanently! This makes it virtually useless for preserving your hard-earned Pokémon when you start your Sinnoh adventure over, something for which previous storage systems were quite useful. Fortunately, Pokémon Bank for Gen VI and (in January 2017) VII has no such restriction, allowing withdrawal of any stored Pokémon to any compatible game.
361* In ''VideoGame/PokemonRumble'', catching a toy Pokémon, its moves when caught, and how much power it has all depends on luck and chance. Don't like the moves you got? You have to use a move lottery and hope you get a better one. The sequels fixed this but that opens up a new set of problems.
362** In the second sequel for the [=3DS=], when you get a Legendary you can be sure that it will always have its signature move right out of the gate. These are 5 star moves which deal incredible damage and have useful effects which can turn them into a complete GameBreaker. The only problem? Some Legendaries don't have a signature move!
363** These include Latios and Latias which have Mega Evolutions which make them useful!
364** Okay, so you go to the move learner, problem solved right? Except the moves the move learner teaches are dependant on your rank. If you try to teach the moves ASAP you'll be stuck with 4 or even 3 star moves which aren't even remotely as useful! On top of that you have to spend money or use real world money to buy Poké Diamonds to get the more useful moves!
365* In ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'' the ranking matches are beyond broken. Matches are determined not by how close you are in rank but ''by how good your internet connection is''! So you can end up facing opponents who are either way out of your league, or you being way out of ''their'' league. On top of that, in the first game the only penalty for a RageQuit was losing Pokédollars. Which are given out freely so there's no incentive not to RageQuit. Finally, the last straw is you get penalized more for losing than you get rewarded for winning. The sequel fixes the RageQuit issue but only slightly mitigates the rest, which makes playing rank matches much more of a chore than they have to be.
366[[/folder]]
367[[folder:The Trading Card Game]]
368* The early rules for Confusion were eventually retired for being too frustrating and, well, confusing. A Confused Pokémon had to flip a coin when attempting to attack, and if tails they wouldn't "do 20 damage to themselves" but rather "[[ExactWords attack themselves with an attack that does 20 damage]]", leading to strange interactions like Pokémon with weaknesses or resistances to their own type being affected differently, and effects like Pluspower and Defender still applying. Even worse was retreating: you had to discard the usual Energy for the Retreat Cost, ''then'' flip a coin. If tails, the retreat failed ''with the Energy still spent''. Since retreating was one of the only ways to cure Confusion, you'd need to risk this, waste a Switch or [[HighlySpecificCounterplay run Full Heal.]] The modern version has the user inflict a flat 30 damage to themselves if flipping tails to attack, while being allowed to retreat as normal.
369* Many cards and attacks in the early sets could outright discard Energy from Pokémon, which was quickly found to be such a GameBreaker that later Energy removal mechanics either required coin flips or only affected Special Energy. Multiple copies of Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal were mandatory for early decks, and it really says something when cards like [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/No_Removal_Gym_(Gym_Heroes_103) this]] were created.
370* Baby Pokémon in Neo Genesis. All these Pokémon came with "the Baby Rule", which forced your opponent to flip a coin to successfully attack them, even attacks that did no damage. It was such a frustrating mechanic that later prints of the same Pokémon were treated as ordinary Basic Pokémon cards.
371* "[[PopQuiz Blaine's Quiz]]" style cards. Cards like [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Blaine%27s_Quiz_1_(Gym_Heroes_97) this]] and [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Blaine%27s_Quiz_Show_(Unified_Minds_186) this]] force your opponent to answer a trivia question, with you drawing cards if they guess wrong. These cards led to tons of LoopholeAbuse (Do they have to name the card ''exactly'', down to any titles like "dark"? Do they have to answer height and weight in imperial units if it's printed that way on the card, even in regions that use the metric system?) and frequently required judges for clarification, but they were even more of a headache in multi-lingual tournament environments, which led to the Unified Minds print of Blaine's Quiz Show being banned at the 2019 World Championships despite not being overpowered.
372[[/folder]]

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