History YMMV / PokemonRanger

* NightmareFuel: It is possible to die via NonstandardGameOver in ''Shadows of Almia'' if you fail to [[TimedMission stop the cargo ship you're on from sinking]]. If you let the timer run out, the game falls to black and silence before noting that the ship sank beneath the waves.

** Early in ''Guardian Signs'', you can catch a Xatu. Its assist is extremely powerful, and briefly prevents the opponent from attacking. Just put it in a corner or behind an attacking Pokémon, and you've won. Since you can now keep assist Pokemon for company with you at all times until you use them for a target clear, you can bring along said Xatu all the way to the ''endgame''.

** Lucario, in both Shadows of Almia and Guardian Signs but ''especially'' the latter. In the former, it launches flurries of energy orbs and punches, as well as creating energy mines on the ground to hinder your capturing, ''all without the tell-tale exclamation mark that signals that an attack is coming.'' And then it periodically surrounds itself in an aura of energy, making its attacks even more fierce. In the latter, it appears as the first boss of the Thunder Temple in the Past missions, where it uses incredibly quick dashes across the screen that must be reacted to instantly otherwise they hit you. It also retains its energy orb landmine attack, only this time it creates four without the energy aura, and the space between them is much tighter while also being the exact distance to make it nearly impossible to circle Lucario while it's in the middle of the orbs. Its punch attack is telegraphed for longer, so it's the easiest to avoid, but it also begins to rush across the screen and launch a flurry of punches while doing so, which basically requires you to stop looping around it otherwise you get hit. But that's not the worst of it. Once you're halfway done capturing it, it becomes agitated and gains a rage meter that you need to deplete; this is normal, but what ''isn't'' normal is that once you're nearly done with the capture and the regular gauge is almost full, ''it becomes agitated '''AGAIN''''', giving it the distinction of being one of two bosses in the entire game with two Rage Meters (the other being Arceus in the final Past Mission). And you have to do all of this while being on a strict timer; if you didn't get every timer extension on the way and you got caught by agitated Pokemon multiple times, you're bound to fail.

* ThatOneLevel: The EscortMission in the first game, where you have to escort another character who's [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes terrified of Bug-Type Pokemon]] through an area absolutely crawling with them. Oh, and if either you or him touch one, it's right back to the beginning.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Downplayed in ''Shadows of Almia''. While the "Swimming on a Pokemon" mechanic is indeed used many times in the game, they mostly advertised the part where you do it on an Empoleon's back... something that happens only ''once'' in the whole game (Three times if you're going for OneHundredPercentCompletion, two if you already knew about a certain subquest before and take a short deviation when you go there for the first time), while for most of the time you surf on a Floatzel's back. Granted, you could technically surf on an Empoleon everywhere it's possible to surf on a Floatzel, but this crosses into AwesomeButImpractical considering Empoleon doesn't offer an additional advantage outside of where it has to smash icebergs, and you'd have to go out of your way to fetch it and bring it back to where you want to surf.

* AngstWhatAngst: The Pichu from Dolce Island in the aftergame are still as cheerful as ever despite [[spoiler:their home island being vaporized]].

* AnticlimaxBoss: Giant Crobat, while definitely a cool idea, is executed in a way where it is simply not difficult especially compared to its fellow late-game bosses. It is a sky battle, meaning that there is no rage mode, and while the player can't use any Poke Assists, it can't break the line except through attacks. This also means that its large size actually works ''against'' it, being a bigger target to only partially circle. It also has very low health and very easy to avoid attacks ([[GlassCannon Just don't get hit by those attacks]]).

** [[DualBoss The two Kingdra]] from the original ''Ranger'' are far easier than the other bosses in the Jungle Relic. They're not as difficult to loop or avoid damage from, and capturing one makes the remaining one much easier to defeat.
** Spiritomb in Shadows of Almia, after [[spoiler:Kincaid's]] Drapion, mainly because of two things: between those two you can get [[GameBreaker Steel-type Partner Pokémon]] and you also unlock Power Charge.
* CompleteMonster: Purple Eyes from ''Guardian Signs''. Purple Eyes is the nefarious leader of the Pokémon Pinchers and a true sociopath who eclipses even the Societea in cruel {{ambition|IsEvil}}. Kidnapping and brutalizing Rand before the plot and pulling the strings behind Red Eyes and Blue Eyes, Purple Eyes [[EstablishingCharacterMoment debuts]] in the midst of holding Rand's family hostage and torturing his [[WouldHurtAChild young daughter]] Nema. After he's sold as a lost cause by Dr. Edward, Purple Eyes raids the parts of the Golden Armor from the other Societea members, [[TheStarscream usurping Dr. Edward's position]] and controlling Mewtwo into finishing him off — gleefully brushing off Rand's apparent sacrifice once he takes the bullet. Once he's defeated, Purple Eyes allows himself to die with the full knowledge that without the Golden Armor's power, the fortress he and the Rangers are on will plummet into the ocean and create a tsunami powerful enough to wipe out Oblivia and everyone in it. Purple Eyes truly comes into his own in the story's last extra mission; after repeated interrogation, Purple Eyes [[MisanthropeSupreme snaps]] and decides the only logical course of action is to [[KillAllHumans exterminate all humanity]] and recreate it [[AGodAmI as its supreme god]], attempting to goad Arceus into killing off all humans whilst leaving himself as their sole survivor.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[QuirkyMinibossSquad The Go-Rock Quads]] in the first game. They even reappear in both subsequent games as guest stars, though they're DemotedToExtra in the third.

* MemeticMutation:
** TARGET CLEAR!!
** Metagross's [[BeamSpam constant laser attacks]] have led to many Shoop Da Whoop jokes.
** Touch the Bidoof

* LowTierLetdown:
** In the original, the Grass and Ground assists had the same underwhelming effect in the form of stopping Pokémon that hit your capture line. While this sounds solid in theory, it's surprisingly hard to make the effect activate due to your capture line disappearing whenever a Pokémon hits it. While ''Shadows of Almia'' did give Ground a more powerful effect in the form of pausing Pokémon via shaking the ground with the stylus, Grass sadly got even worse, as it now merely slows the Pokémon instead.
** Normal types in the original, due to ''completely'' lacking any Assist power, making them borderline dead weight. Somewhat fixed in ''Shadows of Almia'', as they got an alright Assist effect in the form of extending your capture line and powering up your Styler a bit. Still, it's one of the weaker effects.
** Ghost was a very powerful assist effect in the original, being able to immobilize most Pokémon just by having the Styler loop around them. However, ''Shadows of Almia'' nerfed it a bit ''too'' hard, as the Ghost assist can no longer form ghosts when the Styler is looping around a Pokémon. Worse still, the ghosts no longer immobilize the target, but rather only make them Tired while adding a little bit of meter. Said ghosts are also stupidly hard to control. To add insult to injury, the Fire and Dragon effects also make the target Tired, but do so in more precise and powerful ways.
** In both the original and ''Shadows of Almia'', the Flying Assist effect, due to being very imprecise and hard to hit. Even worse in ''Almia'' due to the fact that the tornadoes no longer immobilize Pokémon. This also makes Starly by far the worst choice for a starting partner, putting it in this territory as well.
** Dark was already a very situational assist in the original, draining a lot of energy from your Styler to extend your line length, but is arguably the worst Assist in ''Shadows of Almia''. It's supposed to remove any harmful effects, but it only does so for the puddle/glob effects, which aren't super common. It's so situational that it sees little use in-game.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Shadows of Almia''. While in the original you had to complete all loops without failing, ''Shadows'' instead has a bar which fills with every loop, and slowly empties after a while of not doing loops.

*** The Psychic-type assist is also very powerful, being able to prevent just about anything from attacking for extended periods of time, though its somewhat hard to control. Grab [[CheerfulChild Mime Jr.]] as your partner, and laugh all the way to the end of the game.

** Also from the original game is Steelix. The good news: it doesn't actually attack. The bad news: it doesn't have to. Steelix is the only Pokémon in the game that deals contact damage, and quite a chunk of it at that. It's also the biggest Pokémon in the game bar none, and your maximum loop size at that point is just barely able to contain the whole thing. To top it off, Steelix ''never holds still'' and has a fairly high loop count.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** In the original, the Grass and Ground assists had the same underwhelming effect in the form of stopping Pokémon that hit your capture line. While this sounds solid in theory, it's surprisingly hard to make the effect activate due to your capture line disappearing whenever a Pokémon hits it. While ''Shadows of Almia'' did give Ground a more powerful effect in the form of pausing Pokémon via shaking the ground with the stylus, Grass sadly got even worse, as it now merely slows the Pokémon instead.
** Normal types in the original, due to ''completely'' lacking any Assist power, making them borderline dead weight. Somewhat fixed in ''Shadows of Almia'', as they got an alright Assist effect in the form of extending your capture line and powering up your Styler a bit. Still, it's one of the weaker effects.
** Ghost was a very powerful assist effect in the original, being able to immobilize most Pokémon just by having the Styler loop around them. However, ''Shadows of Almia'' nerfed it a bit ''too'' hard, as the Ghost assist can no longer form ghosts when the Styler is looping around a Pokémon. Worse still, the ghosts no longer immobilize the target, but rather only make them Tired while adding a little bit of meter. Said ghosts are also stupidly hard to control. To add insult to injury, the Fire and Dragon effects also make the target Tired, but do so in more precise and powerful ways.
** In both the original and ''Shadows of Almia'', the Flying Assist effect, due to being very imprecise and hard to hit. Even worse in ''Almia'' due to the fact that the tornadoes no longer immobilize Pokémon. This also makes Starly by far the worst choice for a starting partner, putting it in this territory as well.
** Dark was an OK effect in the original, but is arguably the worst Assist in ''Shadows of Almia''. It's supposed to remove any harmful effects, but it only does so for the puddle/glob effects, which aren't super common. It's so situational that it sees little use in-game.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Shadows of Almia''. While in the original you had to complete all loops without failing, Shadows instead have a bar which fills with every loop, and slowly empties after a while of not doing loops.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The theme for Fall City from the first game might bring "Strange Things" from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' to mind.