The Worst Mechanic of Every Pokemon Generation 

Gen 4 health bar dropping in about 5 minutes.

As a kid I hated the trade evolution mechanic, and still kind of do. Like yeah online makes it easier but finding friends to coordinate with can be difficult.

Exp Share affecting the whole team is a change I feel was much needed for grinding. The part that made it bad was when Game Freak later decided to make it unable to be turned off for people who want that extra challenge.

The type chart and freeze where so busted in Gen 1 that Ice was a good DEFENSIVE type. Not joking.

The mechanic I miss the most is berry growing. It was something that helped you when you found or bought rare berries, especially when you could use berries in other ways then just the berries themselves, like the camping in Sword and Shield.

If I had to pick a bad mechanic for Gen 9, I'd point to how they changed breeding. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of not having to go to one specific place in the region to breed anymore, but having to just... stand around and wait for Eggs to randomly appear in a basket is just not fun at all. What really makes it suck is that there's no visual indicator of when an Egg is there, like the Day-Care/Nursery basically always had.

The HM over reliance was one thing the DP remasters actually fixed. Even referenced the meme of using Bidoof/Bibarel as the typical HM mule of the time.

My pick for SV is the lack of indicator for a shiny being present, especially coming off the heels of PLA. Some models are ao small and rhe shiny coloration is so minor its almost impossible to actually tell if a mon is shiny or not. Maybe if there was a sparkle or sound indicator around the shiny it would be better, but as it is, I really don't like shiny hunting in SV.

Honestly, for Scarlet and Violet, I'd probably say the Picnic Mechanic. It's not bad per say, but I do like it less than camping in SWSH or pokemon Amie from the 3DS. I like that Picnic allows you to see all your Pokémon in your party hang out and even play ball, but it's just in something like camping where you can talk with them and even learn how it feels about another party just kind of added personality to your pokemon. Besides, i like making curry more than sandwiches. I love it when the game allow me to interact with my pokemon and especially when they can interact with each other. It makes me feel like I'm a kid on a journey with a group of companions, which is the biggest appeal of Pokemon too me.

For Gen 9, on the topic of shiny hunting, getting rid of Legends Arceus Shiny pop-in noise would be a strong contender for me. When you had a mechanic to alert you, there was a shiny nearby, which was incredibly helpful when so many shinies have barely noticeable changes. The fact that I recently and only accidentally caught a shiny Cryognal by running into one, cursing as I did as I didn't mean to, is a testament that you may never know that a Pokémon is shiny in the overworld and just walk past them.

If there's one thing I don't like in SV, it's the breeding mechanic. It takes too long trying to breed certain Pokémon, especially when you're trying to grind for amazing stats, shiny, or rarer forms

My most hated mechanic would have to be being unable to battle wild Pokemon in Let's Go. I don't like having to aim and catch in order to grind up a team once I clear out all the trainers.

I'll be honest the shared exp really made the game fun for me. It decreased the time to grind plus I was able to use different types of pokemon which I can't do in previous generations since grinding really takes time. In pokemon Violet, I was able to have around 3 full teams that I rotate around and also a way for me to avoid overleveling and giving me the opportunity to use more pokemon. It's really a good experience for me. PS: I think the problematic mechanic for Scarlet and Violet are the items you just pick up. There's a lot and it's too convenient to the point that the only thing I buy would be pokeballs.

For Gen 5 the worst thing they introduced is if you dare accidently click on an object that has no effect in battle by accident you will skip your turn. This was brought back in gen 7 and 9 .

The obvious worst mechanic of SV was removing the set style battle option.

A point to bring about the gen 2 meta is that Snorlax is needed on both OU and Ubers to make it faster cause if not OU becomes a stall war with leftovers and rest talk sets everywhere. Snorlax is the glue that keeps everything together if not crumbles apart.

How to balance out HMs: Make it so that you still need a pokémon capable of cutting/smashing/surfing/etc BUT you don't have to waste a move slot for it. This wouldn't invalidate popular HM 'mons like Bidarel but it would allow players to worry solely about their battle moves. Also, make Cut a Bug-type move for more variety.

the fact that in gen 9 they made the box legendaries the hm slaves is pretty wild

The Exp. Share option needs to come back for the sake of leveling up Pokémon evenly. Overleveling different ID Pokémon at least makes sense since trading has alway been a feature in Pokémon.

For scarlet and violet I'll vote that character customization sucks.

The exp share in the 3DS games was fine because you could turn it off. Nowadays, you can’t do that.

Exp share is a good thing imo, it eliminates a lot of time grinding so i can actually play the game rather than do the same thing over and over for the same reward

Gen 6 Exp Share was a great mechanic. It helped with grinding Pokémon so much, especially with creating competitive Pokémon, and if you know the game enough, you know when to turn it off. The problem was overblown in that generation. It is so much better overall than the 2D gen EXP Share.

In scarlett/violet i loved the legendary mechanic replacing HMs

For Gen 9, I'd say raids in a heartbeat. This is what we're expected to do for the postgame, but they're just too mechanically broken and often stacked against you to be fun. I've even had instances of my Pokemon fainting when they still have HP left.

Personally I loved the fact that they changed teleport to a negative priority switch in gen 8, it’s really interesting and allows more moms to pivot.

The biggest problem about the new XP-share in XY wasn't even that it was to strong. It was that it completely misses the point of an XP share. In previous generations, the XP share would allow you to take a new pokemon you caught underleveled into you team without a need bring it up to your team's level first. The new XP-share does the exact opposite, basically forcing you to always use your lowest-level pokemon to battle to have your team stay even in level.

I’m surprised that Gen 9 removing Set style wasn’t at least mentioned. Especially when hardcore nuzlockes have gotten more prominent, having to constantly refuse to switch every time you knocked out a Pokémon would get really tedious, no?

I like the improved exp share because it saves me the grind that I just don’t have time for anymore. That and the exp candies.

Gen 8 continued the forced Exp. Share that Let's Go started

The reason gems are banned in Gen 5 OU is because of this: -Have a pokemon learn Acrobatics. -Make sure that pokemon has the ability Unburden. -Equip Sky Gem. -Profit

Endless weather effects in gen 4. Your opponent sets up hail? Well, hopefully, you have some other weather move so you can change it. Otherwise, you get stuck getting hit by hail until the battle is over.

The moment they got rid of the trainer card/ badge case I like being able to go and look at my badge collection

Gen 3’s hms aren’t as bad as they seen because you never need all 3 water hms at the same time.

For gen I the bag being an unorganized mess was pretty awful

Here's something from one of the spin-offs. Specifically. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. ONLY BEING ABLE TO DO ONE REQUEST AT A TIME! Seriously that's the biggest change for that game which baffles me to no end.

Set Battle Style, No Battle Animations, and the shiny effect from Legends getting cut from Scarlet & Violet

The Exp share wasnt a bad mechanic so much that the game was just poorly balanced. Turning it off makes the game too tedious, but turning it on makes it too easy. The game should be better balanced around both scenarios. Either that or impliment more ways to challenge the player aside from pure stats and matchups.

Gen 5 also have another worst mechanic being sleep everytime you switch back your mons the sleep turn reset which led into nasty interactions it made mons like breloom who has spore for example way too powerful to the point it got sleep banned in gen 5 OU

I just wish that S/V made it a bit more obvious/noticeable when there is a shiny in front of you, because for someone like me who doesn't know what to expect, it definitely becomes harder

I've never actually played S/V But in my days of watching my friends play the game what really bugged me the most is you can run from trainer battles.

Exp share being always on is something I really don't like. In gen 6 and 7 being optional is better.

Hms makes replaying the older games rough. I’m glad they did away with them. I’m also getting tired of every new gen being centered around some dumb gimmick.

you should make a video on the best changes or mechanics of every pokemon generation next

Honestly, I think that Terra-types are the single most interesting mechanic they've introduced since the start of the series. Being able to turn on a third STAB type while also changing yourself to a single type for defensive purposes is potentially cracked, especially on 'mons that are normally held back by sub-par typing (looking at you, Abomasnow). That said, I think we're pretty firmly in the "gimmick" era of Game Freak's mainline titles, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to come back in future installments. The last two generations had their "new mechanic" scrapped in the following game, which made sense given how closely tied they were to the actual plot of the games and the lore of the regions, and even Megas got scrapped after just two gens. I'm not holding my breath for the return of any of those mechanics, since Game Freak seems allergic to listening to player feedback, but it'd be interesting to be able to run Megas, Terra-types, Z-Moves, and Gigantamaxing on one team in an official game.

5:11 I applaud the bravery of using the term "HM slave" here.

Gen 8/9 they made the battle timer for all formats 20 minutes. I understand that’s the usual timer for VGC but I can never finish a single or multi battle without it going to timer. Also gen 1 wrap/fire spin is hell and definitely belongs up there with freeze.

2:07 Wrap and Bind being continuous effects that removed your Pokemon's ability to do anything until the turn duration for the continuous attack was up is a runner up for worst Gen 1 mechanic I would think 13:10 You could put Level Curve here again as well. There's some genuinely amazing battles to be had in this game, particularly Leon depending on your starter, but if you end up fighting Raid dens and getting a bunch of the candies (which is encouraged because it can give you special Dyna or G max versions of pokemon or give you rare pokemon), you can be overleveled as fuck without even wanting to be making the game insanely easy.

Here is the worst gen 9 mechanic: removing the shiny sparkle from the overworld sprites. It is so hard to see if a Pokemon is a shiny or not if A: You dont know how the shiny of a Pokemon looks B: The Shiny looks similar to the OG Mon (Slowpoke Stare) C: If they are frigging tiny I am sure I missed a shiny by traveling through the overworld simply by not noticing it

The teal mask did make scald a TM again, but the distribution was significantly cut.

I'd say for gen 9 I wish they did level scaling to actually make it feel more open world as opposed to open world but a linear story if that makes sense.

Gen 6's worst mechanic is right there on the box cover of X. Worst thing to be introduced to Pokémon until the dumb OP dog...

I am fine with the exp share cause it took away the grinding! Let’s be honest most people are keeping that thing on so you don’t have to spend hours grinding all your Pokémon and if you really want a challenge then you will leave it off. You want it to be easy

By far, the most annoying mechanic change in my opinion is not being able to turn off EXP share in Gen VIII and IX. It makes things way too easy (admittedly, the Pokémon games aren’t exactly known for their level of difficulty, especially recent generations, but at least a little bit of a challenge would be nice). My biggest gripe, though, is that it kills any sense of effort or bonds you might develop when raising your team. Because now you don’t have to use or even look at any of them. They’re just there in the background, hanging out in their Pokéballs, leveling up without any interaction.

If you switch your teams around for gyms etc. in x and y it doesn’t feel all that super easy, it’s only when it’s the full roster of six that never really change where it would feel more super easy.

It's a shame bro didn't mention for the gen 4 HM issue, the fact that the Sinnoh victory road requires 5 HM's to go through, meaning more often than not you'll require more than 1 HM slave, and you'll have to traverse through victory road with only 4 of your core team

Poison getting the injustice was especially bad due to how many Pkmn are part Poison & Gengar got particularly screwed cuz it couldnt achieve what it was supposed to do, counter Psychics.

I consistently switch team members out in my SWSH and SV playthroughs, so I don’t end up being overleveled. The smarter AI class trainers not switching in SV and SWSH was weird to me. Do they think kids are dumb and can’t adapt to the AI switching and still learn the game mechanics?

My honorable mention for Gen1 would be sleep effect and moves like wrap and bind. With sleep, when your pokemon finally woke up, it didn't get to move right away so your opponent could put you right back to sleep without you able to attack. (Especially if it was spore.) It's kind of the same with wrap, etc. Your pokemon didn't get to attack while immobile. Thankfully they fixed these by the second gen.

So aren't we gonna ignore breakable tms in gen 8 and 9?

In shining pearl and brilliant diamond the friendship mechanic is way too OP

Gen 1: Overpowered Psychics Gen 2: Tank Strategies Gen 3: Too many HMs Gen 4: Slow EVERYTHING Gen 5: Power Creep Gen 6: Too Easy Gen 7: Festival Plaza Gen 8: Permanent EXP Share Gen 9: Lowering PP On Moves

For gen 8 you could say the removal of overworld shiny pokemon because Let's go had them and Gen 9 the removal of the shiny sparkle on shiny pokemon because of Legends

SWSH's difficulty curve (or lack thereof). Going the most direct path to every gym and story battle still had your party overlevelled for the entire game.

Dynamax was actually banned in Smogon Doubles too, and arguably was more broken despite taking longer to ban. The ban history was interesting as Doubles showed why Dynamax needed to be banned or else dumb stuff like Weakness Policy and complex bans would come up. And honestly it might have been the most broken in VGC. Games have far less turns, you were immune to flinching naturally, you bypassed protect, and those boosts/fieldconditions/debuffs you get with Max moves applied to your partner Pokemon too. Of course since the community has 0 say in the matter, VGC players simply just had to deal with it.

I don't know if anyone remembers but in Gen I, there is an interesting mechanic, but I do not know if it was a glitch. That being the Lapras you get, can learn SolarBeam,, and in the gen II games, it learns DragonBreath. That's pretty interesting for a great Water/Ice-type, but for the life of me, I don't remember what else it could learn back then, because its been over 20 years since I had much better vision. Great Video as always Mystic.

I don't know if it's necessarily a mechanic, but my least favorite thing about S/V (outside of the performance) is it not scaling to your level/amount of badges. You can't tell the player "do what you want, when you want" but everything is at a set level, so you basically have to do it in a set order anyway.

I still think mega is kinda mid due to who got them and who didnt

The exp share in XY can be turned off btw

You know what’s also super broken in Gen 1? Binding moves. If you get hit by one you can’t move until it’s over.

My least favorite mechanic in Gen 1 was trapping moves preventing you from attacking. Gen 2 was the fact that there was hardly any trainers in the game to battle. Gen 3 was how easy you can over level and stomp the trainers. Gen 4 was how slow paced the game was. Gen 5 was the gems. In gen 6 it was how bad the rivals were. In gen 7 it was the ultra wormholes. In gen 8 it was not able to turn the exp off. And in Gen 9 was that picnic gimmick

opinion: personally, i liked it when the EXP share gave experience to every party member (i think it started with xy but i dont remember). made evolving magikarp or leveling lower leveled pokemon MUCH more painless compared to gens 1-4.

Gen 6.. move relearner at the end of the victory road. Vikavolt and Crabrawler evolution also available very late in the game

I believe the best way to resolve the EXP share is introduce the item as the key item affecting one party Pokémon. Then after the hall of fame, can it be upgraded to affect all party.

Some of these aren’t bad, that’s why I think competitive ruined Pokémon because they nerfed a lot of things to a point where they are almost useless, like scald

Yes the handholding in sun and moon drives me up a wall for real

I never gripe enough about this but shiny hunting has become way too easy these days so easy that I enjoy shiny hunting in scarlet for the most part

I want field moves (including HMs) to come back in future games but in a new implementation. Not having to sacrifice a move slot, but still needing a pokemon that CAN use that move in your party to traverse it. Sun and Moon's ride pokemon were an admirable attempt, but ultimately one I found myself not liking as much and I absolutely hated the bike in Sword and Shield. BDSP was closer, but I actually found I disliked that more than I did ride pokemon. I'm playing Omega Ruby right now and I'm finding that while I would rather not have HM slaves I do find that there's something more enjoyable about the fact that the team I'm building is aiding me on my adventure in more ways than just being beat sticks. On the experience share I think going back to it being a held item would be a good idea, but instead of splitting the experience each pokemon holding one gets half of the experience the active pokemon gets...and let you collect up to six so you can get the same effect as you have since Gen 6 if you want.

Thank you so much for all videos you made. You are one of my absolutely best youtubers ever. Zdraví Nogy. Greetings from Czech Republic.

In G-max’s defense, it did bring back thicc boi Pikachu.

Hot take (from the honorable mention): stealth rock isn't the problem move from Gen 4. U-turn is more toxic. The move has no downside, and you end up better off after using it. Volt switch is only slightly better because it can be blocked.

I thought having to get Expansion Packs were what people had hated the most about the Sword and Shield games?

for scarlet violet, since we count the level curve for gen 2, i would like to throw in the lack of level scaling. this only is a problem because scarlet and violet wants to be an open world game and wants you to do things in whatever order you like but you can easily stumble into a fight you are NOT ready for. like iron threads which is like 45 while being around lvl 25 mons. or just stumbling into a level 40 gym cause you just happened to find it. also if you do one route and forget about others, be it just that you dont visit them purely cause of how you explore, you nuke other parts. like if you beat the elite four for example but havent done all star bases yet you crush alot of them on levels alone.

No mention of weather wars in gen V is wild. A massive one for me that isn't likely to change is Gen III's EV system. Mixed attackers got the worst end of things since they have to give up speed or severely weaken one of their attacking stats.

Pokémon Azurite did a good example of how mega evolution/energy could be used in games

Another mechanic I hated in SwSh was going back to single use TMs

Mega evolution is a mistake. All the new mechanics in PLA are garbage. HMs from gen one to six is annoying with gen four having eight HMs which is absurd. Exp Share being a single item before gen six. Following pokemon in HGSS being insufferable.

A very stupid feature that still exists after 9 generations: you can’t auto escape wild Pokémon battles if your Pokémon is slower than the wild Pokémon. I’ve always fucking hated this feature and don’t get why it still exists now.

The worst change to gen 9 shiny hunting was the removal of overworked shiny sparkles from PLA. it's honestly one of the main reasons I don't Wild hunt in ScarVi despite really wanting some like the paradoxes and tatsugiri

I never really thought highly about mega evolutions. But I'm also aware that the broken exp. share kind of rendered mega evolutions moot to me. I mean, do all the fancy things you want. It's not going to help when your opponent is 20+ levels higher than you because the exp. share has no chill. But that kind of leads me to the next thing I haven't really cared for. Gamefreak trying to rebalance the games through various means to account for the exp. share. Damage scaling getting out of control, you own pokemon no longer listening to you, and whatever weird things they've done.

Not being able to play on set mode on SV was infuriating. Like, I can choose to not change pokemon everytime and it’s basically the same, so why remove it?

Ngl MysticMagius sounds like A cooler name

8:37 you didn't have to have the exp share active in gen 6 if you didn't want to

The EXP share in XY wasn't the problem. The problem with XY was REPEATABLE TRAINER BATTLES. Seriously, between the Battle Cafes and the Battle Chateau, you NEVER had to wander around grinding because there's no need.

Gen 9: Performance issues, bugs and glitches

I dont mind the hm, but only 3 of them where usefull in battles

The worst thing about Gen 6 is the loss of a robust endgame (which continues to this day.)

Just realized gen V was my first pokemon gen…😭. Pokemon white version.

My least favorite mechanic in Gen 1 is something wholly overlooked: the map. I just picked up my yellow edition years after I last played it and wanted to get to Pewter City from Celadon, thinking I could resurrect Aerodactyl there (you can't) and damn, I could not figure out how to get there from looking at the map. There is no hint whatsoever that you need to go through Diglett's Cave. I swear, the Kanto map in the Gen 1 games is a confusing, hot mess!

Sword and shield giving you high-level pokemon immediately and not letting you catch them.