Franchise Original Sin / Pokémon

Being one of Nintendo's longest-running franchises, it's not surprising that some problems with the series have their roots earlier on in its lifetime.

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General

• Gen I Pandering. Starting with Gen VI's Pokémon X and Y, Game Freak began calling back to the original Kanto games more, with many of the Mega Evolutions introduced being for Gen 1 Mons and the game even giving you one of the Kanto starters early on. This was fine at the time, as Pokémon media had yet to make such heavy use of nostalgia and Pokémon from other generations were given their fair share of Mega Evolutions too. It also helps that it acted as a fix to Pokémon Black and White limiting the amount of old Pokémon that appeared in the game. Then, Gen VII's gave us Pokémon Sun and Moon and the introduction of regional variants... and all of them were Generation I Pokémon.^note Though in fairness, the games coincided with the 20th anniversary of the franchise, so every part of the franchise was heavily acknowledging the first games. Even the anime had Ash briefly return to Kanto and reconnect with Misty, Brock, and some of his old Pokémon such as Bulbasaur, Muk, and Tauros. After the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the next remakes weren't for the Gen IV games, which had been highly anticipated, but for Gen I's Pokémon Yellow. After this, not only did Gen VIII's Pokémon Sword and Shield introduce the new Gigantamax mechanic and have most of the forms be Gen I mons once again, and a few new regional variants were added, though mostly of different Kantonian species and actually allowing for those from other regions to have them too, but even the anime had Ash situated mainly in Kanto rather than the new region of Galar, and he caught several Kantonian Pokémon he never used before such as Dragonite and Gengar, in addition to a Retcon that his mother's Mr. Mime was considered one of his Pokémon all along.^note He still travels to other regions, Kanto is simply the base of operations for him. At this point, people felt that Game Freak was giving too much attention to Kanto at the expense of all the other generations.^note One can argue that it goes back even further, with Pokémon Gold and Silver having Kanto be explorable and many major NPCs using older Kanto mons over the newer Johto creatures, in addition to Kanto receiving the remake treatment in Gen III with FireRed and LeafGreen. These were more justifiable and innocuous though - Kanto was in Gen II because those games were meant to be direct sequels, and remakes were needed because the newer games were now completely incompatible with the older ones. It only became more "obvious" as the series got older.
  
  This is best seen in Charizard. The creature already boasted great popularity with the fanbase, both in the games and in the anime, as Ash's Charizard is seen as one of his most memorable and iconic best mons right after Pikachu, even guest starring in the third film, Spell of the Unown, despite having left his team at that point. An early warning sign took place in the Gen II games and their remakes, where Lance used one on his team despite it not otherwise not featuring any starter Pokemon, and another warning sign during the Battle Frontier arc, where a Charizard was one of two Pokemon (along with an Aggron) loaned to the Team Rocket Trio. The former was accepted because Lance's Charizard still fit his theme of using dragon-like Pokemon even if they weren't all Dragon types, wasn't even his strongest Pokemon (that role belonged to one of his three Dragonite), and it still appears alongside the other two fully-evolved Kanto starters during the battle with Red. For the latter, it only appeared in a single episode, with the loaned Pokemon being taken away at the end due to being meant for Butch and Cassidy. Both instances used Charizard in moderation, not getting too much attention at the time, which only got worse as the franchise continued. Its bigger moments of scene-stealing truly started with Charizard returning to Ash's team in the Unova seasons of the anime, which was fine back then thanks to Ash's Charizard having been gone for years before making his reappearance, his last appearance before his return being Hoenn's Battle Frontier arc. Although Ash, by this point, typically never brought back members of his previous teams, people were just happy to see him again. Then the games got in on the fun, as Gen VI gave Charizard two Mega Evolutions, making it the only Pokémon in the series other than the Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo to gain such a status. People immediately started claiming favoritism. Back in the anime, the X and Y series would give Ash's new rival Alain's a signature Pokémon in the form of a very powerful Mega Evolving Charizard whose victory over Ash-Greninja in the Kalos League likely contributed to the Charizard burnout. The Sun and Moon anime would then have another Charizard as Kiawe's air transport throughout those seasons of the series.^note In fairness, one thing this Charizard has going for it is that it was also one of the last roles that Unshō Ishizuka voiced prior to his death. Charizard's role as a Ride Pokémon (serving as a replacement for Fly), which served as the basis for adapting Kiawe's Charizard, actually wasn't disliked in the games (everyone was too busy being happy that HMs were finally gone after twenty years), and Charizard wasn't even in the Alolan Pokédex (making it the only Ride Pokemon to have this distinction), but Pokémon Sword and Shield (and by extension the Journeys anime) was considered the breaking point by having a Charizard as Champion Leon's signature Pokémon, being among the Mons to get a Gigantamax form, and being the only returning starter line players could legitimately^note The other 2 Kanto starter lines and the Alola starter lines all had code for them in the games but were unobtainable until Pokémon HOME launched, allowing migration obtain at launch, leading many to feel that Charizard was getting too much attention at the expense of both its fellow Kanto starters and other starter Pokémon as a whole. Pokémon Horizons: The Series would subsequently feature a Charizard belonging to Rising Volt Tacklers leader Friede, but although it would have a somewhat prominent role as one of Friede's primary battlers and was one of the first Pokemon seen using the Terastal phenomenon, it is treated as just another member of his team and not given Character Shilling like Leon's Charizard was.
• Animate Inanimate Object Pokémon such as Klefki or Vanillite are almost universally seen as lazy, or a sign that Game Freak is quote-unquote "running out of ideas". However, these kinds of mons have existed since the very beginning. Generation 1 had Magnemite (magnets), Grimer (sewer sludge), and Voltorb (Poké Balls, albeit implied to be either a Freak Lab Accident, or actual Poké Balls possessed by ghosts). Moving on to Generation 2, there's Unown (the latin alphabet, though it's likely inspired by hieroglyphs as well), Wobbuffet (a punching bag), and Elekid (an electrical plug), though most don't think the latter two count - they're not living inanimate objects, they're unique creatures that happen to have elements of their design resembling objects (i.e. Wobbuffet isn't a punching bag with monster-y traits, but a unique creature that simply behaves somewhat like a punching bag, while Elekid is a unique creature with protrusions in his head that resemble the pins of an electrical plug, which doesn't make it an electrical plug itself any more than Blastoise's cannons make him a battleship). This argument can also be said for mons such as Jigglypuff and Porygon, who are also designed after inanimate objects (balloons and origami, respectively), but have enough animal-like characteristics as to not look out of place. The general consensus is that mons that follow this design philosophy can work as long as it's executed well, though ones that are at least remotely animalistic tend to be favored more.
• A common criticism of modern Pokémon designs is the amount of Pokémon that seem tailor-made to attract the Furry Fandom, often derided as 'furbaitmon' (e.g. Gardevoir, Lucario, Lopunny, Zoroark, Braixen, Incineroar, Salazzle, and Meowscarada). However, even as early as Gen 1, certain Pokémon have had attributes that could be considered 'furbait-y' (Nidoqueen has Non-Mammal Mammaries, Machoke is a Petting Zoo Person bodybuilder, and Hitmonchan is a human boxer with a funny head). The difference is they still had enough monstrous design elements that they still fit the overall designs of the Pokémon at the time. Later on, however, more and more Pokémon started to gravitate toward more humanoid designs, including design elements common in the furry fandom. This would hit what many people consider to be its zenith with Salazzle, a curvy, female-only Loveable Sex Maniac lizard that uses pheromones to Mind Control other Pokémon and humans into a "harem."

Anime

• Many of the flaws older fans criticize newer seasons for having — a formulaic plot, filler being common to the point of Arc Fatigue, bland and forgettable one-shot characters etc. — all had their roots in the Kanto and Orange Islands series which preceded them. These flaws were more or less forgiven since it was the first season and the formula wasn't entirely set in stone yet, and the filler wasn't packed close together and didn't make up a large portion of the series as it would in Johto. It also more frequently had episodes that explored character motivations and backstory, like "Go West, Young Meowth", making fans more forgiving towards it.
  • Ash's original characterization as a Vanilla Protagonist, who was intended to meet more interesting characters than himself, set the precedent for the characters of the day originally starting off as memorable characters who then became forgettable later on. However, as the writers slowly ran out of ideas on how to make these characters appealing, Ash ended up overshadowing these characters, becoming more memorable in the process while they ended up forgettable.
• The dub's replacement of Japanese music has been a long held complaint since the start of the anime, but really started ramping up from XY onward. Before then, there were more reasonable justifications for it: It was much less expensive to make music inhouse and the dub music was seen as having its own charm, making it acceptable enough throughout 4Kids' run, which ended in the earlier portion of the Battle Frontier saga, and up to Best Wishes. 4Kids was also slowly going bankrupt in its final years, likely necessitating them trying to save as much money as possible through making dub music inhouse for their run.^note But even this would not be enough, as 4Kids was forced to hand the license back to The Pokémon Company International during the Battle Frontier saga. To try to save money, they used the dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! as their main Cash-Cow Franchise, but a lawsuit sank them for good. Fans also didn't have much accessibility to the original subs before The New '10s, leaving many ignorant of just how much was being changed. Adding to that was that 4Kids wasn't the only company that replaced music at the time (Bruce Falconeer's dub score for DBZ comes to mind).
  
  However, with XY, John Loeffler and David Wolfert, the original dub composers, both departed and were replaced by Ed Goldfarb, whose soundtrack was seen as uninspired and jarring compared to the old dub music and especially the original Japanese, even sometimes sacrificing important character songs. Coinciding with this was the music replacements becoming far more frequent◊ until it was worse than it ever was under 4Kids, even bleeding into the movies starting with Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction.^note Ironically, a remixed version of Gotta Catch Em All, the original 4Kids theme for the dub, was used as the first opening song under Goldfarb in spite of all this. The Japanese subs had also become far more accessible to the public, leaving fans much more aware of what was being replaced. The fact that other dubbing companies had dropped this practice years ago only made it more noticeable (Funimation keeps the Japanese OST for their later properties). It got worse when a tweet by Goldfarb himself revealed that TPCi was perfectly capable of retaining the Japanese music, but were using Goldfarb's music out of choice.^note Rather than Sony copyrighting music, or the anime music being changed to get more money from overseas payments, Goldfarb's belief in changing the music is a creative decision that wouldn't be out of place during the original 4Kids dub, but is behind-the-times in the modern day. This sin would be addressed starting in Sun and Moon, as the dub composers began leaving Japanese tracks in as long as they fit a scene better, and in other cases, tried to make dub music that had actual effort put into it, however, Goldfarb remaining the composer when the franchise moved to Pokémon Horizons: The Series has left fans concerned that the music changes may not be gone yet.
• Unlike the games, the anime has always had a habit of depicting multiple Legendary Pokémon existing (as opposed to being implied Single Specimen Species), as well as rarely, if ever, reusing old legendaries (the Celebi from Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions is not the same one as the one from Pokémon 4Ever, for instance). Though few complained about this, that changed with Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened and its controversial move to use a brand-new Mewtwo over the well-known and popular one from Pokémon: The First Movie.^note Takeshi Shudō, original showrunner to the anime and director of The First Movie, took the rights to the original Mewtwo to the grave, and the writing team couldn't recover them from his estate, forcing the conception of the new Mewtwo. Because Mewtwo was firmly established as a one-of-a-kind man-made Pokémon who couldn't be replicated (and not naturally born like the aforementioned Celebi), many fans logically assumed it would be the same one from before, and thus were confused and upset when it turned out to be a completely different one from a separate, unseen experiment.^note Hoopa and the Clash of Ages would attempt to address the sin, in spite of its weaknesses, by bringing many previous Legendaries back and stating outright they were the same ones from before, especially in the case of Mewtwo, who would eventually make a return in Journeys, and whose original personality was also brought back to the Super Smash Bros. franchise and with the new Mewtwo's Mega Evolution as a Final Smash being the only trace of the new Mewtwo present in the game.
• The movies tend to have "evil" Legendaries as the supposed Big Bad, who are either really non-malicious monsters with the conflict coming from misunderstandings, or who pull a Heel–Face Turn by the end. This all started back with Pokémon: The First Movie.^*It can also be traced back to the episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon", which claimed that there was no such thing as a truly evil Pokémon. While some were disappointed, it being the first use of the trope (and Mewtwo being genuinely sympathetic, especially in the original Japanese version) let the film off. Some Pokémon in the main anime, a particular Togepi in Sinnoh and several Malamar in Kalos, proved to be truly evil, but these were just minor instances in the main episodes rather than the films; fast-forward to around the sixteenth movie, and many fans are sick of the continued lack of a truly villainous Pokémon in the films when there are several cool and/or creepy candidates. It also doesn't help that by contrast, human villains are more plentiful, more evil (except in the event said human villain pulls a Heel–Face Turn), and generally lacking in character, and that the games would break this trend in their own way by finally featuring antagonistic Pokemon that weren't presented as being misunderstood (like Necrozma in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon or the Loyal Three in the Teal Mask DLC of Scarlet and Violet).
• The movies' tendency to explain any Pokémon that can talk via telepathy. This had its roots back in the very first movie, which had Mewtwo talking through telepathy. This made sense for that movie and the next few movies since that explanation held enough ground to make sense (Mewtwo, Lugia, and Jirachi were Psychic-types and Entei was created by the Psychic-type, reality warping Unown), but future movies that used this excuse had a harder time hand-waving it since most of the Pokémon who got it weren't Psychic-types^{The full list}Lucario (Fighting/Steel), Darkrai (Dark), Shaymin (Grass, or Grass/Flying in its Sky Forme), Arceus (Normal by default), Zorua (Dark), Zekrom (Dragon/Electric), Reshiram (Dragon/Fire), all 4 Swords of Justice (Steel/Fighting, Rock/Fighting, Grass/Fighting, and Water/Fighting), Kyurem (Dragon/Ice), all 5 Genesect (Bug/Steel), Diancie & its Carbink (Rock/Fairy), Xerneas (Fairy), Volcanion (Fire/Water). Arceus however has an excuse for being a literal Physical God, and in its game, it could communicate without telepathy.
• The habit of the films to focus on advertising a new Mythical could be traced back to the first movie, which heavily featured Mew (which was probably unavoidable, as a film centered on Mewtwo). It just wasn't as rigidly defined of a formula back then; the second, third, and fifth movies didn't involve Mythicals, for instance, and other movies to involve Mythicals at least clearly designed the plot around them. Later films tended to shove in Mythicals regardless of whether they added anything—the most obvious being Marshadow's appearance in Pokémon: I Choose You!, where it felt very out of place in what was otherwise a remake of the early anime. It didn't help that the games also stopped giving dedicated sidequests to Mythicals, meaning now the films were forced to fill in the blanks and often making the Mythicals in question feel forgettable. Compare the fairly extensive lore and significance given to Mew to, say, Volcanion, Marshadow, or Zeraora, where nothing about their Pokédex entries or film appearances seems to warrant them being Mythical.
• One of the longest-held criticisms of the anime was Ash's inability to win a Pokémon League. While he's lost Leagues since the original series, at first the idea of the main character failing to achieve his goals by the end was relatively novel (and at least he constantly managed to obtain a moral victory out of making it so far, which softened the blow and made his determination more endearing). Then the series not only kept making him lose, but did so in increasingly contrived ways — while Kanto had Ash's Pokémon exhausted because of Team Rocket^note Among other things, a rule for sleep status being considered viable for elimination was also implemented in the League at the same time and never used again since, and when Ash got down to the disobedient Charizard as his last, it refused to listen. and Johto had him fight Hoenn Pokémon^note Kecleon and Blaziken; the former actually wasn't too difficult, as Pikachu easily defeated it early in the battle, but the latter was much tougher, following up a justified defeat of Bayleef by defeating Charizard, they at least made sense story wise. And his loss in Hoenn did not have any egregiously unfair moments and felt more natural.^note Both his and his opponent's last Pokémon fainted at around the same time, but Ash was declared the loser as his Pikachu fainted before Tyson's Meowth did. Sinnoh, on the other hand, had a one-off Trainer with Mythicals and Legendaries on his team for no reason^note The full team was never shown, but Tobias was only shown to have Darkrai and Latios, though this blow is somewhat softened in that we only even actually see that Latios because Ash ends up the only trainer in the competition who manages to defeat Darkrai, and then Latios fights to a draw with Ash's last Pokémon, Pikachu., and Unova made Ash lose to a ditz with a five-against-six handicap (who didn't even win the League himself),^note Cameron's lucky victory came from the evolution of his Riolu to Lucario in the fight. and Kalos had Alain enter by collecting all the badges in a ridiculously small timeframe solely to fight and beat Ash, despite showing no interest in the League beforehand. Alain was supposed to emulate what made Ash's loss in Johto the best received by losing to a well-established Worthy Opponent. But so many factors were implying Ash would win^note Having his most powerful team and being his most competent to date, it being the franchise's 20th anniversary, the next games were alleged to be doing away with conventional leagues, advertising and the episodes title heavily implying Ash would finally win... that the backlash was so intense it's likely what led to Ash finally winning the next series League in Alola, and then winning the exhibition match against Kukui and Tapu Koko.
  • One of the biggest criticisms of the Ash vs. Cameron battle in the Unova league is that Cameron was lucky enough to have his Riolu evolve into Lucario during the match to provide him the power boost needed to defeat the rest of Ash's team. A brief look at older episodes will show that this is not the first time someone managed to pull off a win thanks to a mid-battle evolution. Ash in particular has benefited from mid-battle evolutions multiple times throughout the series. The only reason this became such a big deal this team around was because it happened against the main character during an already controversial Pokémon League. Made worse by the fact that Ash at least improved in his tournament standings over the series, while his loss to Cameron was the first time he actually ranked lower than his previous tournament standing. What also caused frustration was that mid-battle evolutions are exclusive to the anime, and the evolution was caused by Riolu getting to its feet.
  • Ash vs. Alain gains just as much criticism as Tobias and Cameron, this time due to the outright rejection of the franchise's Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors that's a huge staple of the games. The thing is, however, the anime always toyed with the idea of Scissors Cuts Rock as far back as even the first season, though the very first instance of this was when Ash supercharged his Pikachu to take out Brock's Onix, using its electricity to weaken it by activating the gym's sprinkler system. Since then, however, the anime seldom ever followed the Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic all that closely, merely considering the idea at best. Rather, they like to utilize quick thinking and legitimate strategies more often than they use type effectiveness. In addition, opposing Trainers have engaged in such mockery of the type mechanics before, such as when Cress's Panpour defeated Ash's Pikachu back in Unova^note Pikachu had the type advantage, but Panpour had the move Mud Sport, a Ground type move which weakened Electric type moves. It's just that this is the first time it cost Ash a major league win, and it's made all the more jarring due to Ash's Greninja having taken down Sawyer's Sceptile, which was Mega Evolved so it had double resistance to water^note Mega Sceptile is part Dragon, which also resists Water, yet Alain's Charizard was barely able to take a much bigger Water Shuriken which should do normal damage^note Mega Charizard X is also part Dragon, while Blast Burn managed to take out Greninja despite not being very effective.
  • Despite the Kalos League loss being meant to emulate Ash's losses in Johto and Hoenn, which were pretty well received, this one got an incredibly vitriolic response from the fanbase. One of the reasons said losses were well received was because they happened relatively early in the series, being the second and third Leagues, respectively, that Ash took part in. However, around Sinnoh, many fans believed Ash had accumulated enough experience and skill to make them think that it was feasible for him to win a league this time around, so they were increasingly less forgiving of losses. This was further exacerbated by how the writers went out of their way to ensure that Ash would lose in rather ridiculous ways (again, Tobias and Cameron). By the time the Kalos League, the sixth League Ash took part in, rolled on, a sizeable chunk of the fans simply refused to accept any outcome other than Ash winning, regardless of how well written or executed said loss would be. By Sun and Moon, the writers got the message and allowed Ash to finally win a regional League.
  • The biggest root of Ash's league losses pertains to how progressively clunkier said loses got with each passing league, especially Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos. But those losses could actually trace their roots to his first loss in the Indigo League, where Ash was the sole party blamed for losing his match, despite extenuating circumstances.^note Chiefly that he had been kidnapped the day of his match by Team Rocket, nobody in the League bothered to postpone the match, no one (not even his friends) bothered to look for him and just sat on their hands waiting for him to show up, the police didn't try to investigate despite the fact that the League had literally been robbed the day before, Ash's Pokémon had been exhausted trying to escape from the villains, and his Charizard refused to battle Ritchie's Pikachu and got Ash eliminated. This in and of itself was the last straw of a long line of Broken Aesops that had plagued Ash's Kanto journey since the beginning, blaming his failures on poor training and a haughty ego, even when all the circumstances weren't entirely his fault. However, despite this clumsy execution, the series wasn't necessarily wrong that Ash's flaws were holding him back, and that he would never be a Pokémon Master like he wanted if he kept acting bratty and slacked on his training. This lesson did eventually stick, as Ash would become focused on his training and eventually shed his ego to start growing as a trainer. Likewise, his losses at the Silver and Ever Grande Conferences could be chalked up to the fact his Pokémon weren't fully evolved or as high a level as his opponents (in fact, it was a testament to his skills that he came so close to beating them in the first place), and that he was placing too much faith on his Pokémon's abilities alone—a fact that Paul picked apart a thousand times over during their clashes in Sinnoh before it sunk in that it was holding Ash back. Nevertheless, those first three Leagues at least taught Ash something in the long run, despite clumsy execution or it taking a long time to sink in, but his following loses didn't teach him anything invaluable to his growth as a trainer, and felt like a contrived way to keep him from winning a championship.
    • Speaking of the Broken Aesop and Informed Wrongness issue, Ash's loss at the Indigo Plateau being blamed entirely on him despite the fact that almost all the circumstances weren't his fault was a frequent issue that happened during prior episodes of the series, such as "Challenge of the Samurai"^note Where Ash was supposed to be taught a lesson in accepting responsibility, despite the titular samurai causing more problems for Ash and then blaming the results of them on him, "Pokémon Scent-sation!"^note Where Ash is denied permission to challenge Erika's gym because he insulted her perfume, even though Ash had a legal right to challenge the gym and the assistants who banned him were going over their bosses' head, and anytime Brock and Misty tried claiming Ash only got their badges out of pity^note Ignoring the fact that Ash got the Boulder Badge because he chose to forfeit instead of winning a match by cheating, which impressed Brock into giving it to him, and it was Misty's sisters that gave Ash the badge for saving their gym from Team Rocket, making Misty come off as a Sore Loser. While those episodes had such infamous moments that led to a great mockery from fans, they were largely minor flaws that only cropped up a few times during the show and didn't have too strong an impact (aside from Ash's Metapod evolving into Butterfree, Ash getting his fourth badge, and Misty and Brock's criticisms of Ash's behavior largely focusing on his big ego and lack of training) on Ash's journey, not to mention that the circumstances didn't make everyone responsible^note Misty and Pikachu weren't of any help the first time, but they largely stayed out of things. Erika was the one who had to put her foot down and let Ash challenge her as his right, while Brock and Misty couldn't really do anything since it wasn't their gym. And though Brock and Misty would drag Ash over the coals regarding his "pity badges", they still had a point that Ash was hampered by his flaws. When it came time for the league, this attempt to blame Ash solely for everything that happened came off as insincere to fans, since it was trying to blame Ash for everything that he didn't do that episode, and every other party had more responsibility^note Chiefly the League for not postponing the match at any point or letting Ash rest properly, the police for not bothering to search for Ash, Charizard for being stubborn and refusing to listen to Ash, and Brock and Misty for just sitting there instead of looking for their friend., since the only mistake Ash made was picking Charizard knowing he wouldn't listen instead of the more reliable Kingler or Muk. Luckily, the writers took the hint and made sure that if Ash did make a legitimate mistake, he would pay for it properly instead of the universe pinning the blame solely on him for everyone else's mistakes.
• One of the main criticisms Black and White gets is that Ash caught too many Pokémon in too short a time for the writers to properly characterize.^note The full list, all of whom had to share screentime with Pikachu, and later on Charizard, included Pidove/Tranquill/Unfezant, Oshawott, Tepig/Pignite, Snivy, Scraggy, Sewaddle/Swadloon/Leavanny, Palpitoad, Roggenrola/Boldore, and Krokorok/Krookodile But this practice had its beginnings in Kanto right from the moment Ash caught Krabby, which introduced the Pokémon storage system to the anime. This is more justified though, because back then the anime was fully adhering to the franchise's original English tagline of Gotta Catch Them All. It's clear that most later seasons realized that this wasn't a good storytelling tool, leaving many Pokémon on the list of perfectly good characters to waste, and everyone generally agrees that the approach of a smaller but more fleshed out team feels more natural in the long run. The closest thing to the concept of catching more Pokémon appears to be done now by Goh, a new character based on methods from Pokémon GO, though unlike with Ash, there are at least attempts to give his other Pokémon proper screen time even when they aren't being actively used.
• The conclusion of the Team Plasma arc was criticized for being rushed, the Team going down like chumps and the Big Bad being The Unfought. However, this was also the case for all the prior villain Teams sans Team Rocket, who never even got a decisive confrontation. The difference was that the other Teams' lack of real significance wasn't dissimilar to how they were portrayed in the games, while the games' Team Plasma and Big Bad were extremely well received for their moral complexity and delectable evilness and the anime started with enough popular changes, including giving Team Plasma a proper buildup, that raised expectations and attracted fans who've previously written off the anime. Besides falling short of those heightened expectations, their intended debut was canceled due to an earthquake in Japan and Team Plasma was overhauled to match their portrayal in Black 2 and White 2 (the Grunts are depicted as their Black 2 and White 2 designs, and so is Ghetsis, with N as a former member like in that game, and Colress, who was absent in Black and White, as a major leader for the team) which stripped them of their interesting traits, and other anticipated plotlines went unfulfilled. Few doubt it was a coincidence that Team Flare was given a far better portrayal in the next series.
  • This flaw could also be traced back to issues facing both Team Rocket and Team Magma and Aqua—namely that all three villainous organizations (not really counting Jessie, James, and Meowth constantly tailing Ash) were left Out of Focus and were either The Unfought or got taken out so easily. In Team Rocket's case, it was a bit more understandable that the writers couldn't disband Giovanni's organization, as it would deprive the show of arguably its most popular element in the form of the Trio's comedic antics, to say nothing of Giovanni electing for far more pragmatic goals of just conquering the world instead of trying to destroy and recreate it. Magma and Aqua's own downfalls were certainly displeasing to fans, but at the time, their respective plans (to increase the world's landmass and flood the world) were outright laughed at by players of their original games as being ridiculous, so the company undoubtedly wanted to avoid further mockery and just got their story out of the way as quickly as possible. However, it was the closer inclusion of Team Galactic in the Diamond and Pearl era, and a multitude of iconic moments (such as Brock's rivalry with Saturn's Toxicroak, Looker's attempts to bring the villains down with Ash and Co.'s help, and Cyrus using the Lake Trio to forcibly capture Dialga and Palkia) that made it virtually impossible to separate the game's story from the anime. Naturally, Team Plasma's tale was a fan favorite, so the hopes were that the anime would translate it in the same way as Team Galactic's was, only for viewers to be disappointed that the aforementioned issues cut it short.
• Iris, who was written to be an Expy of Misty most of the time, is easily one of if not the least popular of Ash's female companions. However, many of Iris' traits that she was criticized for were also present in Misty, who to this day still remains one of Ash's most beloved female companions. However, there were some key differences between the two:
  • The main reason people dislike Iris is her antagonism and constant needling and mocking Ash. Misty used to do the same thing, but back in the day, Ash was much less nice and less afraid to bite back, and not only did Ash rarely leave any of Misty's jabs unanswered, but he was even able to take potshots at her completely unprovoked.
    However, in Johto, Ash started to become more "sanitized" into a straight Nice Guy, a process that continued through the following seasons^note So much that Backported Development was used to depict the snarky Ash of the earlier seasons with the personality of the nicer Ash of the modern seasons in flashbacks., leaving an Ash far less likely to fight back against mocking comments from his companions. Also helping was that Misty herself became less likely to fight with Ash due to her Character Development after getting Togepi. As a result, while Original Series Ash and Misty were two hotheaded kids that frequently sniped at each other, Best Wishes Ash was Iris' hapless verbal punching bag, which caused viewers to see Iris as needlessly cruel and mean spirited.
  • Misty was justified in lecturing Ash, not least because Ash himself was inexperienced and made unwise mistakes for obvious reasons: he was just starting out, so Misty getting exasperated with Ash wasn't all that unwarranted. With the Unova seasons, however, Ash only makes similar mistakes because the writers undid all the experience he gained from the last four regions, an already-unpopular decision made worse by Iris lecturing him over things he should know.
  • Iris' fear of Ice types^note Since Ice type attacks are super effective against Dragon types, which Iris wanted to specialize in. was considered dumb by many fans. This was clearly meant to be a call back to Misty's fear of Bug types. However, Entomophobia is one of the most common phobias in real life, so Misty's fear of Bug types was not only believable, but in many cases relatable. Meanwhile, Iris' fear of Ice types was seen as silly, since Ice types aren't any more dangerous or scary than any other type. This was even mocked in-universe in the first episode that showed this fear: Ash's rival Trip pointed out that by that logic, Iris should also be afraid of Dragon types, the type she specialized in, since they deal super effective damage to themselves.^note This was before the Fairy type, a type that was immune to and super effective against Dragon types, was added in Gen 6.
• In the same vein as Iris being seen as a poor copy of Misty, Ash's Black and White rival Trip is seen as a poor replacement for Paul, his rival from Diamond and Pearl. But much like with Iris's flaws being seen in Misty, Trip had many a flaw that could be traced back to his more popular rival.
  • The initial basis of Trip and Paul's antagonism with Ash is that they both have no respect for the Kanto native, seeing him as unbelievably naive and blindly putting his faith in friendship. However, Paul's criticism of Ash's sole reliance on The Power of Friendship wasn't without merit; every time the two clashed, Ash would always lose because Paul knew exactly how Ash was going to react and use that against him. It was Ash's humiliating defeat at Lake Acuity (which Paul had spent 10 days explicitly preparing for, while Ash just charged in believing his Pokémon could win it) that made the young trainer accept that he couldn't just beat Paul on friendship alone—in fact, it was when Ash used strategy mixed in with his belief in his team that he obtained his first victory over his rival, culminating in Ash's Infernape defeating his former trainer's Electivire in the highly cathartic Sinnoh League. Moreover, Paul himself was highly experienced as a trainer, having competed in the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn leagues the same as Ash did, so the fact he was producing better results through his overzealous training methods compared to Ash had some validity. However, Trip's own attempts to replicate this fell flat because Ash's seeming inability to win against his new rival (who as it should be noted is a rookie) stemmed not from a legitimate character flaw Ash had, but because he Took a Level in Dumbass and lost all the competency he had built up between Kanto and Sinnoh, resulting from the infamous moment where the more experienced Pikachu lost to an inexperienced Snivy due to the former getting zapped by Zekrom. Thus, while Ash defeating Paul was him proving he could overcome an equal while staying true to himself, his besting of Trip in the qualifying round of the Unova League felt far less earned, since it was clear the writers felt they couldn't do anything more and gave up with the character.
  • On the same token, Paul's attitude stemmed from a Freudian Excuse that his own brother, Reggie, quit being a trainer when he failed to defeat Pyramid King Brandon, and saw this willingness to give up so easily as a sign of weakness he would never embrace. It's produced efficient results for his training, even if it subjects his team to all levels of hell in the process, showing that he could never truly obtain the strength he sought if he didn't come to care for his Pokémon. Moreover, this backstory is thoroughly picked apart by Brandon himself, who destroys Paul without so much as the young man getting in a hit, poking holes in his methods and forcing him to reexamine himself. But Trip's attitude has no such background to begin with; no explanation is given as to why the eager young man who sought to rise high enough to battle against Alder suddenly became so cynical and jaded by the time he bumps into Ash (to say nothing of his Fantastic Racism against Kanto, which even Paul never had). Without that context for his behavior, Trip felt much more like a lesser version of Paul, who notably would learn from his attitude and later be shown to have been offered a prestigious gym leader position.
  • The biggest detriment against Trip is that his battling record is rather poor, to say the least. In each match that didn't involve Ash, Trip would always lose, including to Cilan and even Bianca. Paul did have a few losses himself, as it was implied he failed to clear any of the Leagues he participated in prior to the series, and was shown actively losing a few times on-screen. However, those loses were at the hands of Cynthia (a Champion who's later revealed to be the second strongest trainer in the entire world) and Pyramid King Brandon (who's the most powerful member of the Kanto Battle Frontier and the owner of three Legendary Pokémon). Understandably, it would make sense that even Paul at his best couldn't hope to beat them, despite his experience. For Trip, those losses to a Gym Leader and an equivalently green trainer (to say nothing of Alder) made it harder to take his rivalry with Ash all the more seriously, especially since the aforementioned issue of Ash being regressed to a rookie just made him look all that worse for failing to take out someone even his friends and rivals could.
• A common complaint about the Black & White anime is how Ash is often shown checking his Pokédex for Pokémon he already knows about, with viewers saying that he Took a Level in Dumbass and somehow forgot about everything he did before arriving in Unova. In fact, this happened since a long time before: for example, one late episode in Johto had Ash fighting against a Charizard and checking it on his Pokédex, despite the fact that he owns one and thus should already know everything about it. The Hoenn and Sinnoh arc mitigated cases like this by having the female companions own their own Pokédexes: thus, if the writers wanted to insert a Pokédex description for a Pokémon that Ash already checked in an earlier episode, they would have May or Dawn check her Pokédex. The Unova arc came back to having Ash as the only character owning a Pokédex, and thus the show ended up having him check the same Pokémon more than once in multiple occasions, with cases such as him checking on Roxie's Koffing despite James already having one in early Kanto,^note Although bizarrely, Koffing was one of the few Kanto Pokemon that Ash didn't pull up a Pokedex entry for originally, making it the first time a Pokedex entry for one was shown or even cases like Palpitoad and Unfezant where he checked the same Pokémon in two separate episodes that aired back to back. Later series would return to the multiple Pokedex approach, whether outright using Pokedexes or the Rotom Phones having their functionality, as a way of addressing this, and while Ash would once more be the only one with a Pokedex in Alola, this is mitigated by it being a Rotomdex, having enough characterization by itself to justify displaying entries without needing to make Ash (or any other character) look dumber in the process.
• Fans groaned in agony when Tepig/Pignite was yet another Fire starter that Ash had caught because it had been callously abandoned by its Jerkass of a trainer for being weak, yet few complaints were raised when both Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard and Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape underwent the same story arc. But the first time such an arc happened, fans embraced the idea since it showed an empathetic side to Ash during his more brattier rookie days, and Charizard's initial disobedience streak offered an insight into Ash's inability to to tap into his full potential as a trainer by being unable to mend fences until "Charizard Chills!", even if Charizard's old trainer Damian never appeared again. Likewise, Infernape's story was widely praised since it was used as the focal point of Ash's rivalry with Paul in how blending strategy with friendship could create the ultimate powerhouse, and it was widely seen as the most cathartic moment of the franchise up to that point when Infernape managed to defeat Paul's Electivire in the Sinnoh League. By the time Tepig came into the mix and it was revealed to have been abandoned, aside from not fully evolving into Emboar, nothing new was done with this story to give Ash any meaningful development as a trainer, especially since it was just a blend of the outcomes of Ash's previous Fire starters (becoming stronger to prove the ex-trainer wrong like Infernape and cathartically burning him up when he tried to offer him a chance to come back like Charizard). As such, fans grew sick of the arc being repeated. Tellingly, the next time Ash got another Fire starter, Litten was a wild Pokémon that Ash took in when its caretaker (an elderly Stoutland) died, and the next time Ash took in an abandoned Pokémon, it was the highly-requested Poison/Ghost type Gengar (whose trainer had abandoned it because he thought it brought him bad luck, and it made the ghost a bitter and angry prankster until Ash won it over with his good heart).
• As far as regional birds go, Ash's Unfezant isn't the most popular due to her being highly underutilized and not having much personality, in addition to being subjected to The Worf Effect more often than not. The same could be said of Ash's Pidgeot, who really didn't show much personality or win many battles during its tenure under Ash's care. But aside from First Installment Wins, Pidgeot did manage to put at least a few wins under its belt, it was used in far more Gym Battles than Unfezant, and it was one of the few Pokémon that Ash released to take care of its own kind (though Ash would finally get it to rejoin his team for good in his last episode as the protagonist). Even his Johto regional bird, Noctowl, wasn't utilized too often and got overshadowed^note Ash's only finished gym match to feature Noctowl was against Morty the Ghost gym leader, since Noctowl had Foresight to make the Ghost types easier to attack, as although Ash attempted to use it to battle Clair as well, the match was interrupted by Team Rocket, and he chose to use Snorlax and Charizard instead when he tried the match again, but it did win Ash a few matches and it was his only "Shiny" Pokémon—even in its debut episode did it display a far broader personality, despite it not being followed up with afterwards. Unfezant got much more flack because after those two birds came Swellow and Staraptor, who were given more screen time and more personality to boot, and consequently became some of the more memorable mons Ash used on his teams. Since Unfezant couldn't live up to either one of them, in terms of capability or personality, it wound up falling flat in fans' eyes, and although Ash adding Charizard back to his team after the Unova League was an early warning sign of its Wolverine Publicity starting to become an issue, Unfezant was the Pokemon that Ash sent to Professor Oak in order to fit Charizard on his team, suggesting even the writers had come to agree with the fans about its unpopularity.
• Another major issue facing Black and White was the seeming unwillingness for some of Ash's Pokémon to evolve fully^note Specifically Oshawott, Snivy, and Scraggy, Tepig and Roggenrola only evolving to their first stages of Pignite and Boldore (though Boldore not evolving again can be explained as Ash not being given an opportunity to trade it with anyone, since Boldore's evolution to Gigalith is a trade evolution), and Palpitoad staying as it was when it was first caught., holding back his full potential from being able to win battles. This issue itself could be traced back to the original series, as some of Ash's Pokémon either refused (Pikachu, Bulbasaur), only bothered to do so once (Chikorita to Bayleef, Phanpy to Donphan after one series when it returned for the Battle Frontier, and Cyndaquil to Quliava after two other series when it returned in Johto), or never bothered at all without giving a reason why (Squirtle, Totodile). Back then, it was at least acceptable in Kanto because the series gave an explicit reason behind Pikachu's refusal ^note That he wanted to get stronger all on his own without evolving into Raichu, though Pikachu being revealed to have the Gigantamax Factor in Journeys implicitly made the issue moot due to Pikachu being incapable of involving in the games if it is capable of Gigantamaxing., and implied the reason why Bulbasaur didn't^note It had been a common fan theory that seeing the once loyal Charmander evolve into the feisty and ill-tempered Charmeleon, and later the even worse Charizard, scared Bulbasaur into not wanting to evolve. The series implies because of this, he and Squirtle took a pact not to do so and avoid becoming loose cannons like their former friend did., but it nonetheless made it clear that evolution is the Pokémon's choice and not just the trainers, and established that not evolving his team did have some benefits^note Chiefly that it made them more nimble and able to access more powerful moves early, even if they lacked the extra strength and durability of their evolved forms.. Even then, it at least had the majority of Ash's team either evolve^note Caterpie to Butterfree, Pidgeotto to Pidgeot, Charmander to Charizard, and Krabby to Kingler, be caught evolved, fully or otherwise^note Muk, Snorlax (retroactively after Munchlax was added), and his Shiny Noctowl, with even Pikachu qualifying (retroactively after Pichu was added, with a flashback episode showing its life as one), or be unable to evolve at all^note Tauros, Lapras, and Heracross. However, as Ash's teams diversified in later series, the bulk of them did fully evolve where possible, including his Hoenn / Battle Frontier team^note Taillow to Swellow, Treeko to Sceptile, Snorunt to Glalie, and Aipom to Ambipom (albeit after it was traded away to Dawn) (with the exception of Torkoal, which is incapable of evolving) and Sinnoh team^note Starly to Staraptor, Turtwig to Torterra, Chimchar to Infernape, and Gligar to Gliscor, with the only exceptions being for Rule of Funny (Corphish and Gible), and an implied reason it disliked its evolution (Buizel). Because of these new evolutions, it gave Ash access to more powerful teams with even more powerful moves, following up on his growth as a trainer. But once he hit Unova and Took a Level in Dumbass, the inability or unwillingness to evolve all of his team beyond their pre-evolution or first stage^note The sole exceptions being Pidove to Unfezant, Sewaddle to Leavanny, and Krokorok (which debuted as a wild Sandile but evolved before its capture) to Krookodile only served to make Ash seemingly handicap himself further. Eventually, the writers got the hint, and all of his Kalos, Alolan, and Journeys mons that could evolve all the way did, whether caught in unevolved forms^note Froakie to Greninja, Fletchling to Talonflame, Goomy to Goodra, and Noibat to Noivern in Kalos, Rockruff to Lycanroc, Litten to Incineroar, Poipole to Naganadel, and Meltan to Melmetal in Alola, and Riolu to Lucario and Farfetch'd to Sirfetch'd in Journeys or being fully evolved when he got them^note Dragonite (which debuted as a wild Dragonair but evolved before he caught it) and Gengar in Journeys, or being incapable of evolution entirely^note Hawlucha in Kalos and Dracovish in Journeys, with the sole exception being his Rowlet by justifying that he wanted to stay both to keep sleeping in Ash's backpack and because he swallowed an evolution-suppressing Everstone as a gizzard stone he deemed the best for using Seed Bomb with.
• The Rocket Prize Master, which served the purpose of temporarily giving the Team Rocket Trio very strong Pokemon that only existed as powerful enemies to be defeated now that Ash was the Alola Champion and would have a much easier time defeating other Pokemon the trio could catch, had its roots in the Battle Frontier arc when Jessie and James were mistakenly given a Charizard and an Aggron meant for Butch and Cassidy. Both of them solely existed as enemies that Ash and Brock had to defeat, just like all the Pokemon from the Rocket Prize Master, but as they left at the end of the same episode they were introduced in, Charizard and Aggron didn't overshadow the other Pokemon that the trio owned for long. By contrast, the Rocket Prize Master was used in several episodes, and with an entire catalog of Pokemon that wouldn't reappear after the episode they appeared in^note With the exception of a Chewtle that was acquired and added to the Rocket Prize Master, fans lamented that the now generic loaned Pokemon were being used in place of the trio actually catching new Pokemon who could properly be developed as characters like the ones they owned in previous series (and the one they did catch, Morpeko, quickly becoming The Scrappy among Team Rocket's Pokemon). The Aim To Be A Pokemon Master series of episodes would address this by finally allowing the Team Rocket Trio to add back all their previous Pokemon to their team instead.
• James' Morpeko has been widely disliked for constantly eating Team Rocket's food and making their lives miserable whenever it got hungry. The thing is, many of Team Rocket's other Pokémon (i.e. Victreebel, Cacnea, Carnivine, Mareanie) have tormented the trio before (mainly James), but their acts were overly-affectionate gestures made out of love towards their trainer, not selfishly chomping down their only means of survival because it doesn't care about anything other than satiating its own hunger. What's worse is that the aforementioned mons were shown to be loyal and competent (well, as competent as any Team Rocket Pokémon can be), whereas Morpeko rarely shows such care or skill.
• Chloe Cerise in Journeys has been criticized for taking far too long to find her goal, with some fans calling that quest itself a bad premise. However, two very well-received previous female protagonists, May and Serena, in Advanced Generation and XY respectively, also started out not knowing what they wanted to do either, they too would express uncertainty and get frustrated talking to others about it, sometimes annoying fans. Serena even talked about not being sure what to do at first when Chloe met her. May even wanted to do something different from her father, just like Chloe. The difference is, that both appeared in every episode of their series after they first appeared in them, meaning they could discover their passion quicker in real-life time and during the first half of their series, and their focus episodes before they discovered Contests and Showcases gave clues as to what they were going to do and often established characters that would later become important for what they later chose to pursue, making their "discovery quests" feel more eventful. Chloe does not appear in every episode, with multiple episodes and, thus, weeks separating her appearances, meaning she inherently moves at a slower pace, preventing Journeys from leaving a lot of hints as to what she'll do with how little time there is to develop her story. There's also not enough time for her to have recurring characters oriented for her, and the end of her story is her deciding what to pursue (which was becoming her father's assistant to become a researcher after all, thus subverting the archetype established by May and Serena in that she pursued what people thought she would at first all along. However, the series quickly pivoted her back into that area of interest in her final focus episode when she spent most of the series not wanting to do it, meaning she did not get the build-up that won May and Serena their fans, which is further hurt because Journeys explicitly compared her to Serena and gave them an episode together), and Chloe making her choice at the end of her series means we won't see her pursuing it as we did with the former two, and it makes her story seem unfinished compared to them even with the implication that she will excel at it.
  • Some also believed that Chloe's various activities were too insignificant to care about in the grand scheme of things, often just being her doing a little of something and gaining an appreciation of it. Lillie in Sun and Moon did the same thing; much of her presence in the second half of that series was her trying out new activities with her Vulpix and learning something from them, getting a massive amount of praise from the other characters for doing a little of them. However, Lillie being praised for small accomplishments was better justified, as she was established to be a sheltered and inexperienced child getting over both mommy and daddy issues and needing to take a first step in many things to become a capable person in the first place. Chloe, meanwhile, comes from a good home and just wants to learn about Eevee's evolutions, getting caught up in something concerning them. Lillie also had a more serialized arc in the beginning of Sun and Moon which was one of the main plot points, making her feel more important to the series in the first place, while Chloe is almost entirely in side-story episodes.
  • Speaking of Eevee, both the one belonging to Chloe, as well as Lana's own little Sandy, became very controversial catches since it was the respective fourth and third times in a row that one of Ash's female companions got ahold of one, following May and Serena. But going back to May first obtaining her own Eevee, fans were far more tolerant of the Evolution Pokémon since it gained a significant amount of Character Development, then returned with its owner to evolve into a Glaceon (the first time the species appeared in the anime in fact), tying into May's own growth as a Coordinator (not to mention Eevee was a very competent Badass Adorable battler both before and after it evolved). Serena's, meanwhile, received praise for taking the groundwork of May's Glaceon and building heavily onto Serena's own development, with her Eevee's subsequent growth and evolution into Sylveon becoming quintessential towards her trainer's prospective Performer Career. But when Sandy came around, it really didn't have any significant growth or development, aside from being subject to a Bait-and-Switch where it seemed like Ash was going to catch it, only for Lana to wind up taking possession (which proved divisive itself, since Ash never got a chance to own the other mascot of the franchise during his tenure). To the writers credit, they did try doing something with Chloe's Eevee in the two trying to decide what evolution to give her (in a mirror of Chloe's own indecisiveness), but the aforementioned issues with her story and the resulting ending in which the two decided just to wait made the development feel anticlimactic.
• Journeys ended up centering itself around Ash qualifying and preparing for the Masters' Tournament, which was a tournament of the eight best trainers in the world who are all very popular, well-known characters. But because of the sheer importance of the event, several sins of past tournaments showed up again but became more noticeable.
  • Many thought Ash facing Steven Stone in the first round was a missed opportunity for Ash, as Steven was the person in the tournament he knew far less than the rest, leaving many disappointed that he didn't face someone he knew better, especially since previous series' had somewhat promised eventual battles against Lance and rematches against Alain and Diantha, all three of which were in the tournament. However, this could be a successor to how in the first round of the climax tournament in Sun and Moon, Ash faced Faba, who he knew far less than other characters who lost in the first round, such as Ilima and Samson Oak. He even didn't have matches against any classmates, which the series somewhat hinted was coming. However, Faba, a former villain, was behind several challenges Ash had to partake in, so there was at least some sort of vengeance gained in his victory, and the first round in that tournament were short battles with just one Pokémon each that only lasted a couple of minutes each, so it wasn't looked to as a place to get important battles in. But the first round of the Masters' Tournament getting an episode dedicated to every battle made them very special, making them seem like more of a wasted opportunity.
  • By the time of the Masters' Tournament arc in Journeys, the anime rendition of Leon started to be criticized as just absurdly strong to the point where his seeming perfectionism made him boring, and while the anime did establish some character flaws for him, like being bad at directions and his friendships suffering from Chairman Rose's influence, they were not thought to be prominent enough to compensate for how invincible he seemed to be. The thing is, the anime has had two previous characters who were absurdly powerful in the tournament arcs: Tobias in Diamond and Pearl and Alain in XY, who both easily crushed everyone other than Ash and won the tournaments. Tobias had never lost a Pokémon before he lost two to Ash and won the tournament, but his tenure in the series was short enough that fans just didn't have to dwell on him for very long before moving on, and Ash losing was a tradition in the series at that point, so people could more easily accept that a character could be created just to fill that role, and Alain had numerous appearances, including four specials he starred in that had no Ash at all, before the league which established character flaws that were much more prevalent in the league tournament and the Villainous Team arc after that, making him appear less boring. He also had close battles in those specials, including a loss. Leon being present throughout Journeys meant that fans wouldn't quickly be rid of him, but he didn't appear so much that his flaws were apparent and he easily won every battle, unlike Alain, making him the worst of both worlds. Leon actually defeated Alain in the Masters' Tournament, including his own Charizard somewhat casually defeating Alain's Charizard, which many fans balked at how quickly it was done, since Alain's Charizard was the unbeatable mon of a previous series, occupying a role that Leon's Charizard now fills in Journeys, which was the final nail in the coffin to some people of Leon being too strong, since that was what Alain was previously established to be. However, unlike Tobias and Alain, Leon actually lost, with Ash finally managing to win in battle and prove Leon to not be so invincible after all. However, this led to the issue of some fans finding Ash's victory too implausible to buy because of how much Leon's image was built up, especially in conjunction with Ash's lack of onscreen training that occurred throughout Journeys.
  • Alain losing itself is this, as many secondary rivals have lost to the main rival in the climactic tournaments of previous series' without battling Ash in it, such as Barry losing to Paul in Diamond and Peal, Tierno losing to Sawyer and Trevor losing to Alain himself in XY, and Kiawe losing to Gladion in Sun and Moon. The difference is that Ash battled those rivals shortly before those tournaments, while he didn't ever battle Alain in Journeys, and none of those were ever the main rival like Alain was, making his treatment seem jarring to fans who had seen him as a main rival for a long time by that point. It doesn't help that fellow past main rivals Gary and Paul were not put in a similar situation, not being given the somewhat humiliating loss Alain had, making it seem like Alain was given the short stick compared to them. It also didn’t help that Ash had defeated all of the aforementioned rivals at least once before, but had never defeated Alain, and thus many fans would have preferred if they had a true final battle together.
  • One major gripe that fans had with the final match was the notable absence of all of Ash's traveling companions, with the sole exceptions of Dawn and Chloe, coming to watch the last biggest match of his tenure as the series lead. Ash not seeing his old companions for a long time is nothing new, since the series only featured one or two of them coming back for a brief time—this included Misty for four episodes in Advanced Generation, May for four episodes in Diamond and Pearl, and Dawn for eight episodes in Black and White—before the trend was dropped in X and Y. ^note Iris and Cilan would get follow up episodes focusing on their journeys after leaving Ash, but these were never aired outside of Japan. When Sun and Moon chose to bring back Ash's old companions, it was only Brock and Misty for four episodes across two arcs, but this could be forgiven since it was the 20th anniversary of the series. Despite some being disappointed in the lack of more reunions between Ash and his old friends, it was understandable that having them come back too often would have overshadowed his new ones. However, though Journeys did a lot of legwork in bringing back nearly everyone Ash had traveled with^note Dawn for two separate arcs, as well as The Arceus Chronicles, Iris for a single World Coronation Series episode and then for the first round of the Masters Eight, Clemont and Bonnie for a two-part WCS story, Serena for a single episode, most of the Alola Gang for a single episode, then a solo Sophocles episode, followed by an episode for Lillie and her family, then one more for the entire Alola Region, and Brock for The Arceus Chronicles., and helped to showcase their growth as characters since they left the group, Ash's reunions with some of them were either brief^note Such as Serena in her only episode, and Dawn in her first arc or nonexistent^note Misty, Tracey, May, Max, and Cilan, though the Hoenn companions at least could be understood since their Japanese voices retired.. But on account of this being Ash's final major arc before his departure, many were hoping that everyone could come watch his fight in person to cheer on the person they've come to known as a dear friend, only to be disappointed that Chloe and Dawn were the only ones that made it. The show did reveal why they couldn't make it and had to watch the match on tv^note Iris had just been eliminated from the tournament and went home, Misty and Clemont were busy with their gym duties, Max and Bonnie are still too young to travel on their own, the Alolan Gang had school, May and Serena were in the middle of a contest with Lisia, Brock and Cilan were busy with the former's doctoral duties along with Alexis, Goh had just been called away to go on his Project Mew Mission, and Tracey was tending to Ash's old Pokémon with Deliah and Professor Oak (the implication being it would have been too expensive to bring them over)., but the fact this wasn't just Ash's final bow, but nearly all of his friend's final episode as well (excepting Misty, Brock, Tracey, and Cilan), and with no sign that any of them may being making appearances in Pokémon Horizons: The Series, fans were disappointed they never had the chance to all be together.
• The XY group, and to a lesser extent the Alola classmates and Goh, are sometimes criticized as treating Ash as a Messianic Archetype, frequently praising him and supporting his every move to the point where the sole one that didn't, Chloe, greatly sticks out for ignoring him. This is in spite of the fact that Ash's dynamics with his friends had gotten progressively more positive from the original series to Diamond and Pearl, with May and especially Dawn having very close and supportive friendships with him. The main difference is that they were still somewhat prone to immature bickering at times, with Ash at the time still being somewhat hotheaded and stubborn, unlike the post-Sinnoh series where he's almost perpetually good-natured. As a result, his later group dynamics lose some of the nuances his older ones had and come across more like Ash's fans.
• The anime has always played fast and loose with adapting the plot of the games to the show, usually having them be background dressing to the character of the week filler shenanigans that make up the majority of most series. With Kanto through Sinnoh, this was relatively okay because the plots of those games were largely excuses for the player to level up their Pokémon along the way of the badge quest. However, it came to a head in the Pokémon Black and White adaption, as those games very explicitly don't have the usual Excuse Plot the series had prior, and are well regarded fan favorites because of it. This resulted in the anime trying to dodge the subject by having a sub-plot with Team Rocket, which got derailed due to one of the planned scenes uncomfortably resembling a real life earthquake that hit around the time, causing that plot to have be pulled as well. With nothing else to fall back on, the anime had to return to relying on character of the week filler, which is a major contributor to the series' low reputation, and many lamented the wasted potential the anime had in ignoring the plot of the games. However, the writers would go on to learn from this as, while the adaptions do deviate a bit from the source, the Alola and Galar plot adaptions would make a better effort in replicating the games' story beats.
• Many fans have lamented the major personality shifts Ash has gone through since Diamond and Pearl ended^note Black and White Ash is less intelligent and seemingly less experienced; XY Ash is very focused and cool, with his more whimsical attributes downplayed; Sun and Moon brings the whimsical aspects back in full force, made him even goofier than ever, and thus downplayed the previously noted slicker elements; Journeys was a bit of a two-fer, making him a bit more scatterbrained and energetic at the beginning, but shifting into a more focused Determinator persona by the time of the Masters Tournament, as many believe he had a natural progression from the beginning to Sinnoh only to be permanently thrown off his character arc in Unova. However, his personality really started to have noticeable sudden shifts as early as Advanced Generation, where he was both more aggressive than before and now able to coach the newbie May, which he was never depicted as good at before. However, these were comparatively smaller shifts than what happened later, as Ash's core philosophies and mannerisms were still mostly identical to what they were previously, so fans could interpret this as just the culmination of his experiences even without a story-based progression to his new traits. The end of AG then had Ash go through a series of humbling events which made him losing his aggressiveness in DP seem natural, avoiding the issue to most. Still, like before, there wasn't necessarily a story arc about him losing it — he simply lost these traits between the last episode of AG and the first episode of DP. DP continued to keep Ash's core philosophies and mannerisms similar to before and centered the story on him reinforcing those beliefs, allowing fans to easily justify the change again. However, with BW's Soft Reboot giving Ash very different priorities and very different interactions towards characters in similar situations, fans could not justify these sudden changes like they could in AG and to a lesser extent, DP.
• One of Goh's biggest criticisms is how he caught Pokemon by simply throwing Poke Balls at them, without weakening them first via combat. The thing is, Pokemon being caught without battles is something the anime had done from its very beginning, to the point that it was the rule rather than the exception: of the first six Pokemon Ash caught, only two were caught after being weakened in battle (Pidgeotto and Bulbasaur, and Bulbasaur had already agreed to join Ash and only requested the battle as one final test). However, of the other four Pokemon, two of them (Caterpie and Krabby) were noted to be weak enough that they could be caught without a battle to soften them up, and the other two (Charmander and Squirtle) agreed to join Ash after he befriended them, and indeed, both Ash and his traveling companions would go on to catch most of their Pokemon by befriending them rather than by fighting them. Goh, however, caught many Pokemon without neither fighting nor befriending them, which, while justified as Goh living up to his name as being a way to have the anime promote Pokémon GO (where these types of catches were commonplace), many fans found much less acceptable.
• One controversial aspect of Ash's Journeys arc was that he didn't bring his old Pokémon back to his team for any of his matches, even his legendary victory against Leon. Past series had gone out of their way to have Ash avoid bringing his old Pokémon back since Gen 3^note With the three noteworthy exceptions being the Kanto Battle Frontier arc, the Sinnoh League, and Charizard's stint on his team during the Team Plasma and Decolore Islands arcs of Black and White, with Ash explicitly leaving all of his old Mons at Professor Oak's lab^note Or Professor Kukui's house in the case of his Alola team due to Ash believing the island-based Pokemon of Alola would be homesick if they went to Kanto with him and taking just Pikachu (which, being the Series Mascot, likely gave it some leeway in still coming) with him. Old school fans would be disappointed about him not taking any of his old team with him, but at least it would allow for the newer team members from that generation to get focus without getting overshadowed by the old guard. With Journeys being Ash's final time in the lead, this trend of leaving his old teams at Oak's and not bringing any of them back reached its peak in that series, with none of them rejoining his team until after he beat Leon (and even then, those veterans were only used sparingly aside from one or two), it made their absence all the more noticeable.
• The final batch of episodes for Ash's journey as the lead protagonist, Aim To Be A Pokémon Master, was criticized by fans as being too open-ended a sendoff for the character, as it ends with him Walking the Earth, again being endlessly pursued by Team Rocket after their Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure is undone after two episodes, with Ash having not obtained his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master, but gaining an understanding of what it means to be one. Not only that, but the final eleven episodes were nothing but Filler that mostly focused on antics homaging The Original Series, with minimal reunions with older cast members or Ash's old Pokémon he brought back into rotation. With the last seven series, while fans certainly criticised their endings for not moving the plot along, it was still more tolerated for sticking to the formula because Ash was still the series lead, and these reunions had already been accomplished to certain extents in past series. This time, it was far less forgivable because this was Ash's final time as the lead, and since most series typically tend to give closure to their characters when they leave, leaving things too open ended and giving Ash no real accomplishment of his goal or wrapping up plot threads from previous series (i.e. giving his Pokémon one last chance to rejoin his team excepting Pidgeot, having his companions (excepting Lillie) not accomplish their major goals, him disbanding Team Rocket or even meeting his long-absent father) made the ending more disappointing.
  • It should be noted that Ash's departure isn't really that different from how his companions always exited. Almost none of them fully accomplished what they wanted, they just made strides, learned something, and parted ways with him to continue doing their thing, but solo. However, when you think about it, Ash left us just like his companions left him, on to continue his exploits but without us seeing them. However, fans could always hope they would one day return and fully realize their dreams, Journeys even did this with a couple of characters, notably Iris becoming a regional champion and Lillie finding her father, so fans had stopped worrying about the possibility of not getting any resolutions for a while, but Ash leaving and the anime moving on from him and his supporting cast meant fans could not believe they'd get an eventual resolution in the future like they could before (and got with the Journeys examples above), causing the ending to feel very empty for fans wanting everything resolved with there now being undeniably no chance that they'll see those resolutions.
• Team Rocket's Villain Decay into the infamous Goldfish Poop Gang they're widely known for resulted in fans being upset that when their tenure on the series ended, they decided to continue pursuing Pikachu rather than make a Heel–Face Turn and live happier, more fulfilling lives. But that decay into the incompetent goofballs they would be for much of the series actually started in the third episode, where they began taking on sillier aspects in contrast to their very first appearance just one episode earlier, depicting them as competent thieves and scary-serious bad guys. But back then, the decay actually made sense; their seeming inability to catch one Pikachu (which itself was enforced by Status Quo Is God since Ash losing his partner would have severely hurt the series' story) lent itself towards their downfall in the Team Rocket organization, being seen as so useless to Giovanni that he literally forgot they existed by the time of Diamond and Pearl. It was certainly not the most pleasant for the trio, as even series creator Takeshi Shudo quit in part because they had become so useless as foes, being little more than a pestering annoyance to Ash, but their hammy antics and the occasional Hidden Depths to their personalities helped them to keep relevant in the show (even beating out Misty in a poll to see who would stay on the series). Black and White's brief attempt at making them serious again didn't last, and XY and Sun and Moon would strike a middle ground that showed them as being goofy, yet occasionally a Not-So-Harmless Villain, but even then, the fact they still kept losing had grated itself on fans, and many wished they would just quit the gig to live happier lives (as shown in a many an episode that immediately has them go right back to being villains again). The fact that they left the series still at the game only just rubbed salt in the wound.
• Horizons became somewhat infamous for not letting Liko or Roy win many battles in its first year. But that isn't much different than the previous saga, as the series also rarely let Ash win in the first year of his tenure. However, there were mitigating circumstances back then that don't exist in Horizons:
  • While Ash scored more victories than Liko and Roy did, it still wasn't much (in the first 25 episodes of his series, Ash only won three battles against other trainers with no strings attached: against Giselle, Surge, and a nameless trainer at the start of Episode 8). However, some of the few wins Ash got still became iconic (like his rematch against Surge) while Liko and Roy don't have anything like that, and his better performance in later years makes it easier to watch the early defeats knowing it gets better for him, while it took until Episode 46 (aka two seasons of the show later) for Liko to get her first earned victory, while Roy has little to his name as of yet.
  • Another sticking point regarding Horizons revolves around Friede hogging the spotlight as the main battler compared to Liko and Roy, who have had very few victories compared to their mentor. The same could also be said for Ash in relation to his companions, as he would frequently garner more victories in battle against anyone who wasn't named Team Rocket compared to others, with even the most hardened of gym leaders who traveled with him being subject to The Worf Effect more often than not (and even against Team Rocket sometimes!). However, as hard of a pill as that was to swallow, it was more tolerable under Ash's tenure since he was the main character, and him growing into an experienced battler was precisely the point of his journey. Even when his companions did get tossed around by other opponents, they still had a decent share of victories between actual battling and non-battling efforts alike (such as May and Dawn's contests, or Serena's showcases). The problem is, Liko and Roy are supposed to be the series leads, and having made little progress towards earning more frequent victories or getting closer to a goal (or in Liko's case, finding one to accomplish) has proven very grating on fans who feel that Friede is getting too many victories as a supporting protagonist compared to the actual leads (at least so far).
  • Another point that ties to the previous two is that not only do Liko and Roy rarely win, but they also need to be saved by Friede pretty regularly and sometimes they aren't even allowed to fight on the basis that the enemy is too much for them, which feeds into the general feeling of them looking weak and incompetent while Friede is lionized. As mentioned above, Ash also tended to lose pretty often back then; however, most of Ash's serious battles were either against Gym Leaders or rivals, so losing only meant either a bruised ego and/or failing to advance in his badge quest. Liko and Roy, on the other hand, tend to get involved in more high stakes battles against (non-comedic) villains or dangerous Pokemon (including Legendaries), meaning that losing would have more serious consequences than in Ash's case, so they have to be saved by someone or kept away from battles they have little chance to win. In fact, the first time the two go toe-to-toe with a pair of the Explorer's most dangerous admins, the two of them get bested very handily by the bad guys, and would have lost right then and there had Sidian not needed to take a phone call.

Games

General

• The first Pokémon games are the least-balanced in terms of competitive play in the entire series (Mewtwo had no counters, Psychic and Normal types were hilariously overpowered, and 90% of Pokémon were overshadowed or useless). This was seen as alright because competitive battling and balance weren't important considerations - most of the fanbase were too young to care, and the competitive scene wasn't large at all. Decades later, Game Freak made clear efforts with Competitive Balance in mind (nerfing some types or moves and buffing others, for instance) and hundreds of major tournaments have taken place. Despite this, Power Creep, and Purposefully Overpowered Pokémon led to multiple major tournaments seeing their top rankings being stormed by near-identical teams.
• Since around Gen V, Game Freak has been making efforts to simplify the games and make them more friendly to new players. Initially, this was firmly welcomed as removing Scrappy Mechanics and quality-of-life improvements ^note  gutting and eventually removing HMs, making EV training and breeding easier, and making TMs either infinitely reusable or infinitely obtainable. However, this also included many things that made already-easy games significantly easier, such as boosting the EXP Share into a Game-Breaker or providing severely overpowered Pokémon for free, making it hard to get any kind of challenge out of the game unless one swore off those features entirely. One of the most infamous cases was the lack of the Battle Frontier in ORAS and BDSP, not including what had been one of the main selling points of both Emerald and Platinum. Worsening the problem was that B2W2 had been the first games to allow selectable difficulty, which would have been a perfectly fine compromise, yet this feature wasn't in any of the following games. Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! pushed this much further into the mainstream, when in the name of being a Gateway Series for Go fans, removed tons of features that'd been part of the series for decades and turned the difficulty down even further, creating a massive Old Guard Versus New Blood rivalry that left the old guard with a game that felt braindead and patronizing.
  • Game Freak is often accused simplifying later games for newer players by increasing the amount of forced tutorials and hand-holding. As early back as Gen II, the player will be asked a yes/no question about basic mechanics and be forced to sit through a lengthy tutorial/explanation even if they answer "No", or be stopped by various characters so they can explain things that most players would have no problem figuring out on their own. However, a lot of fans only started taking issue with the tutorials and hand-holding when they reached their peak in Gen VII, which has characters stop the player on nearly every route and city (like Lillie stopping you to explain how to jump off ledges, a process that only requires you to walk toward a ledge and watch the game make you jump automatically) and never letting them be alone for too long.
• Pokémon fans have had to deal with the loss of old features since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire with the removal of the day-night cycle, ability to revisit older regions, or ability to transfer from older games. But the latter was mainly due to hardware issues, and by the time Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were released, every feature except for revisiting regions had been reintroduced and all Pokémon were once again available, along with several new features. Beginning with Generation V and throughout the 3D era, however, Game Freak began to drop well-loved features from one game to the next, while introducing new gimmicks ostensibly to make the games more distinct. This left many new mechanics feeling poorly designed or unbalanced (like the Game-Breaker-laden Mega Evolutions), while old mechanics that felt generic enough that they could fit in any game (like follower Pokémon, difficulty selection, or the Battle Frontier) found themselves abandoned for no clear reason. Things finally hit critical mass with Pokémon Sword and Shield, when it came to light during E3 2019 that not only were Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves outright replaced with Dynamaxing (which largely accomplished the same things as its predecessors), but that Game Freak was excluding Pokémon by prohibiting players from transferring any Pokémon not found in the Galar Pokédex. Cutting mechanics was annoying, but generally acceptable as long as the replacement was unique and strategic in its own right; not including a wide variety of mons, each with its own heavily devoted fanbase, was crossing a line for many.
• The games had never been groundbreaking in terms of programming and graphical capabilities. For most of their history, this wasn't much of an issue due to being on portable platforms. Problems occasionally cropped up, like the conspicuous lag in the DS games when calculating damage, but it was the sort of thing you'd only really notice once you cracked the code open. By the 3DS days, though, the increasingly good hardware made their barebones animations, dated graphics, and chugging framerates increasingly difficult to excuse. With the release of the Let's Go games for the Switch, Game Freak found itself sharing a platform with games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, yet still had rudimentary animations that felt at home in Pokémon Stadium. This only got worse with Sword and Shield, since one of the main reasons Game Freak gave for not including all of the available Pokémon in the Pokédex was to concentrate more on models and animations for the Pokémon that appeared. However, many of the "new" models and animations were re-used from previous games, or were so similar that there was no noticeable improvement.
• While modern 3D Pokémon games are infamous for having the Mons rooted to the spot even when attacking, earlier 3D games did so as well even as early as the Stadium games. However, those earlier games masked it better through clever use of switching camera angles and more expressive attacking animations that did a better job of portraying the impact of the attacks. In modern games, the fixed camera angles make it very obvious that the Pokémon are hardly making contact even when they're supposedly biting or punching each other - especially when said bite or punch involves the attacker using a generic attack animation, or none at all, while a PNG of a fist, foot, or teeth appear on the enemy.
• A common complaint about the newer games is that the developers aren't being given enough time to polish the games, citing the removal of many Pokémon beginning with Sword and Shield and the technical state of Scarlet and Violet as evidence that the current model of releasing a new generation of games every three years needs to change. However, the main series Pokémon games have always adhered to strict deadlines; a new generation has been released every three years since 1996, with the only exceptions being the fourth and fifth. However, the three-year cycle wasn't seen as a problem for several generations; the games were released on portable platforms with limited hardware, which allowed the developers to be ambitious while still keeping within a realistic deadline. By the time of the 3DS and X and Y, however, the three-year cycle started showing signs of being unsustainable, with the Video Game 3D Leap and progressively powerful hardware putting a strain on the developers' efforts to release high-quality products within an increasingly-oppressive deadline. It's quite telling that, even before Sword and Shield's "Dexit" controversy, the developers barely had enough time to include every possible Pokémon in Sun and Moon.

Generation I

• A common criticism of later installments is the lack of post-game content other than a side quest or two involving revisited areas, a handful of new areas, some more Pokémon, and a buffed Elite Four. This was present in Pokémon Red and Blue, where there wasn't a post-game at all other than Cerulean Cave, which only had Mewtwo, and Pokémon Gold and Silver, where despite being able to go to Kanto, a lot of it is cut down compared to Gen I. This was excused since it was the first in the series and, in Gen II's case, had to undergo a lot of compression in order to fit the cartridges.
• Some Pokémon are required to be traded to other players in order to evolve. Intended to encourage you to go out and talk and collaborate with your friends, yes, but this unfortunately is easier or harder depending on where you live. If you don't have any friends who play Pokémon, you'll need to get another console and another game just to get them. While this concept was around since Gen I, there were only four Pokémon who evolved this way (and most of them, particularly Alakazam and Gengar, were really good Pokémon even if stuck in their second stage). Later generations began adding not only more Pokémon who evolve this way, but more prerequisites for such evolutions, such as holding a specific item while being traded to evolve. An infamous example is Porygon who had an item-attached trade evolution in Gen II, which itself got an item-attached trade evolution in Gen IV!
  Although the GTS (first introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) in theory makes getting Pokémon such as Alakazam a non-issue (if you're not concerned about obedience), there's no guarantee that say, a Porygon2 received on the GTS will be holding a Dubious Disc, making these even more frustrating to obtain. There is also little to no enforcement of any rules over the GTS, so it isn't unheard of to find Pokémon traded with Everstones ^note Ain't No Rule against that, with the official games seeming to endorse this practice via an NPC who trades a Haunter with an Everstone in the Gen IV games specifically to Troll players.
• The sheer amounts of extra transactions that need to be made in order to "Catch 'em all" or keep one's collection. In Generations I-II, you only needed a Link Cable (which was sold separately) so people did not mind and viewed it as a necessary evil. However, in Gen III, you needed a GameCube, a GameCube adapter, and a side game (Pokémon Colosseum). By the later gens, you needed to install apps and/or pay subscriptions for services like HOME and players became quite frustrated.
• Mew was the first Mythical Pokémon only available for a limited time, often during one-off real-life events. Using real-life events to distribute Mew was necessary because it wasn't originally intended to be in the game at all, and was only slipped into a vacant data slot at the last moment. Each new generation of games introduced at least one new Mythical Pokémon, all of whom were planned to appear from the beginning, so unlike Mew, the difficulty in obtaining these Pokémon is arbitrary. In many ways, Mew and its successors were a frightening precursor to the dreaded practice of "on-disk DLC".
  • Because Wi-Fi didn't exist yet, going to a physical location was the only legitimate way of getting Mew. Over twenty years later, one-time in-person events still persist, which are inaccessible to many fans, especially younger ones, due to location or lack of transport. Digital distribution is much more common these days, but these events are still typically open for a limited time only and never return.
  • In earlier games, catching a Mythical involved some small sidequest being triggered by an item given by the event. Starting with Pokémon X and Y, however, Mythicals are distributed with no in-game event at all (and Pokémon Black and White only had one for Victini). Not only is there no skill in getting them as with Legendary Pokémon, but players often can't use them in a main playthrough due to coming at a high level in addition to having a different OT. Owing to their banned status in postgame facilities, these Mythicals often gather dust as glorified trophies, destroying their intended mystique. This whole thing, though, started with Mew: Mew was given to players directly, often with a set OT and ID number.
  • Mew was considered "mythical" because in the earliest days, particularly in Japan, those rumors (spurred on by Good Bad Bugs that made it possible to catch) were the only indication that Mew existed. The idea of a hidden, ultra-powerful monster gave it a sense of mystique and uncertainty—making its big-screen debut feel like a real event. Future mythicals were given tons of marketing and showed up regularly, sometimes even being among the earliest Pokémon revealed for the new generation, making them not mysterious at all. The only exception to this was Meltan, which was teased in Pokémon GO at the end of a monthly Community Day event when most players would be out and about, appearing in large numbers for a while but always turning out to be a disguised Ditto after catching. Only after letting the fandom speculate and argue about whether it was real or some sort of glitch for a few days did the reveal trailer get dropped.
• In the first generation, a noticeable problem with later trainers was "running out" of Pokémon that could fit their supposed type. This resulted in a number of later Gym Leaders and Elite Four either running multiples of the same family, or unrelated Pokémon that vaguely fit their theme—Agatha, for example, is a Ghost specialist who runs three members of the Gastly line and two random Poison-types (which has the justification that Gastly's line are also Poison types, so her whole team was consistent on that front). Though often mocked, it was also generally accepted that they couldn't have done much else; with fifteen types and only 83 unique families to work with, some types were invariably going to draw the short straw. By the time of the third generation, the dex had filled out enough that this was mostly a thing of the past, barring some occasional repeat-heavy teams. However, Diamond and Pearl decided to bring back the idea of a 151-member regional Pokédex (to the point that it didn't even include the new evolutions introduced that generation), which resulted, predictably, in the exact same problem happening again—the last two Gym Leaders and three of the Elite Four break their stated focus, with Flint, notoriously, having the majority of his team not fit. This proved a subject of far more derision because unlike in Generation I, this problem was entirely an unforced error; they could have added more Pokémon to the regional 'dex to solve this issue, rather than leaving them Dummied Out or stuck in the postgame (much of the reason Platinum is still considered the definitive version of the Gen IV games is that it does exactly this), and simply chose not to.
• The Japanese Blue version and the later Yellow version marked the start of releasing an upgraded and improved version of the previous two games, often with an altered story focusing on a new cover Pokémon. Though liked at the time, it didn't escape people's notice that this rendered a generation's first pair of games redundant "beta versions" for the perceived "true" experience (which even averted One Game for the Price of Two).^note This became very obvious with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which had numerous bugs, a poorly-paced story, and questionable game design; all issues mostly fixed with the Platinum version, but would eventually resurface in remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (which were largely based on the original Diamond and Pearl). Pokémon X and Y were also designed as such, but without any Updated Re-release version to solve their own issues. When Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon brought the concept back after a nine-year absence, criticism for being largely the same as the games released only one year prior was even greater, as fans had since become more accustomed to sequels and remakes of older games filling that slot. The rise of online services and other games receiving digital patches and Downloadable Content to fix bugs and add more story, as opposed to releasing a new product for full price, didn't help their case; and while Game Freak would go this route with Pokémon Sword and Shield instead of making separate games, the pricing and decision to split the Expansion Pass into separate versions like the games themselves (meaning players who had both games had to purchase the DLC separately for each) meant that players still found umbrage with it.
• One common visual gripe people have with Sword and Shield is the poor scaling of Pokémon when they are in battle. While this technically started in the 3DS games, since they were the ones to start using 3D models during battle, the Game Boy games also did not scale them correctly. It was much more understandable back then as the real estate on the screen was far less plentiful, and the camera didn't change wildly like it eventually would. But side games like Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Battle Revolution showed that there would come a point at which the games would no longer need to keep this perspective, and yet the main series kept doing so. Though given a pass on the Gen 3 games, Diamond and Pearl drew some criticism for it, which was explicitly to emulate the look of the original games, despite the transition to and capability of 3D: this continued into Gen 5, which slightly panned the camera depending on what was happening on the screen to better simulate depth. X and Y is where it started becoming a problem: the games largely retained the original look despite Pokémon now using 3D models in battle, especially when the camera became much more dynamic (though far from the extent it was in Colosseum and Battle Revolution), and Sun and Moon only made it more noticeable by making the camera even more dynamic and having the trainers visible alongside their Pokémon. Sword and Shield was when fans decided it was completely ridiculous, not only because those games could be played on a much bigger screen, but also because overworld Pokémon are scaled properly, and these games had Pokémon growing big as their main gimmick. What's even more baffling is that the Let's Go! games did scale them properly during battle, showing it was possible even while largely retaining the camera perspective of the original games.
• After noticing Eevee's popularity, Game Freak tried to capitalize on it by giving it more focus in a very transparent attempt to turn it into a secondary mascot (such as giving it a unique Z-Move in Pokémon Sun and Moon, being one of the two starters in Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! and giving it a Gigantamax form in Pokémon Sword and Shield).^note Two particular Eevee in the anime were also based on the Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee concept, with Lana's in Sun and Moon, nicknamed Sandy, promoting the partner Pokémon's custom hairstyles, while Chloe's in Journeys was an outright Expy of the partner Eevee due to its inability to evolve This move has been met with some contention from part of the fanbase, since it came at the cost of downplaying or snubbing its many evolutions (Many people were disappointed when Sword and Shield broke the tradition of even generations introducing at least one new evolution for Eevee for the sake of giving it the aforementioned Gigantamax form instead, while the Partner Eevee from Let's Go, Eevee! can't evolve at all. It doesn't help that while any new evolution will always be carried over to future instalments, those gimmicks are exclusive to the generations that introduced them). This is something that existed since the very beginning with the franchise's mascot, Pikachu, whose popularity (thanks to Pokémon: The Series) also comes at the expense of its evolution Raichu being often snubbed or ignored. The difference, however, is that while Pikachu's popularity came entirely from itself, Eevee's initial popularity came from its evolutions to begin with; Eevee was the Pokémon that introduced the concept of divergent evolution, and even if other Pokémon with divergent evolutions were introduced in later generations, Eevee was still the Pokémon with the biggest number of alternate evolutions. And thus, many people feel that Game Freak is downplaying what makes Eevee unique and popular to begin with for the sake of turning it into a generic cutemon.
• The Pokémon games during the 3DS era were roundly criticized for villain team plots stealing the spotlight from the player's quest To Be a Master; said villain plots being referred to as "intrusive distractions". But the villain plots were "distractions" all the way back in Pokémon Red and Blue. Team Rocket's role in the game was A: blocking the way to Bill, B: keeping the item needed to wake Snorlax under lock and key by holding its giver, Mr. Fuji hostage, and C: closing off Sabrina's Gym with their activities in Saffron City. The only connection that the 8th Gym had to the villain plot was Giovanni trying to rebuild Team Rocket through the Gym; aside from that reference, the encounter was just another Gym battle.
  What prevented Giovanni from stealing the story spotlight was his playing for smaller stakes: He wasn't trying to usurp society, just control it; acting in subtle ways and away from the action (until you brought it to him).^note His successor, Archer, also played for small stakes, albeit a bit more overtly. Conversely, Blue's^note and Silver's Jerkass nature kept your journey in perspective: your goal was to beat the Elite Four, not save the world. The fact that Blue was the Final Boss of Gen I^note Mewtwo notwithstanding and Giovanni was merely the 8th Gym Leader cemented this.^note Similarly, Archer was dealt with before Blackthorne, though a You No Take Candle-speaking Team Rocket member was seen in Kanto separately from his organization, while Silver stayed in your path until mid-Kanto.
  That changed with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Starting there, the Villainous Teams, who now actively incorporated the Olympus Mons of the game into their plan^note While Team Rocket never pursued Legendaries in their source game, their anime and Pokémon Adventures depictions were famously revealed to have taken part in Mewtwo's creation, retroactively bringing the group more in line with the evil teams of subsequent games with Giovanni being the leader of Team Rainbow Rocket and having a Mega Mewtwo on his team, were out to destroy the world, making it your duty to stop them. In this case, though, the Team Leaders were fanatical zealots who did not understand what they were unleashing until it was unleashed, allowing them to retain some sympathy and, thus, not be the overall goal. And while the 8th Gym was blocked until the Villain Team Plot was dealt with, the bridge-repair was thematically related to the Team Plot, so it could still be seen as a required step to the League.
  Cyrus, by contrast, was unapologetic and the blackout at Sunyshore was entirely unrelated to the Team Galactic plot. As a "bonus", having to beat the 7th Gym to get the HM required to trigger the last Event Flag enroute to the climax broke the flow of the Team Galactic plot. In effect, Diamond & Pearl was the point at which the League Quest and the Villain Team Plot got in each other's way; the steep level curve and long routes of Sinnoh not helping matters.
  One reason why Pokémon Black and White's plot was well-received was because it united the League and villain plots. Granted, this relegated Alder to Post-End Game Content, but, for the first time in the core series, your office as "protector of the region" dovetailed with your vocation because it was your vocation that was in danger. Unfortunately, this reimagining of the villain plots led to Gens VI and VII making the villain plots the main story, with battling the Elite Four being a mere afterthought.
• Gen IX was criticised for having houses that one could not enter and thus making the towns and cities feel rather closed off. A common method to save programming space which actually dates back to as far as Gen I - wherein you could walk into a city and find loads of buildings that didn't even have doors (Saffron and Celadon being the biggest offenders). Gen IX was also criticised as having ghost towns because of how small the cities were - also criticisms that could be levied against every other generation. Some generations were able to get by this by implying you were only going to certain parts of cities (such as Black and White or even X and Y).
• One thing that BDSP faced criticism for is simply handing you a Mew and/or Jirachi for having save data for other Generation 8 games on the Switch, which was another case of "hand-holding" that the modern games are often criticized for. However, a few other past games have allowed other Legendaries to be Disc-One Nukes, including the Generation I games with the Bird trio, the Gen II games with the roaming Legendaries, and ORAS giving you one of the Eon duo as a midgame event. What separated these examples was that they still took some effort to get - you had to go out of your way to catch the Birds, which made them more a case of rewarding exploration in already open-ended games, and the Roaming Legendaries were such a pain in the ass to catch that no sane player would get one early without insane luck. In ORAS, you had a scripted Team Magma fight before meeting the Legendary, and it would take a bit of work to add to your team since it joined in the midgame and was slightly under leveled. The BDSP Mythicals were so powerful, joined so early, and were so easy to add to teams by comparison that all sense of actually earning such power is lost. That you needed to buy other Pokémon games to get the Pokémon also left a sour taste in fans' mouths after the several unsavory business decisions Game Freak and TCP had been making around that time.

Generation II

• Gen II started the trend of other "gimmicky" evolution methods such as a Pokémon needing high enough happiness, Pokémon only evolving depending on the time of day, and a Pokémon that required an additional Pokémon present in the party to evolve. While they're not too obtuse in Gold & Silver, these evolution methods would grow only more unintuitive as the series continued.
• Many of the new Pokémon added in Gold and Silver were easily missed due to their means of obtaining them—usually, they either were one of the aforementioned gimmicky evolutions, had very low encounter rates, or could only be encountered at special times or in specific locations, and many of them did not have the power to make up for it. Furthermore, a large amount of focus was put on the old ones from Generation I, which made the roster as a whole feel less like a new generation and more like Gen I with a bit more variety and extra hidden content.^note For instance, four of the Johto Gym Leaders do not use any Generation II Pokémon, even though there were certainly ones they could have been given, and the other four use only one apiece—the Kanto Gym Leaders make more use of Johto Pokémon. The Elite Four are better about this but still have the Champion, Lance, with a purely-Gen 1 team. Additionally, several major plot points and areas, like the Sprout Tower, the Slowpoke Well, and the Lake of Rage, are dedicated to Gen 1 Pokémon. This wasn't a problem at the time because the new Pokémon only had one generation to compete with and still made up a reasonable percentage of the total available, so they still managed to be memorable. Pokémon X and Y introduced even fewer new Pokémon than Gold and Silver did and had a heavy focus on Pokémon from all of the previous games, but the sheer number of Pokémon made the new ones barely stand out. In fact, a significant portion of the retroactive Hype Backlash is due to Gen VI reminding fans that Gen II had this issue as well.
• The ongoing trend of Pika-clones ^note Ridiculously Cute Electric-type Pokémon with a rodent-like appearance, meant to be Expies of Series Mascot Pikachu has been something of a sore spot among fans for a while. It started back in Pokémon Gold and Silver with Pichu and Marill, neither of which stirred up much fuss; Marill was a Water-type that happened to bear a vague resemblance to Pikachu (hence the incredibly pervasive Pikablu Urban Legend of Zelda), while Pichu was legitimately related to Pikachu, being its newly-introduced baby form. Subsequent generations would try to make later clones more like Ash's Pikachu via having each later introduction be of single stage Pokémon incapable of evolution (contrasting Pikachu being from a multi-stage family and choosing not to evolve). Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire brought in Plusle and Minun, a pair of Electric rabbits that borrowed a few elements from Pikachu's design, namely the cheek circles and unusual tail shape; despite not being all that useful in battle, they didn't ruffle too many feathers due to being designed around then-new Double Battles, as well as putting their own spin on Pikachu's design. Then the series kept introducing them: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl introduced Pachirisu, Pokémon Black and White followed up with Emolga, and Pokémon X and Y added Dedenne, all of which had little to visually or functionally distinguish themselves from Pikachu and seemed to be there just for marketing. Dedenne in particular was criticized for occupying a slot in what was already the smallest batch of Pokémon introduced in any generation, and the decision to make it part-Fairy was a less-than-stellar move for the reputation of the new type^note Pachirisu also started a trend in which a Pika-clone would be a recurring character in the anime, usually a Pokémon that a main character has caught; Dawn and Iris catch Pachirisu and Emolga in the middle of the Sinnoh and Unova arcs, Dedenne is caught by Clemont for Bonnie very early into Kalos, Togedemaru is owned by Sophocles prior to the first episode in Alola, and a recurring Morpeko is later caught by James in the Journeys series. Pokémon Sun and Moon does have a "true" Pika-clone, Togedemaru, but also introduced Mimikyu, whose entire premise is a parody of the Pika-clone, simultaneously mocking the phenomenon of making a shameless attempt to recapture Pikachu's popularity and making it an Ensemble Dark Horse. Pokémon Sword and Shield introduced Morpeko and makes it the primary Pokémon of one of your rivals, but since the fanbase at large was embroiled in several debates regarding the game at large this drew next to no reaction. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet added Pawmi as its Pika-clone, but in a move to differentiate it from its brethren, unprecedented since Pikachu itself, made it capable of evolving into Pawmo and Pawmot.
• Weather-based teams weren't very popular initially because altering weather would only last five turns, and the effects were rarely worth the time spent setting up. Then Gen III introduced Abilities like Drought and Drizzle that caused permanent weather effects, along with others like Swift Swim that doubled certain stats in certain weather conditions. However, Drought/Drizzle were exclusive to two Legendary Pokémon that were banned in most forms of competitive play, and sandstorms and hail were still hard to use. As time went on and more Pokémon, Abilities and items that took advantage of weather appeared, the Gen V metagame became dominated by weather teams and a few large Pokémon communities placed bans on certain Pokémon and combinations, if not banning weather/inducing abilities outright. Game Freak nerfed weather abilities themselves in Gen VI by limiting ability-caused weather to five turns, as a weather-altering move would do, and though Primal Kyogre/Groudon and Mega Rayquaza have permanent weather abilities, they only last as long as they're on the field. History may be repeating itself in regards to terrains (a field effect introduced in Gen VI), but thankfully none of them are permanent.
• Super Rod only being available post-game. Not so bad in Gen II due to a large selection of Water Pokémon and you still can get Old/Good Rods. From Gen IV onwards this is justified that Super Rod is used to fish for Mons not native to the region, but at least lesser fishing rods can still be obtained beforehand. It wasn't until Gen V that fishing is outright off-limits until you defeat the Elite Four, not helped by the fact that Water Pokémon are a minority in Unova. Those who wanted to use Water-types there but hate the Oshawott line will not be pleased.
• By Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, some fans complained about caves requiring Rock Smash to get through or to access good items, but continuing to block the player's path with mandatory rocks instead of placing one rock in front of the entrance or way to the good items and placing all others out of the player's way. The argument is that having the player use Rock Smash over and over again wastes their time and doesn't add any actual challenge. This all started with Rock Smash's debut in Gold, Silver, and Crystal with places like Dark Cave, but it was more forgivable back then because Rock Smash wasn't required to beat the game, and the rocks were still placed sparingly and were a method of obtaining some wild Pokémon, whereas Diamond/Pearl/Platinum not only axed the chance of encountering wild Pokémon by smashing rocks, but used them as obstacles abundantly, with a Luck Incense in the northern part of Ravaged Path being trapped behind six smashable rocks all clumped together when the water the player needs to Surf across to get there is already blocked off by a rock, as one example. This has since been averted by Generations V and VI drastically reducing the number of times the player has to use HMs in general, and then by axing the HM mechanic entirely from Gen VII onwards.
• Some even argue the addition of Kanto for this region count as this. Not just due to the Kanto pandering (see General), but also because it caused a Tough Act to Follow. Players have been asking for Pokémon games to have a whole second region with another set of badges since this game, even when the region(s) of those games are actually larger and contain multiple optional areas to explore.
• A criticism of Gens 6-8 is that the box legendary is "handed" to the player. That is, the encounter is mandatory whereas Pokémon Red and Blue required you to actively seek out any of its Olympus Mons as they were treated as "Secrets". While Gen IV made the box legendary easier to capture, Gen V and beyond made capturing them mandatory, it was actually Gen II that begun the tradition with Crystal, where fighting Suicune is made part of the story. Players were just more forgiving since Suicune was otherwise a pain to catch, and doing so still wasn't necessary. This is also on top of the issues inherent with Mythical Pokémon as a whole. Gen IX took steps to address this issue; while the player does befriend Koraidon or Miraidon early into the story, they are too weak to fight and act exclusively as a mode of transportation for the majority of the game. They only regain their full strength and become usable in battle right at the end, making their "capture" feel more earned.
• Later generations of Pokémon are sometimes criticized for feeling more like low-effort tools to promote other aspects of the franchise, like the anime, card games, and merchandise, than artistic endeavors in their own right. In truth, shades of this were visible even back in Gen II; Word of God has it that most of the Johto Pokémon were intentionally given simpler, less busy designs to make them easier for the show to animate. This was overlooked at the time since most of the new Pokémon were still solid visually, and the games themselves remained complete, satisfying experiences. The cracks started to show once Game Freak transitioned the series into full 3D, where the games grew more unpolished and the Pokémon more toyetic. Things came to a head when Gen VIII featured extremely simplistic, almost Puni Plush designs for many of the new Pokémon that feel tailor-made for stuffed toys, prevented players from transferring in any Pokémon not in the Galar Pokédex, boasted rather poor graphics for the time and hardware, and featured a region that was overall criticized as shallow and lacking in development — all of which made it come off as more of a corporate product than any generation before it.

Generation III

• Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are often criticized for not really changing anything from the basic story of the original Ruby and Sapphire, yet the same can be said for the previous two remakes FireRed/LeafGreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver; despite having numerous additions to and differences from the originals, their basic plots remained the same. What made ORAS different is that it promised that the story would be re-imagined, making this much harder to ignore.
• The Hoenn and Sinnoh remakes were also criticized for not including much content from Emerald and Platinum respectively, in contrast to the Gen 2 remakes working in Crystal's additions. The Gen 1 remakes didn't have anything from the Japanese Blue or Yellow, but Blue's changes amounted to updated graphics (that international players got from the start) and shifting wild Pokémon around, and all of the extra content in Yellow was anime-related, so no one really cared.
• Wally, while popular and loved by the fanbase, and Professor Birch's child (whether Brendan or May) were the first attempts to make Friendly Rival characters for the protagonist, and in the case of Birch's child the first to struggle with inadequacy in the face of repeated losses. This was shrugged off at the time, because it was a change of pace, but became a trend with future rivals in the franchise, something that those who miss how antagonistic Blue and Silver were have lamented.^note This is also rooted in Japanese culture, those same arrogant traits that defined Blue and Silver are even more hated in Japan than in America, making the friendly rivals far more favorable over there. Gladion of Sun and Moon was a jerk, and a member of Team Skull, but not in the same class as Blue and Silver. Ultimately, Bede in Sword and Shield is the first true jerk rival in the series since Silver, a return to form in what was otherwise a controversial game.
• Fire-types are scarce in Hoenn quantity and quality-wise, but due to an area dedicated almost entirely to Fire-types and a Fire-type specialist being placed relatively early in the game, this is often looked over. Sinnoh's Fire-type specialist, on the other hand is an Elite Four, who is expected to have strong various Pokémon of his type specialty, but doesn't do so since Diamond and Pearl have only two fully evolved Fire-types in the main story, and he doesn’t use repeats of either of the two lines to soften the issue unlike other type experts facing shortages, making the problem more noticeable. Thankfully, Platinum fixed this problem by providing more Fire types in the game.
• Jirachi is the first Mythical Pokémon that has neither an in-game place to capture it, nor anywhere that has lore connecting to it. Though it was an outlier in Mythical Pokémon significance back then, the Mythicals of Gens V, VI, VII (especially), and VIII are similar direct downloads with no significance in the world of their debut games, only now the fandom criticizes them for it.
• The Fire/Fighting type combination is loathed by much of the fanbase due to it being applied to three consecutive Fire-type starters from Generations III-V. The first such Pokémon, Blaziken, was (and still is) well-liked and considered a good Pokémon, as was Infernape. The inclusion of this typing was also somewhat justified by the first Gym of both Generations III and IV, a Rock-type Gym, having a distinct advantage against Fire-types, which the Fighting type corrected. Emboar, however, is when fans began to get sick of the repetitive typing of Fire starters compared to their more varied Grass and Water compatriots, not helped by Emboar being seen as mediocre by comparison and the Fighting-type not having an advantage against the first Gym this time (it being either Grass, Fire, or Water depending on your starter).
  While there was a good break with Delphox being a Fire/Psychic type, the fanbase had a collective meltdown when Litten's final evolution, Incineroar, was revealed to be bipedal, with a design based off of heel wrestlers instead of being more lion/cat-like like its prior evolution, Torracat. Cinderace didn't get off any better, as despite being based on a soccer/football player in a line that stays bipedal throughout, it's still the most humanoid of its line by far. This and the fact that Incineroar and Cinderace learn many Fighting-type moves despite being, respectively, a Fire/Dark type and a pure Fire-type, led to many calling them Fire/Fighting types in all but actual typing. Skeledirge finally broke the trend as a fully evolved fire starter that was not only Fire/Ghost, but a quadruped.
• The overall bipedal nature fans associate with the Fire/Fighting combo in starters may come from the fact that Blaziken and Infernape were bipedal^note Charizard and Typhlosion were also mostly bipedal, but Charizard, being a dragon, flew more than it walked, and Typhlosion, as a badger, could alternate between biped and quadruped. However, Blaziken was a bird, and Infernape was a primate, both of which have bipedalism that is easier to justify. Emboar, Delphox, Incineroar, and Cinderace, respectively a pig, a fox, a cat, and a rabbit, not so much. While the Fire starters' final evolutions from Delphox onward are not Fire/Fighting, complaints about starters in general evolving into humanoids have become more common thanks to Greninja and Chesnaught clearly being a ninja and knight respectively, Decidueye being an archer,^note Primarina also goes into a bipedal stance for some moves, but is mostly seen on four feet, although there are people who think it counts thanks to said bipedal stance and being based on sirens, and Inteleon and Rillaboom being a spy and drummer respectively. As Blaziken, Infernape, and Emboar's competition were more animalistic even if they were bipedal (e.g., Sceptile), fans did not accuse Grass/Water starters of being humanoid back then.
• One of the most infamous criticisms of Black and White is that it only allowed access to Unova Pokémon until the post-game. This is much like how Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen only allowed access to Kanto Pokémon; however, those games went even further in their Dex restriction by not allowing new Pokémon to be traded or evolved into the game until a point very late into the post-game. While still regarded as a poor decision that was ditched in later remakes, it isn't criticized as heavily as the Unova Dex because of the prevalence of First Installment Wins sentiments in the Pokémon fandom and the iconic popularity of many of the Kanto Pokémon — a concept that many Unova fans, coincidentally, get testy about. Because Gens III and V have both aged, Nintendo WFC has become defunct and it's become increasingly difficult to find people to trade with, it's essentially just as practically difficult to get old Pokémon into BW as it is to get new ones into FRLG, causing the Unova Dex restriction to become more infamous in the end.

Generation IV

• The areas where you would travel with the Stat Trainers were the first instances where more than one wild Pokémon could show up in a fight. In such occasions, you were forbidden from using any Balls until only one wild Pokémon was left. Aside from the possibility of your partner knocking out the Pokémon you intended to spare for catching, it wasn't that big a deal... until the S.O.S. battles in Pokémon Sun and Moon, which can become downright infuriating when the Pokémon that you're trying to catch constantly calls in a new partner right after you knock out the previous one.
• Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire get a lot of ridicule for having a near-exact copy-paste of the Battle Maison from Pokémon X and Y instead of the more popular Battle Frontier from Pokémon Emerald. Five years earlier, Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver also featured a very close recreation of a post-game battle facility, in this case Sinnoh's Battle Frontier (only the music that plays in the main hub and Battle Tower are remixed from Pokémon Crystal). While technically just as lazy in exactly the same ways—and even more so, since unlike the Battle Resort there are almost no new NPCs or area models—it didn't get as much flak from the fanbase because it originated in an Updated Re-release that not everyone had played, and was still an improvement over Crystal's single battle facility and Gold & Silver's none. Plus, you know... it was a Battle Frontier.

Generation V

• The tradition of game regions becoming more linear started in Pokémon Black & White. The entire lower half of the region is a straight line to Nimbasa City, half of the upper "loop" is inaccessible until the postgame, and most if not all side areas are small and mandatory. At the time, fans were willing to forgive this, because the games were so focused on story compared to the previous four generations that something had to give, and the dungeons were still fun to explore. X and Y were also given a pass for being the first fully 3D games in the series (the argument being that the dev team was either inexperienced working with 3D or simply testing what was possible with the 3DS's hardware), and Sun and Moon were tolerated for the same reasons as Black and White as well as the games' island setting. It wasn't until Sword and Shield that the series began to face heavy backlash over its increasing linearity, with the threadbare plot doing little to conceal how small and confining Galar is—and it couldn't carry itself on the strength of its dungeons anymore, with most of them, even the Big Bad's lair, being reduced to fancy-looking hallways.
• When Scarlet and Violet launched The Indigo Disk DLC, it made it possible to catch most of the previous Legendaries^note With the exception of the Gen 6 Mons and both the Island Guardians and the Ultra Beasts from Gen 7 after completing the story—except none of them were able to be caught in their shiny forms. Naturally, the games' fans were very displeased that they couldn't shiny hunt for these particular powerhouses in this game, but this wouldn't be the first time. Many of the previous games had placed their Legendaries under shiny lock, such as Pokémon Black and White^note Which locked Victini, Reshiram, and Zekrom in both entries, Pokémon X and Y ^note Which locked the Kanto Legendaries and the new Kalos Legendaries, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire ^note Which locked all the Hoenn Legendaries, Pokémon Sun and Moon^note Which locked all the Gen 7 Legendaries and Ultra Beasts Pokémon Sword and Shield ^note Which locked all the new Gen 8 Legendaries outside of special event giveaways for some of them, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus ^note Which coded the game so none of the Legendaries could be caught shiny. Even Scarlet and Violet followed suit and made sure their new Legendaries couldn't be obtained as shinies like usual. However, despite their frustrations, most of the aforementioned games did make it so most of the Legendaries could be caught shiny if the player didn't already have ones they could transfer, and most of the ones that were locked did have special events released so they could be caught as a shiny in future installments, so it was a bit more forgivable to omit the ability to do so. With no way in the current games to catch any of the legendaries as shinies outside of transfers, and with no events currently planned to release these mons as shinies in the game, it became less forgivable.
• Pokémon Sun and Moon are often criticized for the Player's role as a Supporting Protagonist; effectively being nothing more than "muscle" for Lillie. But B2W2 did it first: beating the League was (still) your goal, beating Team Plasma was Hugh's. You were Hugh's (more effective) wingman during the Plasma encounters.

Generation VI

• The storyline of X and Y was always divisive for its intrusiveness and strange pacing, yet attempting to emulate the well-liked story of Black and White by introducing tragic elements and characters, and many players were nonetheless happy to explore the beautiful Kalos region and seek out the huge selection of Pokémon in-between cutscenes. In comparison, Pokémon Sun and Moon story was even more intrusive than that of X and Y, by interrupting the player even more frequently, by restricting the player to a very linear progression path, and overall being an overbearing presence throughout the game. Story quality aside, whether or not Sun and Moon improved on X and Y in that respect is a matter of debate, but repeating many of the same flaws, like with the postgame, only amplified those of X and Y in hindsight.
• In an attempt to spice up battles, Pokémon started introducing major battle gimmicks, and this was the first generation to introduce a major battle gimmick: Mega Evolution. While a few of the Megas ended up being Game Breakers, nearly all fans were happy with the concept since many Pokémon were Rescued from the Scrappy Heap because of them, most notably Charizard. Gen VII introduced the slightly more controversial Z-Moves, and while they had a little bit more detractors than Megas due to being able to easily break through walls, they were balanced by the fact that they could only be used once^note Certain conditions allow a second use of the move, but two total uses per battle is still not a big amount. However, Gen VIII's battle gimmick, Dynamaxing, got really out of hand. A Dynamaxed Pokémon stays Dynamaxed on the field for three turns, can do a lot of damage during those three turns, has increased HP during those turns, and every single Max move^note Except for Max Guard. comes with an additional mandatory effect, effectively allowing a status move and an offensive move to be used in one turn for three turns. Because of this, many fans feel Dynamaxing is overpowered, and while Mega Stones and Z-Crystals came at the cost of not being able to use other items^note The sole exception that because Mega Rayquaza could Mega Evolve in a different way than the usual method, it could hold other items, Dynamaxed Pokémon can use whatever items they wish, like Weakness Policy, Life Orb, and Choice items. To make matters worse, both Mega Stones and Z-Crystals are not in Gen VIII; even though Gen VII sidelined Mega Evolutions hard by restricting them to the postgame and only having about half of them available until the Updated Re-release, they were still in the game. Not helping matters is that Dynamax was one of the reasons for the Dex exclusions, which made some fans more hostile towards this gimmick than Megas and Z-Moves because they didn't consider the sacrifice to be worth it; in contrast, Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves sacrificed nothing.
• Leon, the Champion from Sword and Shield, was criticized for his ace Pokémon being a Charizard rather than a Pokémon introduced in his debut generation. However, Diantha, the champion from X and Y, also had a Pokémon introduced during a previous generation, Gardevoir, as her Signature Mon.^note You can say that this goes all the way back to Lance, the Champion of Gold and Silver, who only has Red and Blue mons, however Lance was introduced in Gen I and became champion the next generation. The difference, however, is that Gardevoir is a reasonably popular Pokémon that never got any amount of Character Shilling or Wolverine Publicity, and with its new Mega Evolution and Fairy typing, was a new Pokémon in all but name. Whereas Charizard was a Pokémon that had been pushed non-stop by both the games and the anime during the past two generations, becoming a huge Base-Breaking Character in the process, and its Gigantamax form was not seen as distinctive as the huge gameplay shift Mega Gardevoir's new Fairy typing and Pixilate represented when compared to its base form.
• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been panned due to the shiny forms of many new Pokémon having identical coloration to the regular versions save for one key detail, such as the Tinkatuff line's hammer or the Charcadet line's eyes. Retaining most of a Pokemon's standard texture for the shiny version actually originated in X and Y with the Flabébé line, which have flowers that make up a large portion of their design and don't change on the shiny, and became increasingly common in the two generations between it and Scarlet/Violet (such as only the log Komala holds or Urshifu's digits and muzzle changing).

Generation VII

• Sword and Shield came under heavy fire for making any Pokémon not part of the regional Dex incompatible with the game. #BringBackNationalDex became a popular hashtag to decry Game Freak's choices, yet Gen VII was in fact the first to not include a National Dex since its introduction in Gen III. The key difference is that Pokémon not native to Alola were still in the game's code and could be freely traded and transferred.

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