After 27 Years of Playing Pokemon Games, I’m Convinced None Will Ever Cut This Feature I Have to Hate in Secret

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I discovered Pokémon around 27 years ago on my birthday with a copy of Pokémon Red, and I’ve been a fan ever since. It quickly became not just my favorite game (and card) series, but one of my favorite things in life. I connected with the Pokémon games in a way I often didn’t with people, and I’ve lost countless hours to both the trading card game and the video games. It all started with an unintentional Nuzlocke run in Pokémon Red – I was worried about letting my Pokémon faint! – and continues today with shiny hunting in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, where I got lucky and found Latios after only 94 resets. I truly consider Pokémon one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.

I do have some complaints and things that bother me about Pokémon games, such as:

  • I hate how Legends: Z-A cut PLA‘s Linking Cord
  • I wish Pokemon Scarlet and Violet had a more enjoyable post-game experience, like Dynamax Adventures
  • I resent Pokemon Sword and Shield for being so good when the Crown Tundra DLC launched because it ruined all future DLC for me, and I can’t understand why the game couldn’t be this good in the first place before the DLC even came out
  • In my opinion, Pokemon‘s Z-Moves and Ultra Beasts were some of the worst concepts in the series, which, incidentally, came out with one of my favorite settings and regional Pokedex ever

I’ve played a lot of Pokemon games, and while it’s my favorite series, I’m realistic about their flaws. Even the original Pokemon Red and Blue aren’t as great as I remember. I think the series has potential to be even better, and it would have been great if, beginning with Pokemon Wind and Wave, competitive battling had limited or excluded powerful Legendary Pokemon, perhaps by creating separate formats without them.

Why Legendary Pokemon Should Be Pinnacle Story Moments, Not VGC Fodder

Okay, this might be a bit of a hot take, but I’ve never really been a fan of Legendary Pokemon. I mean, using them in the story, like catching Mewtwo in Pokemon Legends: Z-A or battling Rayquaza to stop Groudon and Kyogre, is awesome! But once I’ve caught them, I stick them in the box. It just feels weird to have this super powerful, almost god-like creature on my team with all my other Pokemon, the ones that feel like actual partners you’ve trained and bonded with. They just don’t fit, you know?

What bothers me most about the Video Game Championships (VGC) is that Legendary Pokémon are almost always allowed in competitive battles. This often forces the metagame to revolve around them, making them feel essential to use. You end up with uninteresting matchups like Zacian versus Zacian, which ruins the fun. Legendaries generally have incredible stats and moves, making it hard to justify using weaker Pokémon like Sirfetch’d when you could use a Terrakion. They also tend to have powerful abilities that give them an advantage. It’s not just Legendaries either; sometimes Mythical Pokémon are allowed as well.

How Competitive Pokemon Evolved From Gen 8 to Legends: Z-A

Take Pokemon Legends: Z-A, for instance. The competitive strategies in Season 5 are completely different than those in Season 4. Season 4 let players use any non-Legendary Pokemon from the original game and its DLC, while Season 5 added about a dozen Legendary and Mythical Pokemon to the mix. This kind of shift has happened many times throughout the history of the Pokemon series.

  • Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Xerneas dominated the entirety of Season 2 as soon as it was made legal because of its stats and moves, making a lot of the Pokedex unusable in ranked. This reduced the number of viable options and created a meta where players could run in circles, all four using Xerneas, with those who got early KOs winning the match because Xerneas was too hard to take down from a distance or impossible to reach in close quarters.
  • Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s Koraidon ruled tournaments and won the 2025 World Championship when paired with Lunala in a meta where each team had a combination of Koraidon, Miraidon, Lunala, Zamazenta, and Calyrex Shadow Rider, given the ruleset allowing two or more Legendaries per team. The meta was and still isn’t varied, with most teams using Landorus, Incineroar, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, Urshifu, Chien-Pao, Raging Bolt, Rillaboom, Chi-Yu, and Flutter Mane. Some teams even have four Legendaries at once, like Michael Kelsch’s Worlds 2025 team featuring Zamazenta, Calyrex Shadow Rider, Ogerpon, and Chien-Pao alongside Dragonite and Amoonguss.
  • Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s Regieleki was one of the most used Legendaries in the game in VGC alongside the usual suspects — Zacian, Landorus, Kyogre, Groudon, and Calyrex Shadow Rider. The moment restricted Legendaries were made viable, they started dominating the charts, and each team had to include at least two to have a shot at winning. GMax Venusaur, Charizard, and Rillaboom were used alongside these, with Zapdos and some Ultra Beasts also rearing their heads, but most battles were decided by the chosen Legendaries.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Best Strategies Were Early in the Meta

The pattern continues with each new generation of the game. These are just the three most recent competitive formats, and Generation 10 will likely follow the same course. While it’s standard to initially ban Legendary Pokémon and later add more allowed Pokémon, these powerful creatures always heavily influence the metagame. In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, why bother with less powerful strategies like Tailwind Prankster Murkrow when you have the option of using Koraidon or Miraidon? They’re vastly different – and much stronger. Still, there’s something appealing about the early stages of competitive battling where creative, unconventional strategies can still be successful.

How Legendary Pokemon Are Ruining The Series

It’s true that unexpected Pokemon sometimes win battles, but it doesn’t happen often, especially as a game gets older. I’d enjoy playing competitive Pokemon battles much more if there weren’t so many powerful Legendary Pokemon dominating the scene. They tend to make team compositions predictable and less creative. Allowing just one or two Legendaries per team could be fun, but the current format of using four Legendaries out of a team of four – instead of the usual six – leads to repetitive battles. Honestly, it’s not very engaging to play, watch, or even build teams with these kinds of restrictions.

As a competitive Pokemon player, I really think the game should be about showcasing all Pokemon and the cool strategies you can come up with, not just a battle between a few super-powerful legendaries. I miss seeing creative team builds – stuff like using Booster Energy on Iron Jugulis to outspeed Prankster Pokemon with Tailwind, or even the unique Perish Trap teams Wolfe Glick used to run. Those builds do pop up sometimes, but they quickly get overshadowed by the same few legendaries dominating everything. It feels like the only creativity left is tweaking EV spreads to survive specific attacks or picking the ‘best’ held item – it’s not as fun as it used to be.

My Perfect Pokemon Game Has Yet to Be Made, And It Probably Never Will

I think Legendary Pokémon really hurt the variety and enjoyment of competitive battling. I’d love to see an officially recognized ruleset for VGC that allows players to use all Pokémon, or a very limited number of Legendaries, later in a game’s lifespan. What’s the point of putting effort into Pokémon like Gimmighoul if its evolved form, Gholdengo, quickly becomes unusable when Legendaries dominate the scene? While I appreciate having a shiny Gholdengo, I wish there was more lasting variety so I could actually use my shiny Pokémon and experiment with different strategies without feeling at a disadvantage. I’d much rather see a powerful, unexpected strategy like a Thick Club Marowak sweep succeed than have matches decided by overwhelmingly powerful Legendaries like Mega Mewtwo or Xerneas.

After playing nearly every Pokémon game for 27 years, I’ve come to believe that Legendary Pokémon will always be central to competitive play. I also don’t foresee an officially recognized game mode, like VGC double battles, that allows players to compete using only Pokémon from the main game and DLC. There might be brief periods in future games where this is true, and I’ll definitely enjoy those times, but ultimately, Legendary Pokémon will likely always be dominant in the competitive scene, whether we like it or not.

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2026-01-20 03:05