Are the New Pokemon Overpowered?

[Agonist]

Game Freak never seems to Pokémon with hardcore competition in mind. Whether it's good or not on a blood soaked battlefield always seems to be mere coincidence. Though, with the evolutions in generation 4 and the Dream World in generation 5, it's clear proof that they know some of the old guys need a boost.

They also seem to be shifting more from the "make everything well rounded" frame of mind to a more "let's make this good at this, and that good at that."

I'm not so sure about the abilities, considering things like Vital Spirit for Delibird and Overcoat on practically anything that's capable of having it (You'd think they could at least give it to something that isn't already immune to one of the weather types)...

Sableye and Quagsire are probably some of the best examples of Pokemon that went from horrible to amazing thanks to their DW abilities, and it's a pity they couldn't follow the same line of logic for all of the mediocre Pokemon.

Gamefreak still likes to troll. But yes, a lot of older Pokemon were revitalized by new abilities, like Sableye, Nidoking/Queen, Blaziken, and Venusaur.

[StanTheStaraptor]

If you look at earlier Pokémon, many of them have well rounded base stats, which is fine in-game, but makes them almost useless competitively. I think Game Freak has noticed/caused a shift toward competitive battling, and have adjusted base stats accordingly. I'm not sure that Pokémon are getting any stronger, just more biased towards one or two stats.

[Epic-Inferno]

I don't really think the Gen 5 Pokemon are 'overpowered' exactly, because each one has a few massive strengths but one glaring weakness. For example, Gigalith has a massive attack stat, and can take a hit or two with its high defenses and Sturdy, but its Speed is dreadful, and its strongest attacking move (Stone Edge) has a pretty low accuracy.

[ShiningStarr]

Not really (with the exception of HAXorus) they're all strong in their own ways.

[Endless]

Speed Boost Blaziken

Yes

[fitzy909]

Overpowered is pushing it a little. I will say each generation they get a little stronger, so next gen has to be stronger to combat it. A never ending cycle. I am also gonna throw this out there i think some tcg cards are overpowered (or at least a lot stronger), especially the EX cards. They are seriously strong compared to other cards.

[Cressy]

I dont like using a lot of the newer pokemon. they seemed weaker to me then the older ones. i mean there are some strong ones but it didnt seem like there were to many to choose from. and the starters for this generation kinda sucked.

[Lucario95]

I rather wait to say my opinion until they announce everything what is required; Stats, moves, abilities, evolutions, the new pokemon with their types etc.

[Sealotic]

Overpowered ? I don't think so. Why would it be ? Those legendaries could look tall, but we didn't see their stats, we can't say anything...
I'm sure that no pokemon will overpower Arceus in this new generation...

[Arlo]

It should go without saying that nobody has played gen VI, so nobody can comment on it.

To the existing gens - there has been a certain amount of power creep, no matter how enthusiastically some few might insist otherwise. It's not noticeable at the higher ends, since GF remains wisely careful about introducing notably overpowered pokemon, but it's obvious if one has actually played the fifth gen games and paid close attention to the stats individually and broadly.

First - stats are much more effectively distributed in this gen. I saw someone mention Gigalith earlier as a nominal example of a gen 5 pokemon with detrimentally poorly distributed stats, since its special defense is so notably low. The thing though is that Gigalith is the exception, rather than the rule. The rule in this gen, quite plainly, is balanced defensive stats paired most often with beneficially skewed offensive stats. I could fill up the rest of this post listing the pokemon in the Unova dex that have close to even and often exactly even defense and special defense - in fact, it's the ones that don't, like Gigalith, that are the exception. Look through the dex and you'll find a huge number of pokemon with not only similar, but exactly identical physical and special defense stats. And virtually all of them have their attacking stats balanced correctly right off, with a usefully high number for one and a "leaves-plenty-of-BST-for-more-important-things" low number for the other. The result is that the Unova dex is absolutely littered with things like Stoutland and Leavanny and Lilligant and Reuniclus, and Sigilyph and Scrafty and Darmanitan and Mienshao and Braviary and Excadrill and Escavalier and Crustle and Amoongus and Sawsbuck and... and... and... - pokemon who have nicely balanced stats with everything that they need to function well and no cripplingly poor stats anywhere (or almost anywhere - it should be noted that this has led to a notable number of the Unova pokemon being notably slow, which of course is a consideration in the metagame, and is a good part of the reason that the upper tiers have remained relatively balanced between the gens IN SPITE OF the power creep in gen 5). The pokemon like Swoobat or Liepard - who just don't quite have what they need to make the grade - are the exception in this gen. If you go back to earlier gens, that's simply not so strongly the case. Sure - past gens also gave us great pokemon, and the current upper tiers reflect that. But past gens also gave us quite a few more mediocre pokemon, and quite a few more absolutely useless ones. Sure this gen hasn't introduced an unacceptable number of new Skarmorys or Dragonites or Salamences, but it didn't give us ANY new Unowns or Plusles or Ledians or Delibirds. And in fact, with the DW abilities, it actually went a ways toward improving some of those older pokemon (a sure indication, IMO, that GF recognized the power creep and took steps to alleviate it a bit by improving past gen pokemon SPECIFICALLY in order for them to remain, or in some cases become, competitive).

Now - all that said, I don't care much. I think that some amount of power creep has absolutely undeniably happened, and I think that it's to some degree pretty much unavoidable. As time goes on, they're just not going to introduce as many, or any, new Delibirds, and at the same time, they're going to be looking to outdo themselves. I just can't see them introducing another Ledian - a pokemon with a mind-bogglingly ridiculous and wholly inappropriate stat spread. It's not that they've introduced some unprecedented number of new uber or near-uber pokemon - it's that virtually all of them are at least useable, and a great many of them are really pretty damned good, and obviously so. And I expect that to continue. They'll undoubtedly still keep it somewhat under rein, since the gens need to stay reasonably balanced just so that including past gen pokemon in a new game is a bonus instead of a useless hassle, but I think it's undeniable and unavoidable. And personally, I love it. I'm on my third time through a Unova game and I still haven't come even close to using all of the awesome pokemon I want to use out of this dex. Contrary to so many past dexes, there are still so many out there that already have solid, balanced defenses, at least decent HP, plenty of points in the attacking stat they need with no wasted points in the one they don't and.... well... sometimes really sort of crappy speed, but still......


TL/DR: Some amount of power creep has happened, it's pretty much unavoidable, it hasn't had that much of an effect on the games overall and I welcome it.

[PowerMiner]

We need to make the new starters overpowered so I can use my Froakie competitively. :P


FROAKIEEEE

[Wyrm]

Perhaps there's been a minor power creep. But it's been shown that Pokemon are either left in the dust, get refined move sets and such, or are born into the game with some serious power.

Gamefreak has its reasons, I guess.

[MetalFlygon08]

I think the reason why a lot of Unova Pokemon are so good is because only a minimal portion of their low BST is invested in worthless stats they have little use for (IE, special attack for Scrafty and Darmanitan, speed for Ferrothorn).

Tons of the older Pokemon could be far better if their stats were more specialized instead of being horribly average.

When they made Gen1 pokemon, they seem to have had the idea of many Pokemon being mixed attackers.

I mean the Machoke line learning Fire Blast?

[Rakurai]

They do have a very odd habit of giving Pokemon with horrible special attack stats extremely large special movesets.

[Marceman]

Of course they're stronger. If none of the new pokemon were stronger, there would be no point in using them. I would actually commend GF on introducing new stronger pokemon while also keeping older mons up to date. A quick look at the OU tier show a relative balanced distribution among the gens, which isn't an easy task.

[Nutter t.KK]

I'm moving this to the Competative section as it should belong there not in GPD.

[Green Blockhead]

I personally think that the Pokemon themselves aren't overpowered, the new stat-raising moves however are.

Seriously, Quiver Dance and Shift Gear. That's just breaking it altogether, if not at least one thing.

[YourPermanentRecord631]

While the power creep did come this generation, personally no. A few testing of suspects helps balance the metagame out (like the recent Tornadus-T ban from Smogon OU). Each Pokemon will have their downfaults like Volcarona's 4x Stealth Rock Weakness and how outclassed Heatmor is.

[Blue Harvest]

I'm moving this to the Competative section as it should belong there not in GPD.

I'm moving this back to GPD. Without any info of base stats, movepool, typing or whatever there is literally nothing competitive to discuss beside baseless speculation.

[Crystal]

I'm not sure about overpowering, that is because GF had set itself the maximum base stats total of 720 when the time it introduced Arceus. There can not be any Pokemon that can overpower it. (Though, I have to say, this total is really low for a Pokemon that is speculated to the God of all.)

Even the Black and White Kyurem that is in Gen V, it only has 700 base stats total, did not surpass Arceus which is a Gen IV Pokemon.

I'm not here to discuss how much the base stats of the newly introducing Pokemon is getting close to Arceus, but rather on the question of did the newly introducing Pokemon ever surpass Arceus.