Are the New Pokemon Overpowered?

[randomspot555]

ie they're weaker

which is what I believe Rakurai said originally, which you then interpreted as the extreme

That's what I said, exactly. Not every Pokemon is going to be able to beat Mewtwo but that in no way means they suck just because they can't.

[CarlosPMC]

Johto was underpowered in my opinion, since Kanto had like base 120 attack on a lot of Pokemon. Hoenn was on average stronger than Kanto, Sinnoh ties with Kanto in my opinion, and Unova was overpowered. I mean Darmanitan with 140 base attack? Really?

[Rakurai]

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.

[sizida]

If trade cannot be done to older gen because they remodeled the base stats of all Pokemon (strong to be slightly weaker and weak to be slightly stronger), it will be a great challenge!

Either way IVs also contribute to overpowering Pokemon more.

[Cosmic_SlayerX]

Too early to tell, although Xerneas and Yveltal look amazing.

[Scrufox86]

Wait a minute weren't the gen V starters the weakest starters overall in terms of base stat totals? I do believe though that there were a lot of powerful pokemon introduced in gen V like Darmanitan, Excadrill and Volcarona to name a few. However Volcarona in my opinion was maybe a second pseudo-legendary as it seemed to be one in the way it was an interactable pokemon, very high level and in an area you get to near the end of the game. Having these other powerful pokemon was probably supposed to make up for the not so good starters?

[aquriomaster]

Well NO because pokemon with amazing attack and stuff have horrible speed so they all have flaws

[Agonist]

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.

This.

If trade cannot be done to older gen because they remodeled the base stats of all Pokemon (strong to be slightly weaker and weak to be slightly stronger), it will be a great challenge!

Either way IVs also contribute to overpowering Pokemon more.

What do IVs have to do with anything?

[Mecha-Caterpie]

Every generation has its 'overpowered' pokemon
1st Gen: Dragonite, or basically any psychic-type (Their only weaknesses were bug and ghost, which the majority, if not all, of those moves did set amounts of damage)
2nd Gen: Except for this one. I can't exactly find an overpowered one here.
3rd Gen: Salamance, rayquaza, and metagross could all be considered overpowered.
4th Gen: Garchomp and Dialga might be overpowered, too, if you think about it.
5th Gen: I haven't played this one, so I'm not sure about it.

[Shadow XD001]

Can't tell. We barely know anything about the five Pokémon that were introduced. I know we'll learn about more soon!

[Zachmac]

Except "power creep" really hasn't affected the game all that much because it doesn't really exist and is too broad and vague to make a good analysis, either of the series in general or the metagame specifically.

Competitively, power creep refers to the metagame becoming more offensive as you go on. Some pokemon just can't be reliably countered. Once apon a time, this would of sent them strait to ubers, but now there is so many, it's much easier just to base it off the amount of checks. Personally, I still think the metagame is interesting, but for a good competitive player, there should be no denying that new threats are becoming more difficult to deal with without outspeeding.

Practically nothing reliable counters Terrakion. Okay, sure, Golurk and Nidoqueen might because of their convenient typing, and Gliscor and Skarmory will if they are up against the correct sets, but if you count Nidoking, that's only about 5 pokemon, and they aren't even reliable. I mean, what are the Nidos going to do if it carries earthquake? And Skarmory really won't like coming in on Choice Band Close Combat. Keldeo? Sure, the Latis could handle it fairly well, but even a choice specs Hydro Pump in the rain will but a dent in them, even with their resistance to it.

At this point, even stall based teams have to carry choice scarfers or speed freaks.

[randomspot555]

Competitively, [words]

Yes, I know what it means in that sense. What most people mean, when its used here, is "OH MY POOR FAVORITE POKEMON FROM [favorite gen] KEEPS GETTING BEAT BY THESE DUMB NEW POKEMON!!!" whereas really, every generation has a handful of powerful+versatile or powerful in one particular area. Every generation really has just about the same amount of "powerful" Pokemon and whatnot. I believe OU right now is almost divided evenly between the 5 generations, for example.

[*~Silver*~]

Yes, I know what it means in that sense. What most people mean, when its used here, is "OH MY POOR FAVORITE POKEMON FROM [favorite gen] KEEPS GETTING BEAT BY THESE DUMB NEW POKEMON!!!" whereas really, every generation has a handful of powerful+versatile or powerful in one particular area. Every generation really has just about the same amount of "powerful" Pokemon and whatnot. I believe OU right now is almost divided evenly between the 5 generations, for example.

I agree with this.

[gesterbosley]

I also think they are weaker. I don't think they can even beat the old ones.

[ParaChomp]

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.

[ShinyBlackWhite]

Power creep has been happening for a long time now.

No offense, but if power creep really has happened, than how come Pokemon, all the way from Gen I, can keep up with Gen V?

[Zachmac]

Yes, I know what it means in that sense. What most people mean, when its used here, is "OH MY POOR FAVORITE POKEMON FROM [favorite gen] KEEPS GETTING BEAT BY THESE DUMB NEW POKEMON!!!" whereas really, every generation has a handful of powerful+versatile or powerful in one particular area. Every generation really has just about the same amount of "powerful" Pokemon and whatnot. I believe OU right now is almost divided evenly between the 5 generations, for example.

Well, this is true. I'm just used to the power creep being referred to by people with general competitive knowledge, so it wasn't exactly a Charizard VS. Stealth Rock scenario that came to mind.

Sorry about that.

No offense, but if power creep really has happened, than how come Pokemon, all the way from Gen I, can keep up with Gen V?

The power creep exist, but it's also very, very slow. And from my understanding, the power creep refers to pokemon having stats concentrated more into certain areas, rather then having all around higher stats. And power isn't the only thing that determines a battle either. This means they either have to sacrifice speed or longevity for it. Chandelure, for example, has base 145 special attack, which is almost comparable to that of Mewtwo's, and has 20 stat points in total than it's gen 1 counterpart, Gengar. Yet, despite this, it can takes physical hits even worse then Gengar, and also has much lower speed.

[Unredemption]

Something people also tend to overlook is that there are simply more of these "powerful" Pokemon as the game advances. For example, in Generation I, obviously all the powerful (e.g. OU tier) dudes were from that generation. However, in Generation V, obviously less of these Pokemon would still be considered powerful since they have so many competitors. Based on the Smogon statistics from an earlier post on this thread, the distribution of the top 20 OU Pokemon seems to be relatively balanced - 5 from Generation I, 4 from II, 4 from III, 4 from IV and 2 from V (small anomaly here).

140 base Attack doesn't mean the Pokemon is actually overpowered, because it can suck in other areas like Defense and Speed which "balance" its stats out. Earlier generation Pokemon were, in general, just more well-rounded in terms of stats as compared to today's Pokemon though their outstanding stats may be lacklustre.

[Charizard_Rulez84]

the starters stats and the 2 legendaries that we know so far will most likely have similar stats as previous gens

[Rakurai]

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.

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.