(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[DrPumpkinz]

Some Paradox Pokemon use the same pose as their contemporary counterparts in their official art, which is cool.

But most of them don't. Either commit to the bit and make all the Paradoxes in the same pose (no idea what they'd do for Iron Valiant, maybe some pose halfway between Gardevoir and Gallade) or give them all new poses.

 

[Castersvarog]

Some Paradox Pokemon use the same pose as their contemporary counterparts in their official art, which is cool.

But most of them don't. Either commit to the bit and make all the Paradoxes in the same pose (no idea what they'd do for Iron Valiant, maybe some pose halfway between Gardevoir and Gallade) or give them all new poses.

Roaring moon would have looked way more menacing if it had Mega Salamences pose, it looks less like this wild savage version of Salamence, and more like a gremlin.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Either commit to the bit and make all the Paradoxes in the same pose (no idea what they'd do for Iron Valiant, maybe some pose halfway between Gardevoir and Gallade) or give them all new poses.

Going through the ones that have different poses to think of a reason why they didn't do the original's stock art pose:

• Amoongus/Brute Bonnet: I imagine the change of angle is because they further wanted to emphasize how hidden BB's face is to give it some more menace. That said, I think it is still relatively in the same pose, at least the arms/hands are close.
• Misdreavus/Flutter Mane: Misdreavus's stock pose wouldn't have given a good view of the additional details on the top of its head (such as the spikes) and the hair tendrils would also be more obscured. So it was completely changed to be see from the top-down.
• Volcarona/Slither Wing: So, after some searching, I've found that SW can stand up and separate its wings so it could try to mimic the pose of Volcarona's stock art. However I think that would defeat the purpose of making SW unable to fly, thus its stock art made different to emphasize the major change (and a parallel to Iron Moth which is able to copy Volcarona's pose).
• Magneton/Sandy Shocks: Like with Slither Wing, they could try to copy Magneton's pose as close as they can, but that would go against the new direction of the design.
• Mega Salamence/Roaring Moon: I can see two reasons. One, RM doesn't have the "holster" parts as M-Salamence does, not to mention RM's arms are bigger and more burly, so it would have to have its arms in a new position anyway. Second, M-Salamence's stock art doesn't show off the head that well, but changing the angle of the head would look awkward/wrong with the body position. So overall was easier to give it a new pose.
• Delibird/Iron Bundle: They just wanted to show off the snowglobe bag, though its pretty much in the same pose.
• Hariyama/Iron Hands: So this is a weird one as I think it is in the same pose, they just changed the angle. If I had to guess why, Hariyama is bending a bit or its stock art is cheating a bit with perspective giving you a better look at its body than you would be at that angle. IH, being a robot and also they likely worked off the 3D model, isn't quite able to bend that way. At that point I would think it would just be better to give it a new pose, but I guess they figured it would be best to leave it trying to assert dominance.
• Hydreigon/Iron Jugulis: Oh, that's weird, I didn't realize its arms weren't attached. Still, it's weird that it looks like they were originally going to put it in the same pose, but when they drew it they decided not to. IJ us more skinny than Hydriegon so maybe they thought it wouldn't look quite right?
• Tyranitar/Iron Thorns: I think IT has the same problem as IH: its robot body can't bend in the same way its "flesh" counterpart can.
• Mega Gardevoir & Mega Gallade/Iron Valiant: Being a fusion of two Pokemon who have very different poses, and itself also having unique features like turning its arm blades into a double-edged staff, I'm alright it having an original pose.
• Cyclizar/Miraidon (Iron Serpent): More has to do with just being a parallel counterpart to Koraidon, while Koraidon they wanted to emphasize its muscular build and feathered adornments as it's more primal, with Miraidon they chose to focus on it being slender (thus also longer) and more "technological" (for lack of a better word).

 

[Hugin]

Sandy Shocks in general bugs me.

Why base it on Magneton? Making it a combo of 3 of it's pre-evolutions doesn't work when it doesn't have a pre-evolution. Magnemite could have done the "Magnets are legs" thing just as well, and not had the top ones that are clearly just normal magnets. It's a nonsense mon, clearly more concerned with looking like Magneton than making sense.
I hacked this together in like 5 minutes in Gimp, I'm not an artist, and I'm relatively certain my version looks more like something that could actually exist.

 

[Worldie]

Why base it on Magneton? Making it a combo of 3 of it's pre-evolutions doesn't work when it doesn't have a pre-evolution. Magnemite could have done the "Magnets are legs" thing just as well, and not had the top ones that are clearly just normal magnets. It's a nonsense mon, clearly more concerned with looking like Magneton than making sense.

Remember that the design idea at the base of the Paradoxes isnt "past" or "future" pokemon. They're almost literally fanfiction given life.

Description of Sandy Shocks according to S/V

According to an article from a July issue of Occulture magazine, some scientists claim that Sandy Shocks is a Magneton that has lived for 10,000 years. It has allegedly been sighted numerous times in Paldea's more arid regions, but there are no reports of it ever having been caught. It is said to have an aggressive disposition, and some people who have seen it claim to have been attacked. Sandy Shocks purportedly takes its name from a beast with a matching description in the Scarlet Book.

So you are indeed right, it's purposely intended to be a monstrous version of Magneton. The fact it doesn't actually have a evolution or pre-evo is irrelevant because it may not have ever existed in first place (pending potential confermation/denying in the DLCs which most likely will be about this very fact)


(Also, the fact it's Magneton and not Steel type is a throwback to gen 1, when Magneton was the final evolution, and it wasn't steel type. We know GF loves their Kanto)

Bulbapedia's assumptions about the inspiration

Sandy Shocks is based on Magneton. The tufts around and on its body may be iron filings or ironsand (as suggested by its name and typing), and they resemble the messy and unkempt hair that cavemen are typically depicted to have. Its stilt-like legs and elongated tail may serve to reference dinosaurs of the Diplodocidae family. Its presence among the ancient Paradox Pokémon despite being comprised of modern objects may be a reference to out-of-place artifacts.

Its dual Electric/Ground typing may be a pun on electrical ground, due to it touching the ground rather than levitating like Magneton.

 

[Ironmage]

Remember that the design idea at the base of the Paradoxes isnt "past" or "future" pokemon. They're almost literally fanfiction given life.

Description of Sandy Shocks according to S/V

According to an article from a July issue of Occulture magazine, some scientists claim that Sandy Shocks is a Magneton that has lived for 10,000 years. It has allegedly been sighted numerous times in Paldea's more arid regions, but there are no reports of it ever having been caught. It is said to have an aggressive disposition, and some people who have seen it claim to have been attacked. Sandy Shocks purportedly takes its name from a beast with a matching description in the Scarlet Book.

So you are indeed right, it's purposely intended to be a monstrous version of Magneton. The fact it doesn't actually have a evolution or pre-evo is irrelevant because it may not have ever existed in first place (pending potential confermation/denying in the DLCs which most likely will be about this very fact)


(Also, the fact it's Magneton and not Steel type is a throwback to gen 1, when Magneton was the final evolution, and it wasn't steel type. We know GF loves their Kanto)

Bulbapedia's assumptions about the inspiration

Sandy Shocks is based on Magneton. The tufts around and on its body may be iron filings or ironsand (as suggested by its name and typing), and they resemble the messy and unkempt hair that cavemen are typically depicted to have. Its stilt-like legs and elongated tail may serve to reference dinosaurs of the Diplodocidae family. Its presence among the ancient Paradox Pokémon despite being comprised of modern objects may be a reference to out-of-place artifacts.

Its dual Electric/Ground typing may be a pun on electrical ground, due to it touching the ground rather than levitating like Magneton.

Disappointed that it's allegedly only 10k years old. I liked the idea of a truly ancient Magneton as a way of showing that mons like it are considered natural. This only barely exits the order of magnitude that we have clear indication of regular Magnemite being around in.

 

[R_N]

Some Paradox Pokemon use the same pose as their contemporary counterparts in their official art, which is cool.

But most of them don't. Either commit to the bit and make all the Paradoxes in the same pose (no idea what they'd do for Iron Valiant, maybe some pose halfway between Gardevoir and Gallade) or give them all new poses.

Inf fairness to Iron Thorns & Iron Hands, that does seem to be approximately the same pose, just at a slightly different angle. Possible to account for the fact that they can't bend like that anymore.
Iron Jugulis is pretty similar: it is basically the same pose but slight diferences to account for this roboticness.

Flutter Mane & Roaring Moon may have gotten different poses specifically to let their differences be more obvious. Flutter Mane is already basically Just Misdreavus and if it had the upward angle it would hide the majorirty of its spikes and "feathers". Likewise Roaring Moon puts more emphasis on its claws and head differences.

Slither Wing of course can't really do the pose anyway.

To a lesser extent that also applies to Brute Bonnet; a "proper" angle would hide the extra pair of legs and the tail. Iron Bundle I think might also be in the same bin since they want to emphasize the "bundle" in a different way than Delibird's. Flipping back & forth between them it seems purposeful to have the previously raised flipper now rest on the bundle.

 

[Worldie]

Disappointed that it's allegedly only 10k years old. I liked the idea of a truly ancient Magneton as a way of showing that mons like it are considered natural. This only barely exits the order of magnitude that we have clear indication of regular Magnemite being around in.

Remember the first part of what I said: the Paradoxes aren't actually "real". They are implied to have never existed / not actually be future evolutions, they've been created off human fantasy in some occult way, probably with something to do with the ""time machine"".

If there was an Ancient Magneton, it was not Sandy Shocks.

 

[R_N]

Remember the first part of what I said: the Paradoxes aren't actually "real". They are implied to have never existed / not actually be future evolutions, they've been created off human fantasy in some occult way, probably with something to do with the ""time machine"".

If there was an Ancient Magneton, it was not Sandy Shocks.

and even if they are truly real, the tabloids are.......tabloids. Unless we get one hell of a swerve (exponentially harder with the Future Paradoxes, I imagine) their exaggerating and making things up most likely.

So Sandy Shocks COULD be a true ancient magneton but one from like. 20,000 years ago or w/e.

 

[pika pal]

I think Sandy Shocks would jive with me a bit more if it was like one 3-eyed Entity rather than 3 very clearly separate magnets, or the 3 parts were at least less distinctly separated. Compared to Magneton where each Mite is identical to the others, Sandy Shocks' design gives diversity in their roles (top is the "head" while each of the others is a leg), implying that the reason we don't see a prehistoric Magnemite is because the trio of Sandy Shocks don't function or survive individually, perhaps due to this specialization.

One thing I notice about the Paradoxes' poses, a lot of them seem a lot more intent/focused on the observer, if that makes any sense. Like, Misdreavus and Salamence have this impression of flying overhead as you watch them pass, while Flutter Mane and Roaring Moon kind of meet your eye if you look at the art, which gives a more dangerous air that these things are not only strong but will go after you. Iron Hands similarly goes from a head-on, slightly upward gaze to looking down on the perspective, while the less-aggressive Iron Thorns goes from Tyranitar's upward angle to a more level-gaze that still isn't focused on the viewer.

In a way this makes Scream Tail's the odd one out for me, because it's described as being a savage/vicious Pokemon compared to Jigglypuff (being the wild one to attack your companions in Scarlet's Area Zero), yet it has the same smiling "please can I have a cookie?" pose as Puff, when deception or baiting of that sort isn't described as how it operates (unless we're to infer that from that pose anyway)

 

[Ironmage]

In a way this makes Scream Tail's the odd one out for me, because it's described as being a savage/vicious Pokemon compared to Jigglypuff (being the wild one to attack your companions in Scarlet's Area Zero), yet it has the same smiling "please can I have a cookie?" pose as Puff, when deception or baiting of that sort isn't described as how it operates (unless we're to infer that from that pose anyway)

I have to wonder how much of Scream Tail and Iron Bundle were designed around that cutscene, which seems reliant on the original mon being considered cute and nonthreatening to contrast with the aggression of the Paradox mon. Scream Tail can also be considered an outlier compared to Flutter Mane and Sandy Shocks, since its unambiguously based on a mon that has never been fully evolved instead of one that received an evolution in a later generation.

 

[Worldie]

I have to wonder how much of Scream Tail and Iron Bundle were designed around that cutscene, which seems reliant on the original mon being considered cute and nonthreatening to contrast with the aggression of the Paradox mon. Scream Tail can also be considered an outlier compared to Flutter Mane and Sandy Shocks, since its unambiguously based on a mon that has never been fully evolved instead of one that received an evolution in a later generation.

It's actually very likely that these 2 in particular were chosen with that idea in mind.

The cutscene's purpose after all is to give the idea that these "paradox pokemon" are not the pokemon we know and are vicious/dangerous.
It does get the message pretty clearly when they meet an adorable Jigglypuff/Delibird only for it to try to chop their heads off.

 

[Castersvarog]

A small one, but the change with Hisuian Sligoo and Goodra’s shiny bugs me a lot. You go from a yellow and pink colour from start to end with the kalos variant, but the Hisuian evolutions they just change the dripping slimes colour, spots and the shell. I now I wouldn’t have minded this so much, if it wasn’t for the fact that it still starts with the yellow and pink Goomy. So you go from a neat different shiny to a shiny that would almost be up there with Garchomp and Gengar were it not for the giant shell.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but Gimmighoul/Gholdengo in general.

Gimmighoul is a cool mechanic with the chests being found at the tops of towers and being able to catch roaming Pokémon, but as a Pokémon itself it’s not something you’d ever want to use. Its Special stats are decent, but only 10 speed is pitiful and the only level-up moves it has are Astonish and Tackle running off 30 base attack.

Gholdengo on the other hand is a badass. It’s a great special attacker with pretty solid bulk and speed, a cool evolution mechanic that’s unique albeit a bit grindy, and one of the best abilities in the game that makes it immune to status moves.

Not helping is how long it can take to get all 999 coins. On my first playthrough it took until fighting the elite 4 before I got enough coins to evolve it, just by going to each tower and whatever gimmighoul I managed to hear hiding.

 

[SwampySwampert]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but Gimmighoul/Gholdengo in general.

Gimmighoul is a cool mechanic with the chests being found at the tops of towers and being able to catch roaming Pokémon, but as a Pokémon itself it’s not something you’d ever want to use. Its Special stats are decent, but only 10 speed is pitiful and the only level-up moves it has are Astonish and Tackle running off 30 base attack. Even though the roaming form is faster at 80 speed, it’s still not taking anything out with the same Attack stat and just dies faster with worse defenses (and is also unobtainable).

Gholdengo on the other hand is a badass. It’s a great special attacker with pretty solid bulk and speed, a cool evolution mechanic that’s unique albeit a bit grindy, and one of the best abilities in the game that makes it immune to status moves.

It’s so badass, in fact, that not a single mandatory trainer in the game uses it on their team and you can go through the whole game without ever seeing it. Even though it’s endgame tier, Poppy uses a completely redundant Bronzong instead (as if you’d ever want to bring a Fighting-type for her anyway) and Ryme brought a Spiritomb to her rematch. I wish Game Freak would actually showcase their new Pokémon additions.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but Gimmighoul/Gholdengo in general.

Gimmighoul is a cool mechanic with the chests being found at the tops of towers and being able to catch roaming Pokémon, but as a Pokémon itself it’s not something you’d ever want to use. Its Special stats are decent, but only 10 speed is pitiful and the only level-up moves it has are Astonish and Tackle running off 30 base attack. Even though the roaming form is faster at 80 speed, it’s still not taking anything out with the same Attack stat and just dies faster with worse defenses (and is also unobtainable).

Gholdengo on the other hand is a badass. It’s a great special attacker with pretty solid bulk and speed, a cool evolution mechanic that’s unique albeit a bit grindy, and one of the best abilities in the game that makes it immune to status moves.

It’s so badass, in fact, that not a single mandatory trainer in the game uses it on their team and you can go through the whole game without ever seeing it. Even though it’s endgame tier, Poppy uses a completely redundant Bronzong instead (as if you’d ever want to bring a Fighting-type for her anyway) and Ryme brought a Spiritomb to her rematch. I wish Game Freak would actually showcase their new Pokémon additions.

While I understand your point and for the most part I agree with it, I do feel that in this particular instance all of this was intentional? Including Gimmighoul not being great, Gholdengo being awesome, and the latter not being used by anyone?

I feel like in this instance, while execution is debatable, it's deliberate so as to make Gholdengo stand out that much more. Gimmighoul in terms of how you find it is pretty special in that regard, that you find it in very specific locations and it's not just an ordinary Pokemon you find. You find a Chest Gimmighoul and you can catch it, and you rack up coins by running into Gimmighoul of the Roaming Form all across Paldea, who are scattered like BOTW Koroks, basically a sort of reward for exploration in open world style, befitting of SV being an open world game.

Gimmighoul itself is not good, but that's probably part of the catch to it. You find one, and upon seeing it, it doesn't look all that impressive. And you have to gather 999 coins across all of Paldea, basically encouraging you to explore the world and put in that effort.

And then Gholdengo is the big prize you get. You gather all these coins, you have a Gimmighoul, and great, you're finally ready to evolve it! And Gholdengo is there, shimmering in gold, made of 1000 coins. It even looks like a golden trophy in a way! It's a reward! You went through all that effort and Gholdengo is the prize you get. And not only does it look like a prize, but it's a powerhouse worthy of being a reward for all that effort you put into getting one.

The fact that no one in the game uses one just adds even more to its specialness. Because of all the effort outlined, Gholdengo is by all means a rare and elusive Pokemon: it's not just something anyone can own. You have to really go out there and put in a lot of effort and explore to earn the right to have a Gholdengo. And when you finally do...what you have is something truly special. This Gholdengo is something you have found, that you have earned, all for yourself. Nobody in Paldea has ever been able to gather such an awesome and elusive Pokemon. So now you have something that is very much a special and beautiful prize. You discovered it, you earned it, and it's all yours.

If any Trainers in-game used Gholdengo, that would just take away from that special feeling of having something truly rare and remarkable that one would get from raising a Gholdengo. A kid who gets a Gholdengo has bragging rights. They found this Gholdengo all for themselves, and they can absolutely kick their friends' asses with it too!

Of course, the execution leaves something to be desired arguably, and that is debatable, but in this case I would argue the intention behind the way Gimmighoul and Gholdengo are designed is very clear. In this case they are meant to be high effort, to be high reward, and to be rare and elusive. Especially Gholdengo.

 

[Siggu]

Sometimes I wonder if The Pokémon Company tells the games testers to try to evolve the same species of Pokémon more than once.

I cannot imagine them not knowing that these evolution methods are absolutely horrible from a gameplay standpoint, and are very discouraging to do them multiple times.

 

[Hugin]

Gholdengo being Pokemon #1000 in the National Dex is probably the cause of all this. They wanted to do the "collect 1000 X, evolve to a super-rare and good mon" thing, and built the entire pokemon based on that. Which, cool and all, but the only way I'm using it is if I decide to do a separate team for each story path so that I can collect coins for the first two paths and then do the third with Gholdengo.

 

[R_N]

Sometimes I wonder if The Pokémon Company tells the games testers to try to evolve the same species of Pokémon more than once.

I cannot imagine them not knowing that these evolution methods are absolutely horrible from a gameplay standpoint, and are very discouraging to do them multiple times.

i've done it twice

Honestly the first go around is mostly fine since you're always exploring anyway; the coins add up fast over a playthrough and change. The second go around was more annoying, though I had other things to do in the meantime at least.

At least there's little reason to get multiples of them unless you're insane like me and wanted one for an in-game living dex and also the home living dex.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Sometimes I wonder if The Pokémon Company tells the games testers to try to evolve the same species of Pokémon more than once.

I cannot imagine them not knowing that these evolution methods are absolutely horrible from a gameplay standpoint, and are very discouraging to do them multiple times.

This reminds me, a little while ago I started trying to think of things in Pokemon that either aren't available anymore due to discontinuing features or are legally obtainable, but require so much work that you're better off just trading one in. Stuff like the Liechi berry being the only pinch berry obtainable in-game before B2W2 (rest were event exclusive) but being tied to Mirage Island, DPPt Spiritomb requiring online connection on a game with Nintendo WFC being shut down (still works with two games, but it's slower), anything in the Dream World since that's gone now, and the Garchompite in ORAS needing you to collect a thousand flags from other Streetpassed players (you can just use one player on a second game, but you can only get one flag a day) on a game that came out eight years ago for a now-obsolete system (thankfully you can just trade one over from XY instead). Even now, Finizen can only evolve if you have a friend with the game (though Palafin comes in Level 5 raids) or pay for the Internet subscription.

I can deal with stuff that is super obscure and requires me to look it up to figure it out (looking directly at you, Galarian Yamask) but stuff that's impossible to do now thanks to features being discontinued or is in the "once you get it, better hope nothing bad happens to your game because you're never getting another one" category annoys me.

 

[R_N]

This reminds me, a little while ago I started trying to think of things in Pokemon that either aren't available anymore due to discontinuing features or are legally obtainable, but require so much work that you're better off just trading one in. Stuff like the Liechi berry being the only pinch berry obtainable in-game before B2W2 (rest were event exclusive) but being tied to Mirage Island, DPPt Spiritomb requiring online connection on a game with Nintendo WFC being shut down (still works with two games, but it's slower), anything in the Dream World since that's gone now, and the Garchompite in ORAS needing you to collect a thousand flags from other Streetpassed players (you can just use one player on a second game, but you can only get one flag a day) on a game that came out eight years ago for a now-obsolete system (thankfully you can just trade one over from XY instead). Even now, Finizen can only evolve if you have a friend with the game (though Palafin comes in Level 5 raids) or pay for the Internet subscription.

I can deal with stuff that is super obscure and requires me to look it up to figure it out (looking directly at you, Galarian Yamask) but stuff that's impossible to do now thanks to features being discontinued or is in the "once you get it, better hope nothing bad happens to your game because you're never getting another one" category annoys me.

DPPt Spiritomb required local play, not online. It was one of the things that made it so annoying.
Frankly it speaks volumes about Spiritomb that I got Gholdengo twice but never got it at all in any of the gen 4 games; i just traded for it.

Also in some fairness to Finizen, that's basically a Trade evolution with an extra step

 

[Worldie]

The nice thing is that despite everything, they've in both SwSh and now SV allowed to get all trade and obscure item evos via raid (or even just rare wild spawns), so tecnically even if you're a 100% solo player, you can still obtain them.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I love getting the ??? badge from every Gym Leader in Scarlet and Violet. It's such a clever naming scheme and not lazy at all.

Like c'mon, if they had ran out of synonyms after 8 generations they could have at least used the leader or city name at worst.

Late response but actually SV isn't the first time they've just resorted to naming the badges after types.

It's SwSh.

All ten of the badges in Galar were named after the Gym's specializing type. "Grass Badge", "Water Badge", "Fire Badge", etc. Paldea repeated it yet again with all of its badges.

So both Paldea and Galar basically resorted to naming badges after the specializing type. Both being the two most recent regions. In other words, the last time we had unique badge names for Gym Badges was actually in Kalos with XY. That's right, nearly 10 years ago. Alola didn't have Gyms so that remains an unusual case to this day.

So as far as badge names are concerned those have been an afterthought in the entirety of the Switch era. It started with Sword and Shield, and they did it a second time now with Scarlet and Violet.

 

[Worldie]

So as far as badge names are concerned those have been an afterthought in the entirety of the Switch era. It started with Sword and Shield, and they did it a second time now with Scarlet and Violet.

To be fair I can't blame them, after now 9 generations, keeping coming up with original names may have started to become pretty obnoxious

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Late response but actually SV isn't the first time they've just resorted to naming the badges after types.

It's SwSh.

All ten of the badges in Galar were named after the Gym's specializing type. "Grass Badge", "Water Badge", "Fire Badge", etc. Paldea repeated it yet again with all of its badges.

So both Paldea and Galar basically resorted to naming badges after the specializing type. Both being the two most recent regions. In other words, the last time we had unique badge names for Gym Badges was actually in Kalos with XY. That's right, nearly 10 years ago. Alola didn't have Gyms so that remains an unusual case to this day.

So as far as badge names are concerned those have been an afterthought in the entirety of the Switch era. It started with Sword and Shield, and they did it a second time now with Scarlet and Violet.

To my knowledge I don't think they name the badges at all in SV so I don't think it wouldn't be the second time? Unless I'm misremembering.

But they did do that in SWSH! I forgot! I do like that emblem it formed at least.

 

[R_N]

Charcadet's Shiny, and its evolutions, are just...so bad. I know we can all complain about Green shinies, or Barely Different Shade shinies and the "change specific part of the model only" shinies they love since the move to 3D.

But for the Charcadet line all that changes are the eyes. The extremely tiny eyes that get even harder to notice when it evolves.

Even if they didn't want to change the plate armor there's still a ton of ways they could have gone about this instead: the helmet, the fire plume, the black part of the body, the red/purple part of the body

On Ceruledge in particular it's really hard to notice and it's already something hard to notice!