Thoughts on the Elemental Monkeys?

[Ryker101]

Lol I liked them, didn’t realise how disliked they were until I went on the internet

Simipour was a key staple on my first playthrough, came in clutch against many opponents. Scald was a great water move early on and it had good coverage with ice beam/focus blast/acrobatics etc. Haven’t used the other two much tho

 

[Barrysun]

I had a hard time liking panpour and didn't care for it much. (Vaporeon will always be my main water user.

 

[Trillion]

panpour and simisage are actually pretty good

pansage an pansear are alright

simipour is kinda bad

simisear is horrendous

 

[janejane6178]

Wonderful and cute

 

[Kage-Pikachu]

i really liked them, i especially liked how we got a free one in the game. i just think the first gym would have been much more fun as a triple battle, it would have made them leave much more of an impact and possibly improve their popularity.

i loved the concept of them but it was hard to justify using them on my team as the game went on. Samurott was my usual starter (initally Snivy but it was a terrible choice), Lilligant replaced my Simisage and Victini replaced my Simisear.

 

[Lord Godwin]

I don't really understand the backlash.

Simisear is probably the worst but because it was introduces the same gen as Darmanitat.

It was GF idea for a New Eevee-like line but got too much hate.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think the problem of Simisear is that it debuted right after Infernape which is problematic as Simisear is basically a weaker Infernape with a similar body shape and facial structure. Rillaboom and Zarude were able to coexist without one overlapping the other due to Zarude being dual type and looking like a different type of primate and them having different Abilities. If Simisear had debuted in some other region like Johto or Kalos and at least one generation apart from Infernape, I think it might have been better received. I don’t think it is necessarily a badly designed Pokémon and it is average in battle in the Gen V games but it also was never going to be a fan favorite due to its average stats and design.

 

[Luthor]

I like them but I understand many do not. I've always thought that with a few small buffs they could easily be a lot more popular. If they had a good secondary abilities (they currently only have primary and hidden abilities), a few movepool improvements and a stat buff and they could be more popular.

 

[vondecayle]

They are not the best pokemon designs and their colors are somewhat bright compared to other pokemon, but they are not the worst either. I prefer the blue one over the other two.

 

[Tsukisha]

I kind of like the little ones. Pansage, Pansear and Panpour look indeed cute, I think.
Then the evolutions come and... Eww... I'd rather let Pansage, Pansear and Panpour hold an Eviolite.

 

[Missingno.Fan]

I kind of like Simipour because I used one on my first play through of Black. Other than that I don’t really have any strong opinions on them. I didn’t even know people hated them until recently.

 

[Espeonite]

Ugly and flop.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

I never understood why. It’s not like they’re forced upon you.

They... kind of are actually, and that's the biggest reason why I hate them. They're the only thing SE against the Striaton Trio's ace that the game allows you to have at that point in the game. It's especially frustrating because Rt. 3 and Wellspring Cave have some other perfectly viable Pokemon for that gym if they would just let you have access to them before beating them (you could use Pidove or Woobat against Cilan, Roggenrola against Chili, and Blitzle against Cress) but nope, they wanted to almost force you to form a bond with these damn monkeys so we can't have nice things. Beyond that, they're fairly generic and uninteresting but otherwise inoffensive. But the game basically shoving them down my throat really soured me on them.

 

[Ignition]

They... kind of are actually, and that's the biggest reason why I hate them. They're the only thing SE against the Striaton Trio's ace that the game allows you to have at that point in the game. It's especially frustrating because Rt. 3 and Wellspring Cave have some other perfectly viable Pokemon for that gym if they would just let you have access to them before beating them (you could use Pidove or Woobat against Cilan, Roggenrola against Chili, and Blitzle against Cress) but nope, they wanted to almost force you to form a bond with these damn monkeys so we can't have nice things. Beyond that, they're fairly generic and uninteresting but otherwise inoffensive. But the game basically shoving them down my throat really soured me on them.

They're not forced upon you just because they're the best choices available. You very well can ignore them and still have an easy time.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

They're not forced upon you just because they're the best choices available. You very well can ignore them and still have an easy time.

Technically no, but they're the only SE choices available. Unless you're doing a challenge run like a monotype or Nuzlocke, you're probably going to go for the SE hit. So it's not quite forced but it's pretty close. It doesn't get much closer than that in Pokemon.

 

[Ignition]

Technically no, but they're the only SE choices available. Unless you're doing a challenge run like a monotype or Nuzlocke, you're probably going to go for the SE hit. So it's not quite forced but it's pretty close. It doesn't get much closer than that in Pokemon.

That's not close to being forced. The battle is easily winnable without it.

 

[Red and Blue]

I don't really hate the monkeys but I'm pretty indifferent towards them at the same time. There are certainly Pokemon I find worse than them.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

That's not close to being forced. The battle is easily winnable without it.

Well Pokemon is never the kind of game to force you to do something, again that situation is about as close as it gets. But no, again how often are you going to win a battle without going for the type advantage? The game actively encourages it and AFAIK most players to that, so I would say that's pretty close to being forced.

And I'm not sure I'd call it "easily winnable". I recall even with the monkeys it was pretty grindy and painful due to BW's EXP system.

 

[Ignition]

Well Pokemon is never the kind of game to force you to do something, again that situation is about as close as it gets. But no, again how often are you going to win a battle without going for the type advantage? The game actively encourages it and AFAIK most players to that, so I would say that's pretty close to being forced.

And I'm not sure I'd call it "easily winnable". I recall even with the monkeys it was pretty grindy and painful due to BW's EXP system.

Depends. If I'm going up against a boss that has a weakness that I don't have, I won't bother finding one just for that fight. But if I do have one, of course I'll use it. I'd say more people would run through their game with their starter over worrying about type advantages. I see more "brute force with my favorites" than "adapt to the Gym by looking for advantageous Pokémon" so i don't think this is being forced.

I've used each monkey once and also played without them and I've never had any issue with EXP for their Gym. There has been times where I use my starter and just spam Tackle