So I still don’t care for HMs in Pokemon games. I’ve heard arguments for them. I understand the pro-HM side conceptually but don’t vibe with it per se.

I am able to get my own vibe out of their reasoning though. See, one of the views is that players are doing things wrong by having HM slaves and that part of the fun and challenge should be about having HMs in your team’s move pools and figuring out how to make that work.

See, were it not for the obvious fact that “Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game”, that would make sense.

But Game Freak has not designed the game in a way to incentivize this behavior. Instead they gave us the ability to optimize this potential “fun(?)” out of the game:

Each Pokémon only has 4 move slots so those are very precious to people trying to maximize their potential from a limited active kit.

There are non-field moves that, in-battle, usually do the same thing as most of these field moves but better.

For example why would I give a Pokémon the 50 damage, 95% accurate, Normal-type field move Cut, when there’s Slash. Slash is 70 damage, 100% accurate, has a high critical hit ratio, is also a Normal type move like, and the Pokémon is performing the same physical action with the same anatomy!

And finally Game Freak made Pokémon that are able to learn nearly every field move at once, thus enabling HM slaves.

Everyone’s familiar with Bibarel that can learn 6 of 8 vital HMs in Generation 4. Pelliper can do 3 of 8, covering 2 Bibarel can’t do, covering you for Gen 4. I recently opened up my old Pokémon Emerald and was surprised to see young me figured out the whole HM slave system because in my PC box, I had a Linoone and a Wailmer covering all the needed HMs sans Fly.

But anyway, the thing I am able to vibe out of the pro-HM side was my own subtle reasoning: encouraging coverage.

I mentioned there are moves that are like field moves but better. But for me there are two field moves that are still great for battle and so vital for traversal that it makes more sense to have them in your team constantly: Surf and Fly.

Because you’re almost always going to need water travel and fast travel, I pretty much always had a Water Pokémon and a Flying Pokémon in every team and every generation.

Until I played Pokémon Moon. I got to the Pokémon League and realized after accruing a gang of my favorites that I didn’t have a single Flying type.

I wouldn’t necessarily call Flying a necessity for Pokémon teams but it has its uses. But because ride Pokémon exist, I didn’t need a Flying type, so I wasn’t forced to branch out that way. My team comp is still hella diverse but there could always be a moment in the future where we still have ride Pokémon and I accidentally forego a Water type which is arguably more useful.

However looking at my incomplete UltraSun game, it’s all starting to hit me. I have only 5 Pokémon on my UltraSun team. Because I cannot find a 6th one that I like that is also from the same generation and also doesn’t mess with my team balance.

Team UltraSun’s got a Decidueye, Vikavolt, Araquinid, Salazzle, and Alolan Ninetales. Nearly all the Pokémon I like of this Gen I used up for my Moon team. And the ones I was considering like Alolan Marowak has too much type overlap in a team that already has too many type overlaps.

Now imagine, if you will, if we didn’t have ride Pokémon. By my own play style I would be obligated to always have a Flying type with me. Given that necessity, I would have to branch out and go out of my way to find Flying Pokémon I could enjoy or warm up to.

Like I don’t think I would’ve actively chosen Archeops in Pokémon Black were it not for the fact I needed a unique Flying type. But when you look at it it’s actually a really cool Pokémon and I was glad to have it around.

It’s a stupid point of view and it’s built entirely out of my weirdly specific play style. However, if people do value having readily available transport at all time, then HMs could, in theory, bring value by encouraging you to branch out and try Pokémon you might’ve not considered as you’re trying to cover your HM bases.

But at the end of the day they’re still kinda stupid.

Like I get it, they’re progression tools so that you can control how far your player is able to go at any one time. It makes sense. And conceptually it is really cool to have your Pokémon be able to affect the world.

But the execution just does not live up to the fantasy of having your Pokémon affect the world. Especially since they use abstract shapes and time consuming cutscenes.

What we have here is a series of needs conflicting with experience. And there are many proposed solutions, most I’ve cribbed from other people.

My favorite solution is that instead of there being a specific move in a pokemon’s move pool, there are just Pokémon that are capable of using these abilities inherently and as long as you have one of these Pokémon in your party you’ll be able to overcome those obstacles.

Like, instead of teaching a Pokémon Cut, you just have Pokémon that could cut stuff down because they inherently have sharp claws or something and that just bypasses the whole thing. Oh, and it just happens automatically when you press A. That way we’re not wasting move slots and we can still have our Pokémon affect the world. And they just don’t have access to the ability until badge because yadda yadda.

My other favorite solution is that Pokémon remember ALL their moves, but can only use 4 in battle and you have to just set them outside of battles. That way a Pokémon can still have HM moves but they don’t effect your battle tactics unless you want them to.

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HMs have been replaced by special field moves in Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee

Game Freak director Junichi Masuda made a special appearance on the latest episode of Pokémon no Uchi Atsumaru?! (Pokénchi). During the new episode, which aired on September 9 at 7 a.m. JST in Japan, Masuda revealed Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. Masuda gave fans a first look at Surfing Pikachu, which appears in the upcoming duo of Pokémon games. Surfing Pikachuwas shown using the…