Restricting Pokemon to four moves?

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I read this in another thread that the writers are restricing the pokemon to just four moves. Is this really true and if so what r ur thoughts on it? Agree with it or disagree or dont care?

Personally if its true then i dont really like it. I mean what is the purpose of this? The anime is supposed to be different from the games after all.
 
Well, not sure if it's true or not.. But it will be boring if they did restrict it to 4moves.. Like you will be seeing a Pokemon using the same move till the enemy faints..
 
I think they shouldn't be 4 but then again I didn't like seeing Charizard having like 20 moves. Maybe 8 would be a fair amount but I barely even enjoy the anime these days, it's just fillers, contests and flashy effects.
 
Restricting it to just four moves is pretty okay by me - especially since the characters can still get away with combining those moves to make a whole other move that doesn't exist in the games (like Ice Aqua Jet).
If the Pokémon could have more than four moves it would be uninspirational and really dull.
 
I really like seeing Pokemon, which use a variety of moves, so I will get bored of the anime, if they reduce the amount of moves ,each Pokemon uses, to four.
 
There's been several instances of Pokemon using more than 4 different moves in a battle. So no, they don't.
 
I'm strongly against restricting Pokemon to only 4 moves. It'd get really dull and honestly, how'd they explain why Pokemon can only execute 4 moves and then forget one to learn another? This is not Digimon, you ca't justify it with data capacity or something like this.
 
It is true. Just look at Monferno. When Chimchar first appeared with Paul, it used Scratch, Dig, Ember and Flame Wheel. Ember was apparently replaced with Fire Spin around DP040, which was later replaced again with Flamethrower. And when it evolved into Monferno, Scratch was seemingly replaced with Mach Punch.

When does Monferno ever use Ember, Fire Spin or Scratch any more? It doesn't. And pretty much every Pokémon on Ash's/Dawn's/Brock's team uses up to four moves (sometimes five). The moves they no longer use are between ().

Pikachu: Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Volt Tackle (Thundershock, Thunder, Agility)
Staraptor: Brave Bird, Close Combat, Aerial Ace, Quick Attack (Whirlwind, Wing Attack)
Grotle: Energy Ball, Razor Leaf, Rock Climb, Synthesis (Tackle, Bite)
Monferno: Flamethrower, Flame Wheel, Dig, Mach Punch (Scratch, Fire Spin, Ember)
Gliscor: X-Scissor, Steel Wing, Fire Fang, Giga Impact (Screech, Sand Attack)
Buizel: Water Gun, Sonicboom, Water Pulse, Aqua Jet
Gible: Dig, Dragon Pulse, Rock Smash, Draco Meteor
Piplup: Bubblebeam, Peck, Bide, Whirlpool
Buneary: Dizzy Punch, Bounce, Ice Beam
Pachirisu: Discharge, Super Fang, Spark, Sweet Kiss
Ambipom: Swift, Double Hit, Double Team, Focus Punch (Scratch, Fury Swipes)
Mamoswine: Ice Shard, Take Down, Ancientpower, Hidden Power (Dig)
Cyndaquil: Flame Wheel, Swift, Smokescreen
Croagunk: Poison Sting, Poison Jab, Brick Break
Sudowoodo: Double-Edge, Hammer Arm, Mimic (Fake Tears, Headbutt, Flail)
Happiny: Pound, Secret Power
 
I don't like it, it's just an unnecessary restriction. They've been sticking to it for quite a while now, though. I guess it allows them to place more emphasis on the moves, since now usually there's a whole episode dedicated to a main character's pokemon learning a move rather than just pulling it out of nowhere, which had sometimes been the case way back. But I don't think that's a good thing.
 
Yeah, but there's a difference between not using and not been allowed/unable to learn. xD
 
Aladar said:
I'm strongly against restricting Pokemon to only 4 moves. It'd get really dull and honestly, how'd they explain why Pokemon can only execute 4 moves and then forget one to learn another? This is not Digimon, you ca't justify it with data capacity or something like this.
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maybe because pokémon are stupid? xD And now don't come to me with Alakazam's IQ, IQ doesn't say anything about intelligence.
 
mijzelffan said:
maybe because pokémon are stupid? xD And now don't come to me with Alakazam's IQ, IQ doesn't say anything about intelligence.
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I don't know about you but the way they fight and communicate with people doesn't seem stupid to me...


Unless, of course, you've decided to troll for the heck of it and there's no sense in responding to you. Oh, well...
 
Aladar said:
I don't know about you but the way they fight and communicate with people doesn't seem stupid to me...


Unless, of course, you've decided to troll for the heck of it and there's no sense in responding to you. Oh, well...
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hey, I was just thinking of an explanation. I haven't seen you with a better one yet =P But ok... Maybe knowing a move costs a lot of brain capacity and that's why pokémon can only learn four of them in order to keep behaving normally?
 
Mijzelffan said:
hey, I was just thinking of an explanation. I haven't seen you with a better one yet =P But ok... Maybe knowing a move costs a lot of brain capacity and that's why pokémon can only learn four of them in order to keep behaving normally?
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only being able to use four moves is a game mechanic to make competive battles interesting. By making each person want to have a different combination of moves depending on they're style of batttle. it's not in affect in the anime as snorlax in the battle frontier used 5 or 6 and more recently one of may's pokemon in the wallice cup used more then 4 moves (having rewatched this with out sound i might be mistaken about this one not sure). the reason why people seem to think that theres a four move limit is becasue of three things.

1. the games and some people will always pretend like game mechanics are binding in the anime

2. some moves are just power ups from old moves honestly why would you use ember when you can use flamethrower instead? ember really doesn't have any advantage over flamethrower and has a disadvantage.

3. most battles and strategies don't need more then four moves to be effective unless the battle is rreally long or the trainer is just trying moves at random to find something that works then more then four moves rarely happens.
 
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Only 4 attack moves in the anime? I never really payed attention... I'm more used to seeing a trainer using at least 2 or 3 in each battle they have with somebody else, along with telling their Pokemon to dodge attacks and using an opponent's attacks against them.
 
One thing is clear: the 4-move-restriction is followed closely for Pikachu. Once he learned Iron Tail, he forgot and never used again Agility. Once he learned Volt Tackle, he forgot and never used again Thunder. So, with Pikachu, the 4-move-restriction is followed strictly by writers. The same unfortunately can't be told about other Pokémon.
And yes, I wrote unfortunately, because I hate it whenever writers break this restriction. I think this restriction is what makes games difficult and interesting in the same time. I must tell I am sure the same would have been with anime if writers followed this restriction closely. I dissagree with those who wrote anime would be more boring with 4 move ristriction. Pokémon battles are all about strategies, so if trainers in anime would be forced to use only 4 moves, it would surely make their strategies more difficult and more interesting. Especially now, when writers are using move combinations outside Contests.
 
magicallypuzzled said:
it's not in affect in the anime as snorlax in the battle frontier used 5 or 6 and more recently one of may's pokemon in the wallice cup used more then 4 moves ure).
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Snorlax is a notable exception but even that was quite a long time ago now. It seems to me like the writers have been very careful with keeping to the 4-moves-only rule, even with rivals and other secondary characters.
I don't remember the case with May, but even if so it's a very rare exception. Compared to back in the original series when pokemon would frequently use any number of moves, or use a move and then never really use it again.

peno said:
And yes, I wrote unfortunately, because I hate it whenever writers break this restriction. I think this restriction is what makes games difficult and interesting in the same time. I must tell I am sure the same would have been with anime if writers followed this restriction closely. I dissagree with those who wrote anime would be more boring with 4 move ristriction. Pokémon battles are all about strategies, so if trainers in anime would be forced to use only 4 moves, it would surely make their strategies more difficult and more interesting. Especially now, when writers are using move combinations outside Contests.
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This is a very good point and I can understand that point of view. However unlike in the games we're seeing the main characters use the same few pokemon for the whole region, so there's only so much you can do with 4 moves. That's my opinion, anyway.
 
I'm happy the TV series doesn't follow that ridiculous restriction. Watching pokemon use the same four attacks over and over and over again is boring as hell.

I wish the games would get rid of that restriction as well; it made sense in the Game Boy days because of data capacity issues, but we're on the DS now. There's no excuse.
 
Please note: The thread is from 16 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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