Game Bugs and Fixing Them

Once upon a time, the main series Pokémon games weren't so complex. There weren't as many Pokémon and moves for which their interactions needed to be coordinated and made sure they were as expected. But with every new generation, Pokémon, move, and battle mechanic, the game grows that more complex. And with that complexity, there is bound to be a few bugs, and there are, in fact. The challenge then becomes how to deal with them.

Most recently, there have been bugs with the Z-Move system. Since Z-Moves stack up on regular moves, they add a layer of complexity to the normal move system. It's no surprise, then, that bugs do appear with this system. In the Sun and Moon games, there was an issue with the move Parting Shot, and now with the Ultra games, there seems to be an issue with Wide Guard. Other bugs have been present since at least the fifth-generation games, but they have been fixed since.

How are they fixed? In the fifth generation, it wasn't - the DS system wasn't robust enough to do that. Instead, VGC rules simply ban the interaction in question, though this means the interaction is still available for regular play. In subsequent generations, the games are updated with a patch that rectifies the offending interaction, as a truly universal solution. In the sixth generation, it became the first time that the Pokémon games received such a treatment.

Admittedly, it's hard to keep something as complex as Pokémon battle mechanisms free of errors such as those mentioned above. There is just so many things to keep track in the mechanisms that it's easy for errors to manifest, and they actually do. Update patching is the available solution for that, at least when things don't go right the very first time. The mechanics become important for Trainers, so they should be right as right can be.

Complexity is an unavoidable thing in the case of the Pokémon games, which intend to keep its battle mechanisms going forward. In that case, imperfection becomes an unavoidable thing, as there is something that is overlooked and translates into the bugs. Fortunately, there is a way to deal with them easily today and make sure the games are perfectly coordinated for the times to come, even with all their complexities.