Classical and New HP Heal Amounts

In the main series of Pokémon games as well as in Go, there are various items that can be used to recover the HP of a Pokémon. For both of these games, they are notably the Potion series of items. Recently though, in the main series games, the HP heal amounts were changed, not just for Potions, but for almost every item that heals HP. Even so, Go has not followed in the footsteps of the main series and still uses the classical amounts. This becomes a point that is worthy of some discussion.

One of the more notable changes is that Hyper Potion was reduced. Classically, Hyper Potion healed 200 HP, but then it was changed to 100 HP. At a glance, this does seem like a drastic change, but when carefully considered, it does seem to make sense. Even when they're maxed out, many Pokémon only have a few hundred HP and players don't often let their Pokémon hit the red, and even if the Pokémon does faint, a Revive takes care of half the HP, while the other half is taken care of by the heal items; 100 HP seems to be sufficient in most cases, precluding the rare case where a single Hyper Potion is not enough.

I'm a person who doesn't like to waste things, so I cringe whenever I heal up a Pokémon, being forced to use a Hyper Potion but not to its full capability and none of the lesser ones because they're insufficient. This occurs even more often in Go, since there are no Pokémon Centers, which means full reliance on healing items. Whether or not Go will conform to the new heal amounts remains to be seen, but it would seem that it would eventually have to if it is to be an echo of the main series. At least it would open the door for some efficiency.

Things continue to change in the world of the Pokémon games, and this happens to be one of them. The main series games provide a paradigm for a small part of it, as the classical HP heal amounts, and then changes them to new ones. If anything, Go as something that takes after many things from the main series can and should perhaps follow the new paradigm as well. It's a way of harmonizing the two, considering that one takes after the other, and yet the two are rooted in the same great world.

One year ago: 3DS Pokémon Themes