Gotta Review 'Em All - Abilities [Generation IV]

Whew, I still have flashbacks to when I reviewed all the Generation III Abilities en masse! I don't really think we ever got as huge of a glut of abilities -- or at least 'common' abilities -- as much as Generation III ever again. Generation IV will give us a couple more of the ones we consider common now, but unless I am mistaken, from Generation V onwards a lot of the abilities are more specific and 'signature' to certain gimmicky Pokemon.

It is also kind of interesting that when Generation IV debuted, they gave 'signature abilities' to some older, Generation I-III Pokemon that was unique to that line for a brief while before those specific abilities became a bit more common and distributed across the wider Pokemon population in general. I really did wish this became a bit more common later on, but I guess new abilities for older species aren't as marketable as new forms or whatever.

Anyway, not too much to say. On with the commentary!

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Generic Abilities:

Since there are much less new abilities introduced Generation IV, I've grouped them together. First we'll cover a bunch that are 'generic' abilities given immediately to a wide range of Pokemon. 

• Steadfast (Fukutsu no Kokoro/Indomitable Heart) We'll start off with some more 'generic' abilities. Steadfast, given to a bunch of 'tough' Pokemon, raises Speed whenever a Pokemon flinches, and... I get it, it's meant to turn a disadvantageous situation into an advantage, but... but you're still flinched, y'know? I'm pretty sure in any situation you'd rather have your Pokemon hit twice, instead of hitting once with a slight boost in speed. Oh well. 
• Tangled Feet (Chidori Ashi/Tottering Steps) Tangled Feet raises evasion when the Pokemon is confused, which is such a... strange requirement. Spindagets it and it makes 100% absolute sense that the drunk-dancing panda has it, but I would've thought that this is a 'drunken fighting' thing. But every other Pokemon that gets Tangled Feet is a bird, so I wonder if there's a pun here somewhere I'm not getting. 
• Quick Feet (Haya'ashi/Quick Feet) Quick Feet is another one with a similar premise, boosting Speed if the user is afflicted by a status ailment. I... I really don't have anything to say about here, honestly, so let's just move on.  
• Gluttony (Kuishinbo/Glutton) Kind of a useless ability, and we already have a bunch of Berry-related abilities and moves at this point. Gluttony means that the Pokemon triggers its Berry-eating a bit earlier than how the game flags it to be (50% health instead of 25% health). The Pokemon just can't wait to eat the orange it's holding, I guess.

• Hydration (Uruoi Bodi/Moist Body) We have a bunch more additional weather-related abilities, and Hydration is relatively simple. If it's raining, the rain will heal status conditions! Not as effective as Rain Dish's healing, but neat. 
• Solar Power (San Pawa/Sun Power) An interesting one! This one is owned not just by Fire-type Pokemon, but by some plants and also the solar-powered Helioptile line. Basically if the weather is sunlight, Solar Power increases the Special Attack in exchange for a percentage of their HP. I guess they are burning through much more enery than normal?
• Leaf Guard (Rifu Gado/Leaf Guard) One that's exclusive to Grass-types, Leaf Guard basically 'guards' the user against status ailments in sunlight. 
• Snow Cloak (Yukigakure/Hidden in the Snow) This one is fun and simple, basically Sand Veil but for the Hail condition. Snow Cloak boosts evasiveness in the snow, and it's always a neat trope of any icy monster to be hidden in the harsh blizzards of the mountains. 
• Ice Body (Aisu Bodi/Ice Body) And this one is Rain Dish, but with Hail instead of Rain. Not too much to say, the Pokemon heals in Hail. 

• Adaptability (Tekioryoku/Adaptability) This one is an interesting one. The effect is very simple -- the STAB (same-type-attack-bonus) is increased from 1.5x to 2x. Not too exciting. This was originally an ability that Eevee and Porygon-Z had, before it was given to a bunch of Pokemon that are based on real-life invasive species. Bass fishes (Basculin, Feebas), crayfishes (the Corpish line) and mongooses (the Yungoos line). While Eevee and Porygon-Z are 'unstable' Pokemon thanks to the nature of what they are, I do like that this is referring to how 'adaptable' a Pokemon is to their environment. Sometimes how easily a species can turn invasive is how they can capitalize on their own strength!
• Rivalry (Tososhin/Belligerence) Oh, this one is cute! Originally almost exclusive to the Nidoran line (Shinx has it, too), Rivalry gives the Pokemon an attack boost if the enemy Pokemon are the same gender. It's something similar to the kinds of territorial dogs that get a bit more... barky or yippy when they're faced with potential rivals to their mating situation, y'know? Very neat.
• Scrappy (Kimottama/Spunk) Apparently, if you're scrappy or 'spunky' enough, you can hit a ghost even though you're a Normal-type! I don't... I don't really get the idea behind this, I personally would've thought that this would be something flavoured more like the moves Odor Sleuth or Foresight, but sure, it exists. As someone who likes to use Ghost-types, I have to admit that this ability fucked me over way more times than it should have. 

• Aftermath (Yubaku/Induced Explosion) Yeah, very memorable for anyone who played the Sinnoh games as being that one ability the Drifloon line has that causes damage after you defeat him. It's not quite exclusive to Drifloon, becuase even in this generation the Stunky line has it (and of course, the original 'bomb' Pokemon Voltorb eventually gains Aftermath as a hidden ability). I do kind of like this, it's like one last 'fuck you' from the Pokemon as it goes out and faints. 
• Simple (Tanjun/Simple) A 'simple' ability (heh) originally exclusive to Bidoof and Numel. Basically the 'derpy' looking Pokemon, and while the original description is 'prone to wild stat changes', what it translaets to mechanically is the dobuling of stat changes. I do like that Pokemon does tend to really capitalize on the charm of these 'goofier' Pokemon. 
• Dry Skin (Kanso Hada/Dry Skin) A very interesting one, that I feel like is extra-applicable for the Croagunk and Helioptile lines. Dry Skin causes the Pokemon to take extra damage from Fire-types and even in harsh sunlight (poor Paras!) but they heal from Water-type moves and from the rain condition. That's like a couple of different weather abilities rolled into one, but I can really get that some organisms are just super sensitive to weather and humidity. 

• Technician (Tekunishan/Technician) Oh, this one! Now, I've never really got the flavour behind the term 'technician' and 'increasing moves that have low base power'. The ide is, of course, is that Technician boosts each individual instance of damage, so multi-hit moves like Bullet Seed would get multiple times of Technician boost. Very useful, but I've honestly personally never really got why Pokemon like Meowth, Breloom, Scizor, Ambipom or Cincinno are more able to be a 'technician' moreso than many of the Pokemon in the Fighting or Dark types. Eh. 
• Mold Breaker (Katayaburi/Mold-Breaking) The idea is that someone who 'breaks the mold' is new and different and innovative, and Mold Breaker basically nullifies other Abilities. I guess with more and more powerful abilities being introduced over the generation, they decided to slap Mold Breaker on some high-statted Pokemon like Rampardos and Haxorus to 'power' through anyone with a broken ability. In practice, Mold Breaker basically ends up getting slapped to a lot of Pokemon later on and, again, it's another Ability that shows up a lot, is rather useful, but I've never really quite 'got' the flavour beyond generic 'make this Pokemon useful in battle'. 
• Sniper (Sunaipa/Sniper) This one is pretty cool! Eventually, they kind of gave it to a bunch of less-thematic Pokemon, but originally it's an ability exclusive to 'gun-like' Pokemon like the Horsea line, the Sobble line and of course, the Remoraid line. It increases critical rate. Some of the others are Pokemon like Beedrill or Drapion that can presumably 'pinpoint' weak points with their needle-like appendages.
• Super Luck (Kyoun/Good Luck) Super Luck increases the critical hit ratio in different way, but the flavour is less about skill, as is implied by 'Sniper', but by luck. I do really find it cute that the Pokemon that are originally able to learn this are Absol (who's associated with warning people about bad luck) and Murkrow (crows are said to bring bad luck), and later on the Togepi line (who are more conventionally lucky). 

• Anticipation (Kikenyochi/Danger Premonition) Honestly kind of a useless ability if we're really talking about competitiveness, but 'Anticipation' basically allows its user to realize that the enemy has a super-effective move against it... or, originally, one-hit-KO moves or self-destruction moves. This is basically that trope in anime or action movies where a character takes a look at something and goes... "oh man, this is going to suck." Anticipation doesn't make you more likely to dodge the super-effective move, or to gain resistance against it, or to get a buff... it's just poor ol' Croagunk here realizing that the enemy has a 4x-effective Psychic and goes "aaaaaaaaah shit."
• Forewarn (Yochimu/Prophetic Dream) Forewarn is a bit of a more interesting variation, in that Forewarn tells the trainer the most powerful move that the opponent has. The Japanese name is literally 'prophetic dream', which is why the Drowzee and Munna lines -- both based on dream-eating monsters -- have this. Not particularly useful once you realize the pool of 'high-power moves' can easily be inferred by any half-decent trainer, but it's a cute one regardless. (The other line that can get this is Jynx, which... okay, she's a Psychic too I guess). 
• Tinted Lens (Iromegane/Tinted Glasses) A play on the pun of 'viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses', Tinted Lens boosts the power of your moves... if they're not very effective. It's like a less-useful version of Technician, I think, but wher

• Storm Drain (Yobimizu/Pump Priming) Similar to Lightning Rod, Storm Drain draws in all Water-type attacks, and then in later generations, Storm Drain offers immunity to Water-type damage and a free Special Attack buff. It's admittedly a bit less intuitive to imagine compared to Lightning Rod (which already happens based on real physics), though the idea of giant storm drains absorbing floodwater is pretty neat. I also like that some of the Pokemon that have Storm Drain are actually plants like Lileep and Maractus! It makes sense, they use their roots!
• Frisk (Omitoshi/Unobstructed Sight) The Pokemon can check the opponent's item, which isn't the most useful ability to have in battle, really. I do find it interesting that while the English name is 'Frisk', which implies physically touching and frisking the enemy, the Japanese name is 'Unobstructed Sight', which is why a lot of the Pokemon with this ability have big, prominent eyes, like Dusclops, or Yanma, or Stantler; as well as a bunch of Psychic or Ghost types.  
• Anger Point (Ikari no Tsubo/Anger Point) A bunch of Pokemon that are particularly 'angry' by default, like Primeape and Tauros, have this ability naturally and... it's another one of the 'get a buff after something bad happens to you' abilities, and this is probably the best of the ones here? A very high Attack boost after you get hit by a critical hit. Very flavourful, too, you can just see a Primeape or something going insanely furious and beat the shit out of whoever pissed him off. 

Is that all the 'generic' abilities? Yeah, a lot of them aren't... aren't the most interesting. The ones I'm going to talk about next are going to be a bunch of signature abilities, and then we'll cover some interesting previously-signature abilities, which I think I have a bit more to talk about!

• Multitype (Maruchitaipu/Multitype) This is around the generation where Pokemon realized that a legendary Pokemon's transformation ability could be represented in their abilities, similar to Castform! Which means that Deoxys ends up becoming this little weirdo who does some transformation but doesn't have a signature ability. Multitype here is the ability of Arceus, the 'god' of Pokemon. Multitype allows Arceus to transform into any type that you attach the respective 'type' to, changing the secondary colours of Arceus and changing the type of his signature move Judgment. In practice you can't change plates mid-battle, so it is admittedly a bit underwhelming because the type of Arceus is already locked in at the beginning of the battle, but lore-wise it's extremely cool, especially with the implication (and confirmation via tie-in material) that the Plates are basically all aspects of Arceus's power that are scattered in Sinnoh. Pretty neat!
• Flower Gift (Furawa Gifuto/Flower Gift) And this is the signature ability of Cherrim, allowing it to 'open up' from its Overcast form to its Sunshine form when the weather is sunny. In addition to the form change, Flower Gift also gives a boost in Attack and Special Defense. It also powers up Cherrim's allies in multi-battles, which isn't something I knew! 

• Bad Dreams (Naitomea/Nightmare) Just straight-up 'Nightmare' in the original Japanese, which is already used as an English move name, 'Bad Dreams' is Darkrai's signature ability, which just passively deals damage to any sleeping opponent Pokemon. Darkrai's whole deal is that he's the embodiment of nightmares and night terrors, and coupled with Darkrai's own signature sleep-inducing moves, Bad Dreams is a pretty creepy and flavourful ability! Again, just like Groudon and Kyogre's Drought and Drizzle, it really does a great job at showing how Darkrai 'embodies' his element. 
• Slow Start (Suro Sutato/Slow Start) Otherwise known as 'why Regigigas sucks', this is kind of a self-damaging Ability similar to Slaking's Truant. There is some flavour to this -- the idea is that Regigigas is slumbering for so long that it takes time for him to actually fully awaken and embrace its full strength... but halving its Attack and Speed stats for five turns? This ability would've been plenty of a debuff if it had its effect in two turns, let alone five. Pretty flavourful, but man, poor, poor, Regigigas. Recently, in Generation IX, Varoom of all things gets this as a hidden ability. I guess some car engines are just inherently broken. 

• Unaware (Ten'nen/Airhead) This was previously the signature move of the Bidoof line, until it was given to a lot of other Pokemon. I think it works best with its original user, because the idea is that Bidoof is so unaware, such an airhead, that he doesn't really realize that the opponent's stats have changed. It's such a flavourful ability, I think, and it definitely fits a lot of the other recipients like Wooper. Frankly, I'm surprised Slowpoke didn't get this ability!
• Honey Gather (Mitsu Atsume/Honey Gather) Originally Combee's signature ability and later given to other honey-gathering Pokemon like Teddiursa and Cutiefly, Honey Gather allows the Pokemon to suddenly get honey as you travel around in the overworld. Not useful since Pickup is better, but a cute ability that Combee loses as soon as she evolves into Vespiquen -- and the queen bees don't go around gathering honey anyway!

• Snow Warning (Yuki Furashi/Snow Fall) The equivalent to Tyranitar's Sand Stream, 'Snow Warning' is basically automatic Hail in the beginning of the turn. This was originally the signature ability of Snover and Abomasnow, though it has cropped up as hidden abilities in other Ice Pokemon. I kinda feel like this works well with Abomasnow's whole 'yeti' vibe. It's not that the yeti only shows up when it's snowing heavily, but rather the yeti summons the snowstorm to cover his appearance!
• Unburden (Karuwaza/Acrobatics) Bizarrely, this was Drifloon's signature ability! This doesn't even really feel particularly signature-y, and I mentally associate Drifloon more with Aftermath anyway. This was given to a lot of Pokemon eventually, and I kinda... approve? Unburden raises speed if a held item is consumed, which I think is meant to evoke the mental image of someone in a hot-air balloon tossing ballasts to make the hot-air balloon to rise, but any sufficiently 'sneaky' Pokemon dropping some of their weight to move quickly, Rock Lee style, works well flavour-wise!
• Klutz (Bukiyo/Clumsy) Originally the Buneary line's signature Ability, Pokemon with Klutz are so clumsy that they can't use held items. It's a reference to that honestly rather tired anime trope of 'oh no, this girl is so clumsy and kawaii, dropping everything she's holding', which is kinda eye-rolling since it's attached to a bunny girl. There's a bit of a usage where the Pokemon can hold damaging items and then fling or swap it with the opponent, but it's otherwise kind of useless.

• Heatproof (Tainetsu/Heatproof) It's as it implies -- the Pokemon takes less damage from Fire-type moves. This is originally exclusive to the Bronzor line (and currently Rolycoly is the other one that has it) and it does make fighting Bronzor and Bronzong a bit annoying. The two common abilities for that line is either Levitate (nullifies Ground) or Heatproof (resistance to Fire), and this was back when Steel-type resisted Dark and Ghost types. This means that it's a bit of a crap-shoot on what works best on the Bronzors and Bronzong you meet in wild. 
• Motor Drive (Denki Enjin/Electric Engine) Huh, only Electivire has this? It's weird that his budy Magmortar doesn't get a signature ability, but this one does make sense. Motor Drive allows a Pokemon to absorb Electric attacks and increase its Speed instead, because shooting lightning at a lightning-tiger-man powers its 'engine' up. It's actually surprising that this doesn't get given to more Pokemon, with only the Blitzle and Emolga lines getting this after Generation IV.
• Stall (Atodashi/Going After) This is the signature ability of Sableye even until now, allowing Sableye to move last. It's... I guess it's useful for some specific moves like Payback? But you very rarely ever want to move last, and countering moves already have reduced priority anyway. Honestly, you really do think of 'Prankster' when you think of Sableye, and that's an ability that increases priority of specific moves. Kind of a shame, this Ability could probably have something interesting going on for it if it was revised for Mega Sableye (who looks like it could stall with its giant gem) and gives a damage bonus in exchange for going last or something, but nope, Stall is just kinda... terrible. 

The ones after these are all signature (or formerly signature) abilities given to older Pokemon, which I want to highlight and call out special attention to. I really do love this, and I really wish this was something that they would do... but with modern Pokemon games cutting entire Pokemon and moves out of the game, it's kind of a shame! They barely even do this anymore, leaving a lot of older pre-Gen-V Pokemon with underwhelming abilities, and when they do change abilities it's to nerf Gengar. Admittedly adding new abilities to older Pokemon isn't quite as flashy as adding a new evolution or regional form, but still...

• Skill Link (Sukiru Rinku/Skill Link) It's surprising that this originated as a signature ability... of Shellder and Cloyster! I guess it's supposed to work with Icicle Spear, except that Skill Link gets given to a lot of other Pokemon that could make use of it better than Cloyster ever could. Cinccino, Ambipom, and especially Mega Heracross. This basically guarantees any move that has a 'attacks 2-5x' like Pin Missile, Rock Blast or Bullet Seed to always hit 5 times, which isn't very impressive with Cloyster's sub-par stats, but terrifying with someone like Mega Heracross's stats. 
• Reckless (Sutemi/Risking Life) Another one that got given to a lot of Pokemon as a hidden ability, in Generation IV Reckless was specific to just Hitmonlee... and I guess Hitmonlee is a bit more reckless than your average Pokemon? I do agree that it fits aggressive, dumb-charging Pokemon like Rhyhorn, Basculin and Bouffalant, though! Reckless powers up moves that deal recoil damage.
• Iron Fist (Tetsu no Kobushi/Iron Fist) A lot more thematic for Hitmonchan than 'Reckless' was for Hitmonlee, Iron Fist powers up moves that use punches, except for 'Sucker Punch' because its original Japanese move doesn't actually have 'punch' in its name. There are some fighting-types that get this ability just because, but I do like that some Pokemon like Crabrawler or Ledian, who are all about punching, get Iron Fist as an ability. 

• Magic Guard (Majikku Gado/Magic Guard) We've got two 'guard' abilities, with Magic Guard being given to Clefairy's evolutionary line originally. Magic Guard causes the Pokemon to be protected from all indirect damage like poison, burn, weather effects, entry hazards, Leech Seeds, recoil damage, et cetera. A cute enough ability even if it's not the most useful. It is interseting that other than the Clefairy line, all the other ones with Magic Guard are Psychic types (the Solosis, Abra and Sigilyph lines), though I suppose this decision was made before the advent of Fairy-types. 
• No Guard (No Gado/No Guard) Meanwhile, No Guard was originally the Machop line's signature ability, and it kinda is a far more flavourful idea of 'Reckless' above. With No Guard, things basically become a gamble, because all moves used by this Pokemon cannot miss... but all moves used against this Pokemon cannot miss either. A bunch of other 'reckless' Pokemon have this ability too, like Midnight Lycanroc, Karrablast (before character development gives him a shell) and Golurk (a rampaging golem), but my favourite recipient of this ability are Honedge and Doublade, but not Aegislash. Aegislash finally wisens up from having 'No Guard' since it manifests a shield in evolution!
• Filter (Firuta/Filter) Filter is Mr. Mime's signature ability, and it basically reduces super-effective attack damage from dealing 2x damage to 1.5x damage. Not... not the most interesting ability, but I guess they had to try to make this a bit more balanced? I do like that Mr. Mime's barriers are at least represented in his abilities, though. The other Pokemon that have this ability are those with armour plating, like Revavroom and Mega-Aggron. 
• Solid Rock (Hado Rokku/Hard Rock) Solid Rock has the exact same effect as Filter, although it's flavoured as being made of such 'hard rock' instead of a defensive shield or armour. This is the signature move of the Numel line, and later given to the Tirtouga line. I'm actually surprised this ability hasn't became a bit more prevalent!

• Download (Daunrodo/Download) Obviously the signature ability of the Porygon line, this was later shared only with Genesect, which is a cyborg bug and it kinda makes sense. Download is supposed to represent Porygon's ability to turn itself into digital form or to 'download' data or something. In the battle it allows Porygon or Genesect to 'scan' the enemy and raises its Attack or Special Attack stat depending on which respective Defensive stat is lower for the enemy. That's cool!
• Poison Heal (Poizun Hiru/Poison Heal) The signature ability of the Shroomish line, and only later shared with Gliscor, Poison Heal basically allows the Pokemon to be healed instead of damaged if they are poisoned. This allows for Breloom (Grass/Fighting) and Gliscor (Ground/Flying) to have essential immunity to the Poisoned effect, since they are kinda Poison-coded, being a mushroom and a scorpion respectively, but not actually Poison type. Cute. 
• Normalize (Nomaru Sukin/Normal Skin) Normalize honestly feels like the prototype for the other 'change moves used to another type' abilities that would appear a lot later on. Normalize is the signature ability of the Skitty line, and turns all moves they use into the Normal type... which is interesting but not particularly useful. 

Phew, and that's it! This article took a fair bit to write -- mostly cause it's pretty long but not long enough for me to split into two. I am reasonably happy with it. I don't think the next batch of 'Abilities' articles will be particularly interesting to write since a lot of the more 'generic' abilities are already covered in Generation III and IV, whereas a lot of the abilities introduced particularly from Generation VI-VII onwards would be pretty specific to the gimmick of the newer Pokemon. Oh well, see you guys next time!