>>28836749>>28836842>>28837191>>28837224Ultimately, the problem is that it's redundant.
The purpose of PP - ingame, at least - appears to be to prevent the player from spending too much time without visiting a pokémon center; in particular, it turns long routes and caves into challenges of endurance and resource management. This is very much a pre-2000 way to design an RPG, but that's not inherently bad.
The problem is that this dynamic already arises from another mechanic already in the game: consumable items. Rather, 'mons lose HP over time, and then you need to spend potions to restore that HP. Similarly, they get status conditions, and need items to heal. By adjusting the amount of money available to the player - in particular, by adjusting the amount that other trainers give you when you win - the designers could have significantly limited the availability of healing items, thus creating the endurance-challenge dynamic without adding anything extra to the game.
You might be thinking that just because PP is redundant doesn't mean that it actually makes the game worse. Well, I argue that it does. Running out of consumable items forces the player to play more intelligently; running out of PP (i.e. for a coverage move) prevents them from doing so. As you progress through a cave or route, your options are likely to become quite limited towards the end - unless you're the sort of nigger who uses four attacking moves on every pokémon.
What's really annoying to me is that PP decrease so much when you start using better moves. I don't think about the PP of a move so long as it's fifteen or higher, so why do the designers even include that information? What do they hope to gain by giving Flamethrower only 15 PP instead of 20? Either they're trying to reduce the options available to me towards the end of a dungeon, or they think it's going to make a difference over the course of just a few battles. The latter isn't true, and the former isn't fun.
PP suck.
