Nah, the Pokémon low health beeping IS pretty annoying, not only because it is an especially obnoxious, persistent (gen 1-4) specimen of low-health warning, but also because of how unnecessary it is.
The purpose of a low-health alarm is to notify you once you're about to die while you're too distracted to pay attention to your health meter. This usually happens in hectic combat. The keyword here is "hectic". This means it only really has a place in action games, where you have to maintain your health in real time.
The example of Baby Mario's cry has been brought up, and it is a good example. They made his cry that annoying on purpose, because once you get hit, the game wants you to drop everything what you are doing and chase that sucker down. Like, imagine the game without it. You might get hit and not notice the baby floating away in a bubble because you're distracted by the shiny coins on the right. Then you die and go "What!?! I didn't even notice, what a cheap death!"
Pokémon however, is a turn-based RPG. You always have your health meter directly in front of you. There is never anything that should distract you from it, and chances are the first thing you will do after getting hit by an attack is watch how far it goes down. You do not need to be reminded to pay attention to your health, because you are already doing it. So low-health alarms are pointless in purely turn-based RPGs. The fact that it's so obnoxious makes it that much more unforgivable.
People hate to be annoyed for no reason. So I'm not surprised people cite it as annoying.
The purpose of a low-health alarm is to notify you once you're about to die while you're too distracted to pay attention to your health meter. This usually happens in hectic combat. The keyword here is "hectic". This means it only really has a place in action games, where you have to maintain your health in real time.
The example of Baby Mario's cry has been brought up, and it is a good example. They made his cry that annoying on purpose, because once you get hit, the game wants you to drop everything what you are doing and chase that sucker down. Like, imagine the game without it. You might get hit and not notice the baby floating away in a bubble because you're distracted by the shiny coins on the right. Then you die and go "What!?! I didn't even notice, what a cheap death!"
Pokémon however, is a turn-based RPG. You always have your health meter directly in front of you. There is never anything that should distract you from it, and chances are the first thing you will do after getting hit by an attack is watch how far it goes down. You do not need to be reminded to pay attention to your health, because you are already doing it. So low-health alarms are pointless in purely turn-based RPGs. The fact that it's so obnoxious makes it that much more unforgivable.
People hate to be annoyed for no reason. So I'm not surprised people cite it as annoying.
