I've always said to myself that as long as there is one person who really really likes a Pokemon, then that Pokemon should exist. And I have yet to find any Pokemon that has not had at least one really ardent fan! Gothitelle wouldn't be in my favourites list, design-wise, and not just since its stats are meh and its ability is... well, check out the policy forum, but just because it's a very... "modern" design. Like how modern art is typically imagined by your average joe. Very... bold. Geometric. Pushes the envelope. And that's all without considering the subject matter! But those aren't reasons to dislike it, I just think Goth is one of those polarising designs. I am thoroughly glad it exists.
This sounds like a really good philosophy. It means every Pokemon has a valid right or reason to exist, and that's great. Though I still think all of them do for other reasons as well. I do personally really like the design of Gothitelle though, but I already said that in my last post... I should mention that I love its Hidden Ability as well though.
While I deeply love HGSS, I was indeed very disappointed in the Kanto post-game as well. It felt so chaotic without a story or guideline to make it interesting. Sort of like Nintendo just presented the region itself but didn't bother to put anything to do or experience in it. You could explore it I guess? But that felt more like a chore than anything else, with all the wild Pokemon being at such a low level and the trainers not posing a challenge at all.
I feel mostly the same (except unlike you, I strongly dislike HG/SS as a whole). Before I played them, I got blinded by nostalgic memories from playing G/S/C and remembered how great it was to have a second region to explore once you had beaten the game. But once I played HG/SS, I found Kanto to be very dull and lifeless. Like you say, it is more of a chore than anything else. And thinking back now, I remember it being mostly the same in G/S/C. It seemed so fantastic once you found out that the games had an entire second region to explore, but while playing through it, the only things that could be done was to beat the regular trainers and the gyms, then there was nothing more. HG/SS could have improved on it, but they did not, which is unfortunate. G/S/C did at least have some other good points to make up for this, but HG/SS didn't.
Then on to another subject. Difficulty was brought up in this thread again and I wanted to say quite a few things on it. To begin with:
6. Put the E4 back into how it was for everything before BW
I have to disagree on this. Don't really know if this is unpopular but I definitely prefer the way they did the E4 in 5th Gen and X/Y compared to other games. It meant that you had to grind less before taking them on which I appreciate since the difference between the lowest Pokemon in the E4 and the Champion's strongest could be 10 levels or even higher in the pre-gen 5 games and OR/AS. And this meant that any Pokemon encountered before that could not be stronger than the strongest of the first E4 member, which required a lot of grinding for me as I like to be on the same level as the Champion before taking on the E4. But that's just the way I did it, I guess we each have our own preferences.
Plus, being able to challenge the E4 in any order you want to is an example of non-linearity in the games. As much as people complain about the games being linear, shouldn't this be praised for all eternity now that we get something that is non-linear for once?
I also don't agree with everything else you listed but I don't feel like getting into a discussion about it, save for one thing: the 6th Gen Exp. Share. Instead of getting it later in the games or changing it back to the bad way it was in previous generations, there is a much simpler solution that is so simple that people seem to miss it. You can simply turn it off! I don't know why this is so hard to do. If you don't want to use the Exp. Share, then don't. Nothing could be easier. It takes five seconds and doesn't require a large amount of knowledge or experience, you just need to know how items and menus work and every player does that. I am disturbed by how many complaints there are for a feature that is entirely
optional. Doesn't make my impression of the fandom better, that's for sure.
Now, to continue on the topic of difficulty, I want to say a few things that people seem to forget when talking about this particular subject. What I have left to say is not a reply to anyone, and I guess some of it will repeat what others have already said.
First of all, we are not the target audience of the series. Pokemon is - and has always been - a game and a franchise aimed towards children. Not teens and adults. If you are above the age of 12, you have no valid right to ask for the games to pander to your personal interests. Regarding the difficulty, I really don't think any child would want to play through a Pokemon game that is horrifyingly difficult. Plus, I am convinced that there are children that are having trouble playing through X/Y and OR/AS today, just as I believe most if not all of us had problems while we were playing through our first Pokemon game.
Then we also need to remember this: Not everyone who plays Pokemon is a hardcore or competitive player. There are casual players as well and I really don't think they would appreciate a random difficulty spike in the games for no good reason. They just want to play through the games and have fun (like everyone does) but in a different way compared to hardcore or competitive players, and that needs to be respected. Thus, making the games more difficult is not a good idea.
And guess what? There is a solution to this whole difficulty debacle, to make everyone happy: difficulty modes! We already had them once in B2/W2 and I would love to see them return (as I am sure many others would), but on a larger scale (and have all of them available from start). That way, everyone could be happy, both children and adults as well as casual and hardcore players. But of course, they must be optional and not forced. Though, considering how much the fandom loves to complain about optional features... I'm not surprised we haven't seen something like this after B2/W2.
To round this off, I have two unpopular opinions regarding difficulty in the games.
I have said it before, but I'll say it again. The Pokemon games are not getting easier. The older games in the series are not harder than the newer ones. The games have always been easy, all of them. All the way from R/B/Y to OR/AS. If you find the newer games to be easier than the older ones, it is not because they are (as they are not), but rather because you as a player have gotten much experience while playing through multiple games and generations and now know how to play efficiently compared to when you started. I doubt anyone was a good player at the start (maybe if you started playing as an adult? Though I don't know), we have all learned how to play along the way. This is regarding the main storyline, not the post-game as well as Battle Facilities and online battling as they are a completely different subject.
I don't know if this is unpopular, but I want to say it to tie in with the above. I love the way the Exp. Share works in 6th Gen. It makes training and grinding so easy, and makes it very easy to make the whole team catch up if some extra grinding should be needed. It also makes it easier than ever before to complete the Pokedex. I do keep it off while playing through the main story since I don't want to get ridiculously overleveled, but I can't deny its awesomeness. I hope they keep it for all future generations and maybe improve on it even further.
Moving on to other things. The subject is unpopular opinions after all, and I have two more.
I liked the story in B2/W2. Obvious disclaim first: no, it wasn't as good as the story in B/W. But it didn't need to be. It could be good on its own without topping its predecessor, and it was. It continued on the awesomeness from the first pair instead of triumphing it, and that was all that was needed. I loved seeing how everything had changed in Unova during the two years that had passed. And the references to the first pair and the events in them were amazing, especially with Memory Link. Though I admittedly never played through these games without Memory Link so I have no idea what it was without it. The way Team Plasma had changed was handled well, and I liked the Rival's story too. Characters and events were memorable all around, creating a fantastic experience that I will always remember fondly.
I wouldn't mind if the games got another reboot in the future. Quite the opposite actually, I would love it. In fact, I would love to see kind of a combination of what R/S and B/W did. Make it so that Pokemon cannot be sent over from past generations, and have only new Pokemon available before beating the main storyline. This would of course require them to create many new Pokemon again (which I sure as heck wouldn't mind) and have all old Pokemon be available in the post-game, or if not, make another situation like with FR/LG and have some of them only be available in an upcoming game. Not going to continue on this track because it's getting off-topic, but it's an unpopular opinion of mine either way.
