Unpopular opinions

[Random Passerby]

It also doesn't necessarily need to be Special focused. Fire/Fighting is one of those types that honestly can run either special, physical, or mixed. Fire leads to Special coverage while Fighting leads to Physical, and there are some notable exception in-between (if the Pokemon is made so that it could logically have those moves). The only thing it can't do is be defensive but, come on, why would you a Pokemon of that type to be defensive?

Infernape is not amused.

Yeah, the thing about the reptile Grass Starters is that they're all different reptiles, but we're comparing apples to oranges here. Reptile Grass-type Starters is a design discussion while Fire/Fighting Starter is a usability discussion. Fire/Fighting Starter had sort of followed the same formula which made a bit predictable in terms of use. Reptile Grass Starters are only limited by the designers imagination and I've think they'd done a decent enough job with what they had to work with.

Not just the designs but their roles in battling as well. Except for Sceptile and Serperior, all the Grass starters are slow, offensive tanks. However, that is not something new since all Fire starters are something of a Glass Cannon (unless specifically EV-ed to tank hits such as Mega Charizard-X and Infernape)

 

[HelenTheHero]

I don't like the Fennekin line. They messed it up hard. You start with this cute little fox, who you expect to evolve into maybe a larger fox. Yeah, it becomes a larger fox... a large, ugly, strange looking fox with a stick in it's tail. Then you think "Maybe it gets better..." and while Delphox looks better, still... why did they ruin Braixien? It just... I can't dwell on it more.
First playthrough of X ever, chose Fennekin... dreams were crushed.

 

[Xen]

But why always favor Fire types?

Guess this could count as an unpopular opinion, but I actually think the Fire starters are overrated. The only Fire type starter I've used (during 1st playthroughs) is Chimchar. Considering Charmander's popularity back in Gen I (and even now ofc), I was that one kid who picked Squirtle, and became the Pokemon Master of the kindergarten playground at my school.

#TeamSquirtle

 

[HelenTheHero]

#TeamFroakieAndTurtwig

 

[Norne]

I don't like the Fennekin line. They messed it up hard. You start with this cute little fox, who you expect to evolve into maybe a larger fox. Yeah, it becomes a larger fox... a large, ugly, strange looking fox with a stick in it's tail. Then you think "Maybe it gets better..." and while Delphox looks better, still... why did they ruin Braixien? It just... I can't dwell on it more.
First playthrough of X ever, chose Fennekin... dreams were crushed.

I like Delphox to be honest, and braixen is still better than any middle stage of Sinnoh.

 

[Lady Vader]

But why always favor Fire types?

Well, Fire itself is kinda awesome, so it lends itself to cooler designs. Also, I find the red member of something is always given priority. This includes Sentai/Power Rangers and BIONICLE. Not always the case, but often is.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Infernape is not amused.

Not just the designs but their roles in battling as well. Except for Sceptile and Serperior, all the Grass starters are slow, offensive tanks. However, that is not something new since all Fire starters are something of a Glass Cannon (unless specifically EV-ed to tank hits such as Mega Charizard-X and Infernape)

Why is Infernape not amused? It's a mixed attacker which I mentioned, its Fire-type is the main way it'll be using its Special Attack since the only Special Fighting-type move it knows is Focus Blast, its movepool is very leaned toward physical with plenty of Fighting-type moves (and Fire-type), and if you plan on using Infernape as a defensive Pokemon I think you're going to be disappointed. It perfectly fits within the criteria I set up.

That's more the Pokemon's type stereotyping them. While a Pokemon's design can subvert how a Pokemon of that type usually plays, for the most part a Pokemon will play a bit into its typing. Plants aren't exactly known to be fast, but some are pretty sturdy (unless against a weakness). It's probably also why many of the Fire/Fighting have a high Special Attack, their Fire side pretty much demands it.

I don't like the Fennekin line. They messed it up hard. You start with this cute little fox, who you expect to evolve into maybe a larger fox. Yeah, it becomes a larger fox... a large, ugly, strange looking fox with a stick in it's tail. Then you think "Maybe it gets better..." and while Delphox looks better, still... why did they ruin Braixien? It just... I can't dwell on it more.
First playthrough of X ever, chose Fennekin... dreams were crushed.

They definitely could have done better with the design of the evolutions. I get what they were going for but at the same time it made its design dull looking and even unnatural (and that's a lot to say considering this is a Pokemon who can be whatever it wants to be). If they wanted to go the way they did, I think they needed to add more to its design to make it look even more like a witch (Braixen) and mage (Delphox). As it stands now they kind of look like they put a foxes head on a person's body. FUN FACT: Delphox is the only final form Fire Starter who doesn't have a part of its body which it could light on fire, instead the stick is carries lights on fire when battling.

Why Always Fire:
For me I chose Fire because, well, this is a fighting game so what would I rather do: throw leaves and vines at them, squirt them with water, or BURN THEM ALIVE. Looking for high damage here, because they can't knock you out if you knock them out first! Now this was back before I knew much about Pokemon, back in the Gen I days, so the options I saw was: a frog with a bulb on its back which became a bigger frog with a flower on its back, a turtle which became a bigger turtle that has water cannons on it back (which I admit it cool), and a lizard WITH ITS TAIL ON FIRE that became A DRAGON (with its tail on fire). Sure Charmander's body looked plain, but what drew you in and made it different was that its tail was on fire.
Also I don't always pick Fire, in AS I picked Sceptile because I had the special Blaziken in Y and though to try out something different (also it gave me the type advantage over Team Aqua). Honestly I don't think it would have been much different if I picked Blaziken, Marshtomp probably would have changed the way I played since I probably wouldn't have then used Tentacruel on my team.

 

[Karxrida]

Why is Infernape not amused? It's a mixed attacker which I mentioned, its Fire-type is the main way it'll be using its Special Attack since the only Special Fighting-type move it knows is Focus Blast, its movepool is very leaned toward physical with plenty of Fighting-type moves (and Fire-type), and if you plan on using Infernape as a defensive Pokemon I think you're going to be disappointed. It perfectly fits within the criteria I set up.

From what I've heard people have actually been using a Defensive Infernape set with Will-O-Wisp, Slack Off and two other attacks (STAB probably?) recently to some success, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me what it's supposed to check/counter.

 

[Random Passerby]

Why is Infernape not amused? It's a mixed attacker which I mentioned, its Fire-type is the main way it'll be using its Special Attack since the only Special Fighting-type move it knows is Focus Blast, its movepool is very leaned toward physical with plenty of Fighting-type moves (and Fire-type), and if you plan on using Infernape as a defensive Pokemon I think you're going to be disappointed. It perfectly fits within the criteria I set up.

Defensive Infernape is one of the best Bisharp counter in OU. It is also a good check to Weavile and Mega Scizor while outspeeding Gyarados with very little investment in Speed and burn it if it tries to set-up.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Oh, that actually surprising to hear. Then again, my Infernape was particularly user of Close Combat so in most of its battles it was battling with its defensive stats lowered (infact I went through all of Crusher Wake's Gym by having my Monferno/Infernape Close Combat all his Pokemon, including his Gyarados (it being overleveled also helped)). I guess it goes to show you with the rights moves and manipulation Pokemon can play multiple roles even if you think it couldn't. I guess for Infernape the key thing here is its high speed, I mean they tried to make poor Emboar somewhat of a wall but sadly it doesn't have the defensive stats for it and it has low Speed. Should have just focused on Attack and its weight (come on Emboar, you're a sumo, I'm sure you can eat enough until your as heavy as at least a Snorlax).

 

[Kurona]

The idea of a Light Type is always something that, while I admittedly can't easily explain it, always annoyed the fuck out of me. Whenever someone brought it up it always sounded just such a really bad fan idea that wasn't thought through well at all. It's most often theorized as a counterpart to Dark; which is bad to me because 1. Dark sort of... already does have a counterpart in Psychic in a weird way, and 2. That makes the type incredibly one-dimensional and boring if that's all you're introducing it for. It also just reeks of the all-too-common "dark vs light; evil vs good" trope in Anime and RPGs which I am so glad Pokémon has managed to avoid.
By contrast; and this probably deserves it's own thing, but I much much much prefer the Fairy type. It doesn't try to be a Dark counterpart and hence finds it's own identity; and while it might seem arbitrary due to how specific 'fairy' is compared to concepts like rocks and water, I see it like Bug, Ghost and Dragon where it caters to a specific sub-species which can be wide and varied. I also don't know where people are coming from when they say the type matchups were handled badly - aside from being resistant to Bug (which is, admittedly, really dumb when Bug has enough problems and it doesn't even make sense thematically) I do find it handled very well. Let's start off with the three things it's super effective against and resists - Dragon, Fighting and Dark. Those were needed. Dragon and Fighting spam, if you played Gen 4/5, were fucking everywhere due to the insane buffs they received in those two gens. Now that leaves Dark, which wasn't overpowered at all though mostly due to the fact that it didn't have high base power moves. Enter Gen 6, which gives it fucking Knock Off and the removal of Steel's resistance to it. At that point, were it not for Fairy I'd argue a lot of Dark-types like Bisharp would become really broken. If you've played the OU meta recently or even near the start of XY you'll know the Dark Spam is real; heck in the No Mega ladder Knock Off dominates the entire thing. Meanwhile, the things that are super effective against it are Poison and Steel, neither of which were previously good attacking types and people complain you have to run them. Well, good I say! It's great to see some variety in attacking moves and I think that's partly what the Fairy type set out to do and succeeded. Heck if you take a look the types themselves offensively aren't really that bad - they have some pretty neat moves too - they were just outclassed and not worth using aside from a few Pokémon's STABs. Steel has recently become a popular offensive type in OU and is great regardless of Fairies; it's not like you're running something unviable just to hammer them. And hey, I fucking love Mega Beedrill so any excuse to make it better is good with me. Finally Fire resisting it... eh, that's cool, a typing this good did need that extra resist, especially with a type that isn't that bad defensively and is relatively common.
And to make a final point on the fairies; I will say that aside from a few obvious outliers - but come on guys, did you really expect fucking Mega Diancie to not be conceptualized as OP? - while you would expect a typing this good to be broken, it's balanced out by the fact that the Pokémon that do get it have low stats. Aside from Sylveon and Azumarill, the only real hard-hitting fairies are either Legendaries or Megas, and really those two groups are supposed to be stupidly powerful anyway. Clefable has low stats, Mawile has low stats, Klefki has low stats; even Fairies with relatively high stats like Granbull, Florges and (non-mega) Gardevoir have big problems in either defensive stats or speed.
So really, at the end of the day, I never really got the big negative reaction to the Fairy Type. Aside from the dumb resisting bug thing; it's well-balanced, well made, it brings a lot of unique and balancing traits to the game, and it has a much bigger identity than a fucking Light type would. Seriously what would light type even be gadyuigrjk

 

[Pikachu315111]

The idea of a Light Type is always something that, while I admittedly can't easily explain it, always annoyed the fuck out of me. Whenever someone brought it up it always sounded just such a really bad fan idea that wasn't thought through well at all. It's most often theorized as a counterpart to Dark; which is bad to me because 1. Dark sort of... already does have a counterpart in Psychic in a weird way, and 2. That makes the type incredibly one-dimensional and boring if that's all you're introducing it for. It also just reeks of the all-too-common "dark vs light; evil vs good" trope in Anime and RPGs which I am so glad Pokémon has managed to avoid.
By contrast; and this probably deserves it's own thing, but I much much much prefer the Fairy type. It doesn't try to be a Dark counterpart and hence finds it's own identity; and while it might seem arbitrary due to how specific 'fairy' is compared to concepts like rocks and water, I see it like Bug, Ghost and Dragon where it caters to a specific sub-species which can be wide and varied. I also don't know where people are coming from when they say the type matchups were handled badly - aside from being resistant to Bug (which is, admittedly, really dumb when Bug has enough problems and it doesn't even make sense thematically) I do find it handled very well. Let's start off with the three things it's super effective against and resists - Dragon, Fighting and Dark. Those were needed. Dragon and Fighting spam, if you played Gen 4/5, were fucking everywhere due to the insane buffs they received in those two gens. Now that leaves Dark, which wasn't overpowered at all though mostly due to the fact that it didn't have high base power moves. Enter Gen 6, which gives it fucking Knock Off and the removal of Steel's resistance to it. At that point, were it not for Fairy I'd argue a lot of Dark-types like Bisharp would become really broken. If you've played the OU meta recently or even near the start of XY you'll know the Dark Spam is real; heck in the No Mega ladder Knock Off dominates the entire thing. Meanwhile, the things that are super effective against it are Poison and Steel, neither of which were previously good attacking types and people complain you have to run them. Well, good I say! It's great to see some variety in attacking moves and I think that's partly what the Fairy type set out to do and succeeded. Heck if you take a look the types themselves offensively aren't really that bad - they have some pretty neat moves too - they were just outclassed and not worth using aside from a few Pokémon's STABs. Steel has recently become a popular offensive type in OU and is great regardless of Fairies; it's not like you're running something unviable just to hammer them. And hey, I fucking love Mega Beedrill so any excuse to make it better is good with me. Finally Fire resisting it... eh, that's cool, a typing this good did need that extra resist, especially with a type that isn't that bad defensively and is relatively common.
And to make a final point on the fairies; I will say that aside from a few obvious outliers - but come on guys, did you really expect fucking Mega Diancie to not be conceptualized as OP? - while you would expect a typing this good to be broken, it's balanced out by the fact that the Pokémon that do get it have low stats. Aside from Sylveon and Azumarill, the only real hard-hitting fairies are either Legendaries or Megas, and really those two groups are supposed to be stupidly powerful anyway. Clefable has low stats, Mawile has low stats, Klefki has low stats; even Fairies with relatively high stats like Granbull, Florges and (non-mega) Gardevoir have big problems in either defensive stats or speed.
So really, at the end of the day, I never really got the big negative reaction to the Fairy Type. Aside from the dumb resisting bug thing; it's well-balanced, well made, it brings a lot of unique and balancing traits to the game, and it has a much bigger identity than a fucking Light type would. Seriously what would light type even be gadyuigrjk

Light-Type Failing: I think the thing that bothers me about Light-type is that it shows a lack of understanding of what the Dark-type is. They want a Light-type because the opposite of light is dark. Fair enough thinking... except that's not what the Dark-type is. This all stems to the Japanese name for the type: Evil-type. The Dark-type doesn't represent darkness or the night (some do, though those are the exceptions and even then they still have traits that I'm about to mention) but rather represents foulness, trickery, thievery, and overall dirty fighting. Dark-types do whatever it'll take to win, pulling out every trick in the book to do so. They'll bite, put in a false sense of security, attack you when you least suspect it, and even call upon darker powers. We can define what a Dark-type Pokemon is and how'll it act.
So, the question is what would a Light-type be? Will they be heroic or good nature? Well, and call my a optimist, most conscious beings try to do what's best for them and those around them. No one sees themselves as villains, its only people with a deviant behavior who see themselves as villains and go out to do bad things. Basically being good IS the norm, it doesn't need its own type to show that a being would do the right thing if presented with it. Well what about a Pokemon being made of light/energy? Well aside from it stopping it being the opposite of what the Dark-type is, that's kind of vague characteristic and pretty one note. So tell me, what would this theoretically Light-type be?
As the final nail in the coffin, Fighting-type is essentially the opposite of the Dark-type. Fighting-types are Pokemon who practice a certain form of martial art or other fighting technique. Usually practitioners of these fighting styles are disciplined and they fight with a set of rules. Where a Dark-type does what it takes to win and thus have no organization, a Fighting-type will not go against its own morals giving it a strong sense of focus. Fighting-types beat Dark-types because they refuse to fall for the Dark-type tricks and remain focus on their fighting style while the Dark-type struggles to figure out what to do now that none of it tricks are working. And since it was brought up, I see Psychic types are sort of intellectuals who rely on their opponent's thinking and behavior being normal so they can easily predict what they'll do. Fighting-types are weak to Psychic-type because the Psychic-type perfectly knows what the Fighting-type will do, there's no secrets. But Dark-types are random and think on the spot, how can a Psychic-type even prepare for that? Answer: They can't, which is why Dark is immune to Psychic. Alternatively another explanation is that the Dark-type's thoughts are so foul that a Psychic-type doesn't want to read it leaving them exposed.

Fairy-Type Succeeding: On the other hand, Fairy-types have an definable identity. Multiple religions and mythologies talk about fairy-like creatures of all sorts and in detail. We have fairies which are good, evil, helpful, pranksters, curious, mysterious, ethereal, and many things else. But what they all have is that their magical on some level. They're like Dragons and Ghost type in that way. Actually I've always split Pokemon types into 3 categories:

Element: Ground, Rock, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ice
Trait: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Psychic, Dark
Creature: Bug, Ghost, Dragon, Fairy

While I'm sure you can argue about some placements, I think the categories themselves are self-explanatory and makes sense.

Fairy Matches: It being strong against Dragon, Dark, & Fighting and weak to Poison & Steel doesn't bother me at all, I'm just a bit confused about some other small things.
Bug resistance. While I get it on one level, fairy creatures I often presented with bug traits, the problem is not all fairy creatures are like that. If anything I kind of expected them to have some relation to Grass-types (though not like they needed something that resisted them either) being fairies are often depicted as being natural creatures. Sure not all faeries are, but I think more are presented being being a form of nature then having bug traits.
Resisted by fire. While I always approve of Fire-types getting a buff, I don't really see the relation here. Some have come up with loose explanations like forest fires would temporarily destroy homes of fairies and in some RPGs a flash of fire can blind a fairy, but those feel like long stretches.
Neutral to Normal and Ghost. Really? Like the reason I imagine the Fighting-type not being good against a Fairy would also make a Normal-type not good against a Fairy. Infact most often fairies if folklore LOVE to mess with normal people. And Ghost-types are just as ethereal as a Fairy is, you'd think there maybe some relation (then again I suppose they both can cancel each other out?).
However what its super effective against and weak too are the most important things to get right. People complain Fairy is OP because they now are being forced to change up their strategies. Guess, what, THAT WAS THE POINT! That's ALWAYS the point of introducing a new type! Dark and Steel was introduced because Psychic was OP in Gen I (among other reasons, but that's a main one). And after a few years and more and more Pokemon and Moves were introduced it was noticed Dragon- and Fighting-types were becoming OP (and Dark-type becoming a very handy utility type). At the same time they noticed Poison and Steel being given very limited roles, Poison mainly existed as Toxic while Steel was just used as a wall. So they came up with a type that nerfed the OP types and buffed the types that have been mitigated roles.
Now when they first introduced Fairy-types I can admit I wasn't sure how to feel (I know I'm judging a book by its cover, but did they really need to use so much pink?), but now having it be around for a while I can say its proven itself as a type. It has problems, but what type doesn't? I also expect next Gen to maybe see it get a small nerf or other types getting a small buff, at least in Move Power. And while I did see some criticism toward the Fairy type, I mostly ignore them as I was much more entertained by another thing that came about the introduction of Fairy-types:

You saw this coming

 

[Norne]

Fairy in myths and media where defined as weak to cold steel and chemical or environmental poisoning, several work of fiction explored this and rendered them weak to certain elements as sulfur and mercury.

Post works of fiction with fairy folk as antagonistic characters rendered them weak at environmental changes such as sudden changes of temperature wich rendered endemic to some areas, and even served as a stepping stone for fairy hybridization horrors in the mid 50s after the lovecraft boom.

Fairy folk also excelled at hampering any attempt of harming them, be by righteous fighting or backstabbing thus to an extent I get their fighting and dark type resistance, bug could be interpreted as the primordial life forms being looked down by these beings and hitting dragon super effective could be a nod to the fact that fairy folk often gave mankind the tools to deal with these monsters in work of fiction.

I hope this helps.

 

[Mova]

Pikachu315111 Isn't Fairy technically the "holy-element" of Pokemon regardless because it beats Fighting and Dark in the way you would expect? Also, Norne gave a decent flavor explanation to why Fairy is really damn broken.

 

[Norne]

Pikachu315111 Isn't Fairy technically the "holy-element" of Pokemon regardless because it beats Fighting and Dark in the way you would expect? Also, Norne gave a decent flavor explanation to why Fairy is really damn broken.

Fairy things are by no means holy, they are otherworldly grotesque and unable to mash with the humans unless some terrible horror stuff happens in their stories, sometimes they helped... With a big cost that no human being would propose to boot, they where always chaotic in their nature in contrast to mankind order and quests for glory or power in their myths.

Heck even holy varies in what you want. Take a look at angels, grigori and "orders", their descriptions in the judeocristian tradition barely put them as living beings, most of them where described as odly mechanical beings reverberating "songs" to the glory of God or even lack the basis of what could be a body like Uriel, heck just look at the myth of the cherubs that's horror incarnated. It gets weirder when in the myth of Sodom and Gomorrah the inhabitants wanted to bang these things. The "Don't be afraid" in their speech when they present themselves is well deserved, on Gedeon tale he covered in fear as it was told witnessing this beings was enough to kill a man in the spot.

 

[pika pal]

I really didn't enjoy Colosseum or XD.

The Gamecube games felt incredibly sluggish to me, and the reliance on Shadow Pokemon really hurts the game's replay value and variety for me, frankly. Only around 80 Pokemon to choose from overall (less if you ignore the extremely late game Pokemon). I also just don't enjoy the way the game is structured since it either requires you to swap around Pokemon or put up with a slower leveling curve since Double Battles force you to split the EXP.

I feel like if they wanted to try the concept again, they would do well to keep Wild Pokemon available even with the Shadow Pokemon. The Shadow Pokemon get special moves like Refresh or Baton Pass, so it's not like they wouldn't be unique or worth catching over their wild counterparts, and XY has shown me that 3D Pokemon games don't have to move that slowly in battle.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I really didn't enjoy Colosseum or XD.

The Gamecube games felt incredibly sluggish to me, and the reliance on Shadow Pokemon really hurts the game's replay value and variety for me, frankly. Only around 80 Pokemon to choose from overall (less if you ignore the extremely late game Pokemon). I also just don't enjoy the way the game is structured since it either requires you to swap around Pokemon or put up with a slower leveling curve since Double Battles force you to split the EXP.

I feel like if they wanted to try the concept again, they would do well to keep Wild Pokemon available even with the Shadow Pokemon. The Shadow Pokemon get special moves like Refresh or Baton Pass, so it's not like they wouldn't be unique or worth catching over their wild counterparts, and XY has shown me that 3D Pokemon games don't have to move that slowly in battle.

While you have a point on the sluggishness and the battles being slow (which may have just been the limitations of the Gamecube as XY show this doesn't need to be so in a 3D Pokemon game), I think you may be treating the games as if they were a main series game. The thing about that is, though having the same mechanics, it's not a main series game so was going for a different feel on purpose. There's a reason why they made Orre a barren wasteland with very little wild Pokemon living there, so you HAD to rely on Shadow Pokemon. Think of the game as a challenge, you don't have a wide selection of Pokemon but instead a very small pool which can have vastly different types and stats. You can't carefully craft your team like you did in the main series games, you got to work with what you got and you better because there's an evil organization trying to take over the world. Not only that, to get the Pokemon you need to break the law and capture another trainer's Pokemon, if you knock out their Pokemon you sometimes don't get a second chance, and these Pokemon are Shadow Pokemon meaning they don't gain experience or evolve until purified. The game makes it pretty clear that the situation is kind of bleak and only you and your ragtag team can stop them since you got the only capturing device that can steal trainer's Pokemon. Oh, and did I forget to mention Orre is filled with thug an punk trainers as well as having an evil organization so paranoid they once kidnapped and replaced an entire town with their own agents?

Does double battle still split experience? I don't think it does anymore, and if it does that is annoying. Actually it would be interesting to see the Colosseum games also introduce Triple an Rotation battles to the mix, the games felt like they were saying that everyone was sending everything out against you. And while I think they should keep it mainly to Shadow Pokemon, it would be nice for them to expand the PokeSpots selection, maybe to help fill out gaps. And they do need to improve upon the special moves a Pokemon get, and not only that but now the Shadow Pokemon could come with its Hidden Ability (like they can justify it be introducing "Shadow Abilities", revealing Cipher hasn't stopped experimenting with changing a Pokemon and this time have worked on changing a Pokemon's Ability).

Now if you still don't like it, well, its just not your game. As I said its meant to be different from the main series but using the same mechanic and its easy to see how some players may feel this would feel mashed together. Personally I like seeing them trying do something different with the same mechanics, trying to show the main series isn't the only thing they can do with Pokemon. Now if they only made another Colosseum game to prove that...

 

[pika pal]

While you have a point on the sluggishness and the battles being slow (which may have just been the limitations of the Gamecube as XY show this doesn't need to be so in a 3D Pokemon game), I think you may be treating the games as if they were a main series game. The thing about that is, though having the same mechanics, it's not a main series game so was going for a different feel on purpose. There's a reason why they made Orre a barren wasteland with very little wild Pokemon living there, so you HAD to rely on Shadow Pokemon. Think of the game as a challenge, you don't have a wide selection of Pokemon but instead a very small pool which can have vastly different types and stats. You can't carefully craft your team like you did in the main series games, you got to work with what you got and you better because there's an evil organization trying to take over the world. Not only that, to get the Pokemon you need to break the law and capture another trainer's Pokemon, if you knock out their Pokemon you sometimes don't get a second chance, and these Pokemon are Shadow Pokemon meaning they don't gain experience or evolve until purified. The game makes it pretty clear that the situation is kind of bleak and only you and your ragtag team can stop them since you got the only capturing device that can steal trainer's Pokemon. Oh, and did I forget to mention Orre is filled with thug an punk trainers as well as having an evil organization so paranoid they once kidnapped and replaced an entire town with their own agents?

Does double battle still split experience? I don't think it does anymore, and if it does that is annoying. Actually it would be interesting to see the Colosseum games also introduce Triple an Rotation battles to the mix, the games felt like they were saying that everyone was sending everything out against you. And while I think they should keep it mainly to Shadow Pokemon, it would be nice for them to expand the PokeSpots selection, maybe to help fill out gaps. And they do need to improve upon the special moves a Pokemon get, and not only that but now the Shadow Pokemon could come with its Hidden Ability (like they can justify it be introducing "Shadow Abilities", revealing Cipher hasn't stopped experimenting with changing a Pokemon and this time have worked on changing a Pokemon's Ability).

Now if you still don't like it, well, its just not your game. As I said its meant to be different from the main series but using the same mechanic and its easy to see how some players may feel this would feel mashed together. Personally I like seeing them trying do something different with the same mechanics, trying to show the main series isn't the only thing they can do with Pokemon. Now if they only made another Colosseum game to prove that...

Double Battles did divide experience prior to Gen 6, so if you KO a Linoone worth 600 EXP, Gen 3 would give the two battlers 300 each, as opposed to Gen 6 giving 600 to each.

I just think that the limited selection works to the game's detriment. Pokemon is a game where the primary appeal feels like having all these options to construct a team and find different ways to roll over the opponents. In Colosseum and XD, with how limited the selection is, the problem then emerges since Pokemon still encourages team synergy, but there's less room to experiment with things, so the game becomes a slog after a while.

For example: Say I want to use a Fire type. I now need something to answer its weaknesses, primarily Water Types which a number of generic trainers will carry. If I don't use Jolteon, my only option for anti-Water Pokemon are Mareep and Shroomish until around the halfway mark (to say nothing of only having 3 fire types to use in that interval). And when you consider all the Peons carrying Bug types, forgoing a Fire Type isn't exactly a convenient choice either.

Pokemon isn't a game designed like most typical RPGs. In an RPG like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, while they may have some slight advantages versus certain enemies, characters of a certain class generally perform well enough to be self-sufficient. In Pokemon, some Fire Types require more "anti-weakness" support than others (as our tier system helps indicate to an extent), even in an in game scenario, and the composition of the opposing teams means there are certain roles you have to be prepared to fill, despite the game giving you maybe 10% of the options compared to the games from which these mechanics were designed for. If I could use virtually every fire type in relatively the same manner, it wouldn't be a huge problem, but you can't use Houndour, Vulpix, Numel, or Growlithe the same way and get consistent results: for the campaign here, there is going to be some optimal Fire type.

Pokemon derives most of its replay value from the ability to experiment with different teams. The Orre games don't support that, so they really stress the flaws of poor teambuilding if you try experimenting with the extremely limited selection. They tried something different, but I feel like with the mainline Pokemon mechanics, it doesn't work well. Mystery Dungeon, for example, incorporates plenty of mechanics, but they are altered and/or simplified to better fit the roguelike design of them. You're asking for trouble if you radically alter the game/world design without adapting the mechanics to account for and gel with it.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Double Battles did divide experience prior to Gen 6, so if you KO a Linoone worth 600 EXP, Gen 3 would give the two battlers 300 each, as opposed to Gen 6 giving 600 to each.

I just think that the limited selection works to the game's detriment. Pokemon is a game where the primary appeal feels like having all these options to construct a team and find different ways to roll over the opponents. In Colosseum and XD, with how limited the selection is, the problem then emerges since Pokemon still encourages team synergy, but there's less room to experiment with things, so the game becomes a slog after a while.

For example: Say I want to use a Fire type. I now need something to answer its weaknesses, primarily Water Types which a number of generic trainers will carry. If I don't use Jolteon, my only option for anti-Water Pokemon are Mareep and Shroomish until around the halfway mark (to say nothing of only having 3 fire types to use in that interval). And when you consider all the Peons carrying Bug types, forgoing a Fire Type isn't exactly a convenient choice either.

Pokemon isn't a game designed like most typical RPGs. In an RPG like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, while they may have some slight advantages versus certain enemies, characters of a certain class generally perform well enough to be self-sufficient. In Pokemon, some Fire Types require more "anti-weakness" support than others (as our tier system helps indicate to an extent), even in an in game scenario, and the composition of the opposing teams means there are certain roles you have to be prepared to fill, despite the game giving you maybe 10% of the options compared to the games from which these mechanics were designed for. If I could use virtually every fire type in relatively the same manner, it wouldn't be a huge problem, but you can't use Houndour, Vulpix, Numel, or Growlithe the same way and get consistent results: for the campaign here, there is going to be some optimal Fire type.

Pokemon derives most of its replay value from the ability to experiment with different teams. The Orre games don't support that, so they really stress the flaws of poor teambuilding if you try experimenting with the extremely limited selection. They tried something different, but I feel like with the mainline Pokemon mechanics, it doesn't work well. Mystery Dungeon, for example, incorporates plenty of mechanics, but they are altered and/or simplified to better fit the roguelike design of them. You're asking for trouble if you radically alter the game/world design without adapting the mechanics to account for and gel with it.

You're still thinking it like a main series games. It's NOT, and if you think of it like the main series games you're not going to like it. You're SUPPOSED to be limited. Orre doesn't like you. Orre wants to make sure that around every corner you don't have the advantage.
Want a certain type but the Pokemon they provide isn't to your liking? TOO BAD! You're lucky you even found a Pokemon of that type in this barren wasteland.
Think you can just fight through all the trainers without giving much attention? WRONG! That one has a Shadow Pokemon, spend the next few minutes capturing it or go through the game even more limited.
Think you can use type advantage? HA! Shadow Moves do super effective damage no matter what; well, except to Shadow Pokemon.
Then I'll use Shadow Pokemon. GOOD LUCK! Too bad Shadow Pokemon don't level up, so either you need to keep switching to the newest Shadow Pokemon you catch or just deal with not having the advantage in some battles.
The game goes out of its way to pretty much make sure you can't do what you normally do in the main series. You're forced to think strategically with the limited resources you have. Even the concept of bonding with your Pokemon is altered. You're not bonding with the Pokemon to just become better friends with them, you're bonding with them to also cure them! And you're not suppose to do that with a handful of Pokemon but with all the Shadow Pokemon you catch. You're not just this random kid who goes on a Pokemon journey and along the way happen upon a villainous team plan. The villainous team plan is for the most part why you're on a journey, there's actually nothing else to do other than that.

As for replay value, you're right there isn't much alteration to do on replays. Though honestly that could be fixed by just providing a whole batch of Shadow Pokemon at the beginning. Heck, you can add plenty of relay value if they were too add in multiple choice options in the story. But obviously this doesn't effect the two existing games. But I would say it does provide some nice chunk of post game and there's Pokemon Tower-like Colosseums to challenge. However I do agree that generally after one playthrough you probably got all you're going to get unless you go for a challenge run.

Now there are probably some mechanics that could use some altering, but for the most part it would still be the same mechanics as the main game.

 

[pika pal]

You're still thinking it like a main series games. It's NOT, and if you think of it like the main series games you're not going to like it. You're SUPPOSED to be limited. Orre doesn't like you. Orre wants to make sure that around every corner you don't have the advantage.
Want a certain type but the Pokemon they provide isn't to your liking? TOO BAD! You're lucky you even found a Pokemon of that type in this barren wasteland.
Think you can just fight through all the trainers without giving much attention? WRONG! That one has a Shadow Pokemon, spend the next few minutes capturing it or go through the game even more limited.
Think you can use type advantage? HA! Shadow Moves do super effective damage no matter what; well, except to Shadow Pokemon.
Then I'll use Shadow Pokemon. GOOD LUCK! Too bad Shadow Pokemon don't level up, so either you need to keep switching to the newest Shadow Pokemon you catch or just deal with not having the advantage in some battles.
The game goes out of its way to pretty much make sure you can't do what you normally do in the main series. You're forced to think strategically with the limited resources you have. Even the concept of bonding with your Pokemon is altered. You're not bonding with the Pokemon to just become better friends with them, you're bonding with them to also cure them! And you're not suppose to do that with a handful of Pokemon but with all the Shadow Pokemon you catch. You're not just this random kid who goes on a Pokemon journey and along the way happen upon a villainous team plan. The villainous team plan is for the most part why you're on a journey, there's actually nothing else to do other than that.

As for replay value, you're right there isn't much alteration to do on replays. Though honestly that could be fixed by just providing a whole batch of Shadow Pokemon at the beginning. Heck, you can add plenty of relay value if they were too add in multiple choice options in the story. But obviously this doesn't effect the two existing games. But I would say it does provide some nice chunk of post game and there's Pokemon Tower-like Colosseums to challenge. However I do agree that generally after one playthrough you probably got all you're going to get unless you go for a challenge run.

Now there are probably some mechanics that could use some altering, but for the most part it would still be the same mechanics as the main game.

If the game is going to derive itself entirely from the main series mechanics, then it's fair for me to evaluate that on the same scale because at that point it's a matter of how they design the game to use those mechanics in a different setting, which translates horribly to be frank. If they wanted to design a game with a different style, then you need to adapt the mechanics to make sure they gel. Mechanics favoring a game based around heavy customization don't translate well to a game based around strategizing with limited resources.

And I'm not talking about defensive synergy, I'm talking offensive, like having a Grass type to just murder every Rock, Water, and Ground type before they hit my Houndour. If the game is designed so I can't do what I normally do in the main series, then don't keep it to the mechanics that were designed to make that how I "normally" played in those games.

And it's not even like the limited resources make the game harder. it just makes it go really slow and boring. I have played the game a couple times and tried using different Pokemon. I don't fall into complacent gaming syndrome because I can't beat the game, but because I noticed that despite using even fewer items on my later playthroughs, they only got slower and slower the more I tried using anything except the cookie cutter teams recommended on the internet. The Shadow Pokemon do piss for damage even despite their "Super Effective on everything" gimmick.

And great job making me "bond" with the Shadow Pokemon in XD by introducing a mechanic that purifies them without ever requiring them to even be in my party. While I experimented with around 40 Pokemon in XD, the other half I never so much as touched, either because they came to late to be worth adding or because I couldn't be bothered to purify them because the process is tedious to do manually for something that I knew wasn't going to do better than the mons I already had on my team purified and leveled up.

And that's the thing, I CAN pretty much fight through the trainers without paying attention, because while the fights take longer with the crippled selection, they don't get any harder because the levels scale slowly on account of you having experience theoretically eaten up by Shadow Pokemon if you don't go off to grind for a while.

Orre doesn't like me, and I don't like Orre. These games took mechanics from a game that thrived on variety, gutted the options, called it strategy, and flipped you off saying "deal with it." You know where a game like that ends up in my memory? On the shelf, out of the way while I put Paper Mario back in for my Gamecube fix and back to the handhelds for a Pokemon game. Every other spin off that wanted to have a spirit different from the main series games had different mechanics to accomodate and mesh with that design philosophy.

You know a game that did the "limited resources so strategize better" philosophy better? Pokemon Conquest. The maps were laid out so that you could experiment with different Warriors and did have to confront match ups that weren't favorable. So they designed win conditions that rewarded your ability to work towards them despite being outmatched by what you were facing.

 

[noobcubed]

Pikachu315111 I never thought I would say this, but... the easiness of the main series Pokemon games is one of their greatest strength. It should be possible to complete the main story of a Pokemon game with any team you want, because the team you use is the principle way the game allows you to express yourself. As soon as you clamp down on that by (a) having fewer choices, and (b) making the game harder so that many of the remaining choices are objectively bad, you are limiting the player's ability to express himself.

In addition, the first time you play a game, you won't know what is a good Pokemon to use and what isn't necessarily. So players may end up making the task unduly harder for themselves through no real fault of their own.

 

[HelenTheHero]

Colosseum is what started me off, but I do see why people don't really like it. If I remember right (I haven't played since I was probably 7.) the Pokemon you chose always have the same moves. But what I liked about it was the mini games (Party mode? I forgot.) that were plenty of fun besides the gyms.

 

[Kurona]

Pikachu315111 I never thought I would say this, but... the easiness of the main series Pokemon games is one of their greatest strength. It should be possible to complete the main story of a Pokemon game with any team you want, because the team you use is the principle way the game allows you to express yourself. As soon as you clamp down on that by (a) having fewer choices, and (b) making the game harder so that many of the remaining choices are objectively bad, you are limiting the player's ability to express himself.

But... the game never presents itself as a main series game. I mean if Colosseum and XD were replacing the main series as the new formula, then yeah this would be a legitimate complaint, but it's a spin-off. Spin-offs in every series have always been about taking the base concept and putting an entirely new spin on it. And if you don't like that? Well, whatever, you've got RSE and FRLG this gen! You don't have to care about this new, weird little thing.
People always hammer Pokémon for being too samey all the time - which is something I hold to as well - so if anything this was fantastic. I haven't actually played it myself so I don't know if it was actually executed well, but saying a spin-off is bad in concept for not having the same appeals as the main series games is just a fundamentally flawed criticism.

 

[pika pal]

But... the game never presents itself as a main series game. I mean if Colosseum and XD were replacing the main series as the new formula, then yeah this would be a legitimate complaint, but it's a spin-off. Spin-offs in every series have always been about taking the base concept and putting an entirely new spin on it. And if you don't like that? Well, whatever, you've got RSE and FRLG this gen! You don't have to care about this new, weird little thing.
People always hammer Pokémon for being too samey all the time - which is something I hold to as well - so if anything this was fantastic. I haven't actually played it myself so I don't know if it was actually executed well, but saying a spin-off is bad in concept for not having the same appeals as the main series games is just a fundamentally flawed criticism.

The problem I think is that it's trying to do the game differently while running with mechanical formulas that were used before for a game with a completely different game philosophy.

The game presents itself as something different, but the mechanics of the handheld games make it feel like the same game in the wrong places, namely retaining the issue of Pokemon being outdated by later ones getting better and unavoidable trainer battles. In the main series games, I never felt like the pace got broken too badly by mandatory trainer encounters since, if I wanted, I could skip most trainers and still make it through the game if I was smart enough with my Pokemon. Colosseum and XD, you HAVE to battle every trainer on the chance they have a Shadow Pokemon if they're not mandatory already, which only slows the game down even more so because the limited choices make it hard to put together an efficient team and the way the animations are handled just makes the battles slower by nature already.

For comparison, let me bring up Fire Emblem, a game with limited experience (though options to grind if you want) and limited choices for units. In Fire Emblem, the strategy is more often in deciding what unit to use against what, but the game always makes it feasible to have what you need for whatever you find yourself facing; Mages for armor knights, Archers for Pegasus Knights, and variety like Caveliers, Myrmidons, etc. for whatever offense suits your playstyle. And because of the differences in stat growth being relatively negligible, I never reach a point where I feel I have to outright replace one unit with another to stand a chance against power creep.

In Fire Emblem, I expect it to take a bit of time to survey the battlefield and choose my units properly, but once the battles start, things move at a reasonable pace. I don't find myself in engagements where despite using a more powerful unit I have to 4 shot normal units and 2 shot units weak to their build. Pokemon in XD are the equivalent of your units in Fire Emblem being stuck with Bronze Weapons for half the game because most of their level up movepools are abyssmal. Forcing strategy by limited choice isn't uncommon, but you shouldn't then design the game to cripple those limited choices and/or only go far enough to make the fights longer but not harder. If you're building a game in which I have 80 Pokemon to catch and only 20 of those Pokemon are useful, then those other 60 just feel pointless to me.

It got to the point where on a replay I did to get the move tutors and some of the Legendaries for a living dex, I found myself just KOing Shadow Pokemon at points because I just wanted to get the game moving. Catching the Shadow Pokemon has to feel more rewarding than a chore if it's the main aspect/mechanic of the game. Make them better than the available en Masse variety of it rather than valuable just on the basis of being my only option for a Flying Type or a Water Type. They've got ways to make that possible with Hidden Abilities , exclusive moves, rare forms (Vivillon) or even just having them hold particularly rare items like coming with their Mega Stone.

 

[Pikachu315111]

If the game is going to derive itself entirely from the main series mechanics, then it's fair for me to evaluate that on the same scale because at that point it's a matter of how they design the game to use those mechanics in a different setting, which translates horribly to be frank. If they wanted to design a game with a different style, then you need to adapt the mechanics to make sure they gel. Mechanics favoring a game based around heavy customization don't translate well to a game based around strategizing with limited resources.

And I'm not talking about defensive synergy, I'm talking offensive, like having a Grass type to just murder every Rock, Water, and Ground type before they hit my Houndour. If the game is designed so I can't do what I normally do in the main series, then don't keep it to the mechanics that were designed to make that how I "normally" played in those games.

And it's not even like the limited resources make the game harder. it just makes it go really slow and boring. I have played the game a couple times and tried using different Pokemon. I don't fall into complacent gaming syndrome because I can't beat the game, but because I noticed that despite using even fewer items on my later playthroughs, they only got slower and slower the more I tried using anything except the cookie cutter teams recommended on the internet. The Shadow Pokemon do piss for damage even despite their "Super Effective on everything" gimmick.

And great job making me "bond" with the Shadow Pokemon in XD by introducing a mechanic that purifies them without ever requiring them to even be in my party. While I experimented with around 40 Pokemon in XD, the other half I never so much as touched, either because they came to late to be worth adding or because I couldn't be bothered to purify them because the process is tedious to do manually for something that I knew wasn't going to do better than the mons I already had on my team purified and leveled up.

And that's the thing, I CAN pretty much fight through the trainers without paying attention, because while the fights take longer with the crippled selection, they don't get any harder because the levels scale slowly on account of you having experience theoretically eaten up by Shadow Pokemon if you don't go off to grind for a while.

Orre doesn't like me, and I don't like Orre. These games took mechanics from a game that thrived on variety, gutted the options, called it strategy, and flipped you off saying "deal with it." You know where a game like that ends up in my memory? On the shelf, out of the way while I put Paper Mario back in for my Gamecube fix and back to the handhelds for a Pokemon game. Every other spin off that wanted to have a spirit different from the main series games had different mechanics to accomodate and mesh with that design philosophy.

You know a game that did the "limited resources so strategize better" philosophy better? Pokemon Conquest. The maps were laid out so that you could experiment with different Warriors and did have to confront match ups that weren't favorable. So they designed win conditions that rewarded your ability to work towards them despite being outmatched by what you were facing.

So you're saying that the mechanics of the main series can only be used in the situation of he main series game? That's a pretty narrow way of thinking, especially when honestly the game isn't that different in gameplay to the main series. It still plays the same, it's just the story is different from the main series and you're limited in what Pokemon you can use. And it does change certain mechanics, mainly to accommodate the Shadow Pokemon mechanic.

But that's the challenge! You're the UNDERDOG in the story, you're supposed to not have all the answers. You're going up against a villain organization who's crazy prepared and in a region where wild Pokemon are rare. Cipher had made sure they're holding all the cards, what they didn't prepare for was someone who is able to detect, snag, and purify Shadow Pokemon (infact they go out of their way to get rid of such obstacles). Its not a main series game where you can just walk in some grass and be jumped by a handful of Pokemon of various type. You only have the Pokemon which Cipher made into Shadow Pokemon and somehow need to cobble a team you can play through the game with and beat them. It's almost no different from a Nuzlocke Run.

Now you're right the game can be slow sometimes, especially since Shadow Pokemon can't gain levels they need to keep the level curve steady. However just as you're slugging through your opponent's their slugging through your team. In the main series my Pokemon are rarely knocked out because they'll most often be higher level, but in Colosseum your Pokemon are being knocked out constantly out put dangerously close to being knocked out because your opponent is on equal level with you for the most part.

So wait, you complain about lack of variety yet you just said you don't even both using half the Pokemon they provide? Well of course the game is probably going to feel very limited if you don't bother using half of what they give you! As for failing to have you bond with those Pokemon, well honestly you're probably still "bonding" with more Pokemon than you probably do in the main game. In the main game you bond with, what, 6 or 7, maybe 8 Pokemon that you catch (an HM slaves don't count unless they're actually members of your batting team). Colosseum has you battle with many of the Shadow Pokemon you catch and even though in XD you can purify many with the Purification Chamber you still need to create a good flow and then check on the Pokemon once its done purifying (now how many of the Pokemon you catch in the main game do you check after capturing them if you don't plan on battling with them)?

Then what's the problem? You complain about limited selection yet you now say you don't have any problems knocking out your opponent's Pokemon. It sounds like you're just annoyed that the game isn't letting you one hit everything and is actually having you take time to do a battle. Like if the game ran at the speed XY battles do you would still think the battles would be slow?

At this point I think we're just going need to agree to disagree, as is many cases in Unpopular Opinion. You think that since the Colosseum games uses the same mechanic that means they can be compared to the main series games which of course means they're going to be lacking. I think the games are just reusing the mechanics to try something new with it and provide a unique challenge and experience thus isn't comparable to the main series and should be looked on as its own thing. They're different opinions, almost opposites of each other, and while none are wrong if you're not willing to see the games as their own separate thing there's no point in continuing this discussion.

Um, yeah, no. Pokemon Conquest is a HORRIBLE example since the limitations lack a bit of logic. Why can my Pokemon only use one move? Why do they make it so hard to recruit a new Pokemon, defeating them in battle is not enough? Why does every turn take a month's time, what are my character's doing during that time? Also in many of the battles I found the best strategy was to abuse the game's mechanics instead of facing my opponent head on. I'll admit it could be just me but I couldn't really wrap my head around the game, it just did some very odd things with the only answer I could think is that the oddity is probably a mechanic from Nobunaga's Ambition that just didn't translate well.

Pikachu315111 I never thought I would say this, but... the easiness of the main series Pokemon games is one of their greatest strength. It should be possible to complete the main story of a Pokemon game with any team you want, because the team you use is the principle way the game allows you to express yourself. As soon as you clamp down on that by (a) having fewer choices, and (b) making the game harder so that many of the remaining choices are objectively bad, you are limiting the player's ability to express himself.

In addition, the first time you play a game, you won't know what is a good Pokemon to use and what isn't necessarily. So players may end up making the task unduly harder for themselves through no real fault of their own.

But that's the main series. In the main series your character is a blank slate from a little nowhere town who goes out to become the best that there ever was. But in the Colosseum game your character actually does have an name and identity. Wes is a former Pokemon thief and Micheal grew up in a lab where he trained to be a good Pokemon Trainer so he could go on this task (his mom is one of the head scientists and he has a little sister). And you're not becoming the best there ever was, you're battling against a villain syndicate who are turning Pokemon into Shadow Pokemon. As I said multiple times, in the main series you live in a region full of wild Pokemon habitats, meanwhile in Orre wild Pokemon are rare (which is probably why Cipher chose it, no wild Pokemon mean no strong trainers snooping around and people are eagerly willing to use their Shadow Pokemon no questions asked). The player is on a mission and their tools for the mission are the Shadow Pokemon, and sometimes you won't always have the best tool for a situation but you got to push on through still.

As for picking the wrong Pokemon, well that's experimenting. So you may not have chose the best Pokemon, luckily the next Shadow Pokemon you catch usually is at a level which makes them usable from the get go so you can try it or another Pokemon you have waiting in the box out. There are now over 700 species of Pokemon, do you really just want to use the same ones over and over again? Colosseum actually forces player to try a Pokemon they may have never thought to try before. Them sinking or swimming is up to the Pokemon performance, but for the main story usually any Pokemon used right can get you through. Maybe it could change your opinion on certain Pokemon, for example Misdreavus apparently is quite tricky for the NPC to handle.

The problem I think is that it's trying to do the game differently while running with mechanical formulas that were used before for a game with a completely different game philosophy.

The game presents itself as something different, but the mechanics of the handheld games make it feel like the same game in the wrong places, namely retaining the issue of Pokemon being outdated by later ones getting better and unavoidable trainer battles. In the main series games, I never felt like the pace got broken too badly by mandatory trainer encounters since, if I wanted, I could skip most trainers and still make it through the game if I was smart enough with my Pokemon. Colosseum and XD, you HAVE to battle every trainer on the chance they have a Shadow Pokemon if they're not mandatory already, which only slows the game down even more so because the limited choices make it hard to put together an efficient team and the way the animations are handled just makes the battles slower by nature already.

For comparison, let me bring up Fire Emblem, a game with limited experience (though options to grind if you want) and limited choices for units. In Fire Emblem, the strategy is more often in deciding what unit to use against what, but the game always makes it feasible to have what you need for whatever you find yourself facing; Mages for armor knights, Archers for Pegasus Knights, and variety like Caveliers, Myrmidons, etc. for whatever offense suits your playstyle. And because of the differences in stat growth being relatively negligible, I never reach a point where I feel I have to outright replace one unit with another to stand a chance against power creep.

In Fire Emblem, I expect it to take a bit of time to survey the battlefield and choose my units properly, but once the battles start, things move at a reasonable pace. I don't find myself in engagements where despite using a more powerful unit I have to 4 shot normal units and 2 shot units weak to their build. Pokemon in XD are the equivalent of your units in Fire Emblem being stuck with Bronze Weapons for half the game because most of their level up movepools are abyssmal. Forcing strategy by limited choice isn't uncommon, but you shouldn't then design the game to cripple those limited choices and/or only go far enough to make the fights longer but not harder. If you're building a game in which I have 80 Pokemon to catch and only 20 of those Pokemon are useful, then those other 60 just feel pointless to me.

It got to the point where on a replay I did to get the move tutors and some of the Legendaries for a living dex, I found myself just KOing Shadow Pokemon at points because I just wanted to get the game moving. Catching the Shadow Pokemon has to feel more rewarding than a chore if it's the main aspect/mechanic of the game. Make them better than the available en Masse variety of it rather than valuable just on the basis of being my only option for a Flying Type or a Water Type. They've got ways to make that possible with Hidden Abilities , exclusive moves, rare forms (Vivillon) or even just having them hold particularly rare items like coming with their Mega Stone.

So one reason you don't like the game is because it actually wants you to battle other trainers... which is one point of Pokemon series? I honestly never got why people tried ignoring as many battles as possible (except in playthrough but they're just trying to keep the video going). It's Pokemon, battling is the main point of the game.

But even in the main series games a Pokemon's starting moves are weak at first and usually don't get food until they're fully evolved. Though since most often your at a higher level it feels like the move is strong, especially when its using the Pokemon's best stat and has STAB (and maybe used against a Pokemon weak to the move). It does really sound like the reason you don't like the game is because it doesn't let you one shot things. If that's the case, then Pokemon Colosseum isn't your game. But I don't think its fair to say its because the mechanics in it don't work, they work perfectly fine, they just don't work the way you want them to.

Well we can't really say much about a future Colosseum game since they haven't made one after Gen III, so who knows if they would be able to fix any of the problems of the game being slow or having a limited option in the start. Actually with all the new, changed, and updated mechanics I actually think a new Colosseum game would be very different from the two on the Gamecube. But sadly I don't think we'll be seeing another Colosseum game any time soon.