Here's my unpopular opinion.
After seeing them in ROM hacks, I'd love that if for future Pokémon games, to add surprise field effects to the battles depending on where you battle. For example a battle in a forest that powers up Grass type attacks and weakens Water types. Or have a Fire type attack burn the battlefield and either nullify the effect and/or damage all other types. Or a battle in a cave where using Earthquake brings the cave down on everyone for massive damage. As I see it, field effects open the game way up and adds in factors that can be difficult and challenging to account for. Especially in a competitive battle. A certain Pokémon may not be so good. But if it has the home field advantage don't count it out just yet! Or a powerful OU Pokémon finds itself at the mercy of an RU Pokémon due to field disadvantage.
Well they're sorta doing this now with the new Field moves. But will they ever go all out with Grass- and Bug-type getting powered-up in a forest, Water-types in water, Rock- and Ground-types in mountains, etc.? Probably not. For one thing that might further limit the Pokemon who can appear in those areas. Like why would an Electric-type live in a forest or a Water-type ever go on land? Where would Flying-types get their boost being the only game to have the sky as a place you can encounter Pokemon is ORAS and who knows if that isn't just a one off thing? What about Dragon and Fairy, where would they get a power-up? Normal and Fighting? It sounds like a good and obvious idea at first but when it comes down to it it may add in a complexity which is unfair to some Pokemon. If they want to do things with the environment special moves are the way to go, be it a move that creates an environment or uses its current surrounding to do something for them (like Nature Power).
Back in my day unpopular opinions were opinions that made you unpopular for having them, not unpopular because not many people had them.
Yeah, the thread has just turned into a "A Wild Opinion Appeared!" thread where any old opinion, unpopular or just not talked about a lot, is posted. Would an official "A Wild Opinion Appeared!" thread be allowed?
New Unpopular Opinion: Here's something that's possibly an unpopular opinion: I hate how the recent sagas of the Pokemon Special manga has been doing things. Now I understand that things need to be changed when adapting one source to another. Games have a lot of extra content that's meant to help immerse the player into the game world while a written story usually has a main character and we're seeing the written world through their eyes. And I haven't really had a problem with previous interpretations of the Pokemon Special manga. However I felt that what they did with BW2 and XY just isn't sitting right.
To go into detail, in the BW2 games the story is you and your childhood friend & rival, Hue, have grew up together and have decided to go on a Pokemon journey to help Hue get back his little sister's Purloin that was stolen by Team Plasma 2 years ago. Now there's a bit more to it and from there the story of course grows, but that's how it basically begins. How does the manga tell this story? Well one thing to remember here is that the manga sort of has to include both the male and female playable character so already there's an extra element, however that's not really a problem and previously I liked how they've done it. But in BW2? For one thing Lack-Two and Whi-Two (yes, that's really Nate and Rosa's manga names...) both have just moved to Aspertia Town so they have no connection at all with Hue essentially pushing his story entirely to the sidelines. But that's not my only problem. Now the interesting thing about Whi-Two is that she's a former Team Plasma member and they moved to Aspertia Town hoping to start a new life (though Whi-Two is in love with N and wants to find him, that's why she goes on a Pokemon journey since she doesn't really care about Pokemon). Now I have no problem with this, it actually makes for an interesting backstory and it has places for her to grow. My problem is with Lack-Two. Lack-Two is a super secret agent who's looking for former agents of Team Plasma. He's a womanizer and manipulator, sometimes combining both to seek out Team Plasma agents, and what's more baffling is that Looker answer to him. What?! It feels forced like they reallly wanted him to be the butt heads with Whi-Two, but this is just too far. First off you make him unrelatable and unlikeable. Two you didn't need him to be like that because had he just been a kid from Aspertia and friends with Hue I'm sure Hue could have filled that role. Three you have Looker, why make Lack-Two an agent. And why is Lack-Two a "super agent"? Looker, a veteran agent of the International Police who has been involved with arresting Charon and sent to Unova to investigate Team Plasma two year prior... is answering to a kid?
I like how they did things in DPP, where Diamond and Pearl were friends like in the game but they had a gimmick (they both wanted to be a comedy duo). Platinum (though called Lady Berlitz at first because they didn't know what the third version would be called at the time) was a girl from an upper class and rich family who's family tradition was to go on a Pokemon journey. After a mix-up, Diamond and Pearl were accidentally given the job to guard Platinum on her journey (them thinking they were on a reality TV show so they went along with it). Yes its a bit wacky but they still followed the story and just added their own twist to it.
Going to XY, once again I have a problem with the male character. Now they did change the story by having all 5 kids knowing each other but I have no problem with that as it doesn't really change the story much (the only reason they did it in the games was so that the rivals would introduce themselves to you so you'll know who they are, otherwise they act as if they've known you for years). My problem is in the characterization. X in a trainer prodigy who won a Junior Pokemon Tournament with his Kangaskhan and received a Mega Ring as a prize. After winning the tournament he gets swarmed by journalists and the trauma of that makes him becomes a shut-in. He's so much of a shut-in infact that in order to force him onto a Pokemon Journey they needed to have Yveltal and Xerneas use Vaniville Town as a battleground and completely destroying it (which is hilarious, all the manga should start that way. Our main protagonists are getting ready to go on their journey but just before they do BOOM! The mascot Legendaries appear and start wrecking their home town! Now get going on your journey because you don't have a home anymore you little brats!). But anyway, really? After just that one bad experience he decides to become a shut-in? I can understand not liking reporters after that (and also I kind of find the whole "swarmed" by reporter things dumb too. It's just a junior battling tournament, yeah X was good in it but its not like he just became the Champion. Heck I'd think most reporters would consider this is small story, they definitely wouldn't swarm him. Also being X was a kid I'd like to think that reporters would have more intelligence that swarming a child like that would be a bit traumatic to them) but there's a difference between refusing to have anything do with reporters and shutting yourself away from the world and your friends.
Also another problem which I can sort of understand them doing but think is a bit misguided was that they actually tried to make Team Flare a serious threat. Yeah, no. You're trying to turn this:
Into something to be taken seriously? THEY'RE SUPPOSE TO BE A JOKE! But instead the manga tries making them into an efficient task force to be reckon with.
And going off that, there is another complaint I have concerning Team Flare, specifically with Lysandre. Both the manga and anime seems to think that Lysandre's plans heavily rely on Mega Evolution. They don't. Yes Lysandre has a passing interest in Mega Evolution but it wasn't really part of his plan, at most he was only studying it to maybe help him understand the power used by the Ultimate Weapon and/or as a tool to help him battle anything that gets in his way. His main goal was using the power of Yveltal/Xerneas to power the Ultimate Weapon, Mega Evolution never really factored in until you battled him and he sends out his Mega Gyarados.
