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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
I think this is true, but rather that it means challenges are more interesting on the "how [x]" than "can i beat this?". how fast, how much strategy, how much time, how much grinding, etc etc.
for example, jrose11 is doing all 151 solo run challenges and the point isnt really "can x beat this?" because the answer is yes unless youre something like magikarp or the coccoons/bugs. the point is to ask 1. how long does it take and 2. how many levels does it take.
This brings more concepts like: does this pokemon have bottlenecks where it just loses time, whether it be on brock because it only has something like weak normal moves or one of the elite fours like lance, and does that lead into rare candy usage or extra grinding? how much is a shallow movepool or stats affecting perfomance? can it make use of the badge boost glitch? does its level up group make it really struggle or gives it an easy ride etc.
I think this is a more entertaining type of challenge because its not asking you an obvious question which leads to very generic optimizations, its ranking pokemon perfomance! That's fun!
He also does impossible challenges, aka pokemon he genuinely thinks might just take the L. Its reserved for stuff like caterpie/weedle/the coccoons, magikarp, beldum, pichu, very bad pokemon that are separate from just a ranking system because they need extreme strategies and arent always going to win ( i think hes had like 2, 3 fails rn?).
My only opinion on this full convo is that the "nuzlocke isn't worth doing if you do setup moves" is weird imo, especially with crits, and that matters because like.
The point of a Nuzlocke never was supposed to be about just making the hardest challenge. It was about making stories, and forcing the player to adapt.
If anything, my unpopular opinion is that most Pokemon challenge runs are not worth doing if you are not a content creator, or do not have friends that actually care to hear about your Nuzlocke. It is primarily a storytelling game mode at its heart, and even if you do go for full challenge, most people still will not actually care about your achievement unless you are a Youtuber.
The point of a Nuzlocke never was supposed to be about just making the hardest challenge. It was about making stories, and forcing the player to adapt.
If anything, my unpopular opinion is that most Pokemon challenge runs are not worth doing if you are not a content creator, or do not have friends that actually care to hear about your Nuzlocke. It is primarily a storytelling game mode at its heart, and even if you do go for full challenge, most people still will not actually care about your achievement unless you are a Youtuber.
scotthoughts is also a good example of this to the point where he successfully rebranded away from "can x beat this" to "x solo run" and has refined his process a lot and keeps trying to find ways to best optimize a Pokemon while talking about its shortcomings and how to best overcome them or the trials & tribulations with unfortunately having to work with what you have or how certain pokemon can surprsie you, all while he gathers more interesting statistics and measures
and then inevitably doing another 5 runs for a single Pokemon because surely he can get the god run he's so close its right there just a little more refinement they can move up a whole speedrun tier and then the entire audience goes "scott........."
People who set up to +6 don't leave themselves open to losing a mon to a single crit, and if something takes multiple crits without healing, we can only call it "Skill Issue".
And isn't defaulting to the most risk-averse route possible the antithesis of adapting?
Even as entertainment, this is straight-up boring to watch/read, so it also fails on that front.
You know what, I agree with this
I still love the TFS HGSS Nuzlocke and seeing them go from talking shit of Chikorita, to it being the most significant and adored team member. The fanart and skits/events for the other mons was way more interesting than the challenge itself
Though then again by that point you can just not play and simply make fanfics :V
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When I read stuff like this I'm left to wonder why people don't just play the Battle Frontier instead of inventing a difficult game of house rules and hacks from whole cloth.
My take on the Nuzlocke talk is that people play how they want to play and are comfortable with and if that bothers you go watch someone else play. I rarely watch kaizo ironmon challenges because watching someone try and fail to beat a game for three hours is boring to me.
In fairness to the playerbase, the state of Battle Facilities has some noticeable gaps in most games that are likely harder to patch over than editing the inventory. Much as I love the Frontier, it not allowing a full team of 6 is something I put up with that I could see as a turnoff for people who want something close to the maingame experience. Then of course there's the new games where you would basically need to build a Tower from scratch...
A Battle Frontier run is like a mini nuzlocke tbh: one loss, no matter how bs the hax was, makes you restart from square one.
Except in nuzlockes you have to restart the whole game. Did one and I wasn't a fan of how super safe I had to play all the time.
Except in nuzlockes you have to restart the whole game. Did one and I wasn't a fan of how super safe I had to play all the time.
Here are some opinions I have been meaning to express for sometime now:
I think Serena is the most dull and predictable shonen-style character we ever had. A lot of her feelings are based upon a childhood encounter with Ash, giving us a very puppy love like relationship that has no real building towards it- what makes something like Ash x Dawn work much better romantically is that we see Ash and Dawn grow together at least as friends- this relationship lacks that chemistry development and that feels like a contrivance especially since we are supposed to believe that this relationship existed long before the very first episode, 800 episodes and 17 years later. I'm so glad this relationship didn't pay off, because it would be an insult to every other better written character in this series history. In general, I feel XY is extremely Shonen, and Ash is in this series is a Mary Sue and Serena serves to make him look better. I imagine this direction was chosen because of how characterization of BW turned out, with Ash being a noob again and Iris's insulting nature- so they went for the opposite.
On a similar note, although I haven't been watching Horizions, I did watch a clip on YouTube, and it showed Shiny Rayquaza. Like why though? We already had a Shiny Rayquaza in the Hoopa movie. Why can't they give the showcase to another Pokemon like Giratina or Kyurem or Necrozma? All of which have yet to have their shiny featured. This is definitely unpopular considering that Rayquaza is popular, but that's my two cents.
And lastly think the switch games are objectively worse than the handheld games when it comes to RPG elements, in the sense there are less options for teambuilding, trading, and optimization, even with the DLC. If we compare USUM to SwSh, the latter has less Pokemon, less moves. less super mechanics and limited options for trading and battling thanks to the GTS and Switch Online. And that's only USUM. We could take a step further and compare DP and SwSh on launch, the former had 493 Pokemon avalible at launch thanks to transfer system and GTS being avalible for free , while for SwSh you had to wait for Home, DLC, and pay money to increase your options for teambuilding.
I think Serena is the most dull and predictable shonen-style character we ever had. A lot of her feelings are based upon a childhood encounter with Ash, giving us a very puppy love like relationship that has no real building towards it- what makes something like Ash x Dawn work much better romantically is that we see Ash and Dawn grow together at least as friends- this relationship lacks that chemistry development and that feels like a contrivance especially since we are supposed to believe that this relationship existed long before the very first episode, 800 episodes and 17 years later. I'm so glad this relationship didn't pay off, because it would be an insult to every other better written character in this series history. In general, I feel XY is extremely Shonen, and Ash is in this series is a Mary Sue and Serena serves to make him look better. I imagine this direction was chosen because of how characterization of BW turned out, with Ash being a noob again and Iris's insulting nature- so they went for the opposite.
On a similar note, although I haven't been watching Horizions, I did watch a clip on YouTube, and it showed Shiny Rayquaza. Like why though? We already had a Shiny Rayquaza in the Hoopa movie. Why can't they give the showcase to another Pokemon like Giratina or Kyurem or Necrozma? All of which have yet to have their shiny featured. This is definitely unpopular considering that Rayquaza is popular, but that's my two cents.
And lastly think the switch games are objectively worse than the handheld games when it comes to RPG elements, in the sense there are less options for teambuilding, trading, and optimization, even with the DLC. If we compare USUM to SwSh, the latter has less Pokemon, less moves. less super mechanics and limited options for trading and battling thanks to the GTS and Switch Online. And that's only USUM. We could take a step further and compare DP and SwSh on launch, the former had 493 Pokemon avalible at launch thanks to transfer system and GTS being avalible for free , while for SwSh you had to wait for Home, DLC, and pay money to increase your options for teambuilding.
Ah yes, Serena talk. I really like Serena as I was super into the XY anime back in my high school days in the mid 2010s, and Serena has been one of my favorite characters for a long time.
My hot take is that both the aggressive AmourShippers and the Serena detractors online grossly overstate the importance of Serena's feelings for Ash on her character or her story, and in doing so fail to see the actually interesting parts of her character. I think she's a very relatable and down-to-earth character who has a really great character arc, and her feelings for Ash are ancillary at best. They were never going to "pay off" that relationship because romance wasn't and never will be a primary concern of the show, not even for Serena's character. Anipoke is at its core about the Pokemon first and foremost, and the bond between Pokemon and their Trainers and how they work together toward their goals and grow together as people.
I think Serena has a good story that I really liked and connected with and I loved her growth in XY, and that is what paid off incredibly well in her first return so far in Journeys. She started off as someone with no real dream, who was the daughter of a renowned Rhyhorn Racer, and railroaded into that path which she didn't want to do. Once she sets herself free from that and starts her journey, she spends time finding out what she wants to do and who she wants to be in the world, building connections and meeting people along her journey until she decides to become a Performer, and goes through all that and learns why she wants to be a Performer, and the kind of person she truly wants to be: someone who can give others strength, through her performances. It paid off magnificently in Journeys with her playing that role relative to Chloe. It also ties in nicely with XY (both anime and games) having the dichotomy of give vs take: she spent her journey taking strength from others, such as Ash (his never give up till it's over attitude inspiring her and giving her the willpower to overcome hardships on her own path), but then seeks to give back. It's a great story about someone who had no real sense of self growing into a strong, kind, and independent person who seeks to use her strength to inspire others and help them find their strength. In fact I think she's one of my favorite characters in the show, because I felt she grew into herself the most of any of the characters, becoming someone truly great.
----
I feel as a side note in general, the ship wars/discourse online has greatly degraded the ability to value great character development seen in both Ash and his girl companions. Comparing the likes of Serena to May, Dawn, etc. based purely on "ship value" with Ash greatly undermines all of them and reeks underlying misogyny and kills the ability to value the girl characters as their own individual characters and people. I like Ash and Dawn's dynamic but also don't personally really ship them romantically, seeing them more as each other's very best friend, and I think that relationship is special precisely because it's a platonic, yet special one. Platonic friendships can be just as special as romantic ones! And even if Serena and Ash have romantic undertones to their dynamic, which I actually think is a beautiful and well articulated bond based on mutual inspiration and strength, how they both see each other as each other's role models, it doesn't take away from their own individual strengths as characters. But most of all characters like May, Serena, and Dawn deserve to be looked at for themselves, for their own character arcs. Dawn for one is my most formative Anipoke character since I grew up with the DP anime and she has a fantastic growth arc as a Coordinator and she's a strong person in the end, which is great to watch.
In general, "shippers" really manage to undermine the actual characters by being the way they are, and also crumble under the notion that a given character is in fact allowed to have deep, significant relationships with multiple other characters. This helps to provide overarching depth and humanity to a character.
My hot take is that both the aggressive AmourShippers and the Serena detractors online grossly overstate the importance of Serena's feelings for Ash on her character or her story, and in doing so fail to see the actually interesting parts of her character. I think she's a very relatable and down-to-earth character who has a really great character arc, and her feelings for Ash are ancillary at best. They were never going to "pay off" that relationship because romance wasn't and never will be a primary concern of the show, not even for Serena's character. Anipoke is at its core about the Pokemon first and foremost, and the bond between Pokemon and their Trainers and how they work together toward their goals and grow together as people.
I think Serena has a good story that I really liked and connected with and I loved her growth in XY, and that is what paid off incredibly well in her first return so far in Journeys. She started off as someone with no real dream, who was the daughter of a renowned Rhyhorn Racer, and railroaded into that path which she didn't want to do. Once she sets herself free from that and starts her journey, she spends time finding out what she wants to do and who she wants to be in the world, building connections and meeting people along her journey until she decides to become a Performer, and goes through all that and learns why she wants to be a Performer, and the kind of person she truly wants to be: someone who can give others strength, through her performances. It paid off magnificently in Journeys with her playing that role relative to Chloe. It also ties in nicely with XY (both anime and games) having the dichotomy of give vs take: she spent her journey taking strength from others, such as Ash (his never give up till it's over attitude inspiring her and giving her the willpower to overcome hardships on her own path), but then seeks to give back. It's a great story about someone who had no real sense of self growing into a strong, kind, and independent person who seeks to use her strength to inspire others and help them find their strength. In fact I think she's one of my favorite characters in the show, because I felt she grew into herself the most of any of the characters, becoming someone truly great.
----
I feel as a side note in general, the ship wars/discourse online has greatly degraded the ability to value great character development seen in both Ash and his girl companions. Comparing the likes of Serena to May, Dawn, etc. based purely on "ship value" with Ash greatly undermines all of them and reeks underlying misogyny and kills the ability to value the girl characters as their own individual characters and people. I like Ash and Dawn's dynamic but also don't personally really ship them romantically, seeing them more as each other's very best friend, and I think that relationship is special precisely because it's a platonic, yet special one. Platonic friendships can be just as special as romantic ones! And even if Serena and Ash have romantic undertones to their dynamic, which I actually think is a beautiful and well articulated bond based on mutual inspiration and strength, how they both see each other as each other's role models, it doesn't take away from their own individual strengths as characters. But most of all characters like May, Serena, and Dawn deserve to be looked at for themselves, for their own character arcs. Dawn for one is my most formative Anipoke character since I grew up with the DP anime and she has a fantastic growth arc as a Coordinator and she's a strong person in the end, which is great to watch.
In general, "shippers" really manage to undermine the actual characters by being the way they are, and also crumble under the notion that a given character is in fact allowed to have deep, significant relationships with multiple other characters. This helps to provide overarching depth and humanity to a character.
I originally thought it was just based on popularity since it was indeed the most popular legendary in the 2020 pull, but now on highsight it having the ability to Mega Evolve is probably an important factor as well and could be used to promote ZA. It being able to freely fly also is the simplest way to have it being able to be hunted down by the cast as opposed to Kyurem not having as much mobility and Giratina being kind of abstract.
I wouldn't be surprised if it battles the shiny Zygarde, which is also probably shiny to better stand out from the XYZ anime counterparts. Land vs Sky dragons is thematically interesting.
Of course that's all just speculation on my part tho.
Finally, someone said XY Ash is overrated
I remember catching the sub after feeling disappointed with BW and...man
Between fan shipping discourse, Ash Greninja, and the whole losing to Alain, I found him flat as fuck. He was just competent, that's it. The scene of Serena getting mad at him in the snow is uhh...I still don't know how to feel
Also he's physically the weakest Ash
I prefer Gen 1-3 Ash, at least he had growth and chemistry with friends
*No, this doesn't mean I like Gen 7/8 and H Ash much, the quirkiness is overcompensating his flatness. Bitch can't comprehend a Herdier dying despite Gen 1 showing he well aware what death is. Meme faces ain't enough for me
I remember catching the sub after feeling disappointed with BW and...man
Between fan shipping discourse, Ash Greninja, and the whole losing to Alain, I found him flat as fuck. He was just competent, that's it. The scene of Serena getting mad at him in the snow is uhh...I still don't know how to feel
I prefer Gen 1-3 Ash, at least he had growth and chemistry with friends
*No, this doesn't mean I like Gen 7/8 and H Ash much, the quirkiness is overcompensating his flatness. Bitch can't comprehend a Herdier dying despite Gen 1 showing he well aware what death is. Meme faces ain't enough for me
Okay, so I was going to make this post into an entire thread at one point, but I think I'll be able to condense this into an indeterminately long post that still (shouldn't be) too much of a headache to read and understand. So, with that in mind, I've thought things over, and I understand that this topic may have been discussed on this thread before. That being said, I'm just going to go out and say it... I geneuinely don't think yearly core series Pokémon game releases are or ever were a problem. In fact, in a few specific cases I would actually call this a net positive overall.
A number of Pokémon fans continue to be under the impression that many of the issues plaguing modern core series Pokémon games- not all of them, but a lot of them- would at least be easier to rectify if the developers just had some more time to actually work on these games. The common consensus opinion seems to be that the developers, usually Game Freak but also ILCA since the release of Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, deserve at least one extra year to work on newer installments, if not more, and that these games having more time to bake in the oven would help them feel much more polished. I cannot say I disagree with the argument that video games need to have the development cycle time they deserve to be able to grow into all-time classics or even just, dare I say it, an actually enjoyable experience. So certainly giving the developers an extra year would make these games better in the eyes of the public right? ...right?
Here's the dirty little secret about Pokémon games in the past that have been delayed. The final product we did eventually receive was still ultimately the same product. The most recognized instance of a delayed core series Pokémon game would probably be Diamond & Pearl's release, originally slated for the fall of 2005, being pushed back a year to what would eventually be revealed as September 2006, roughly two years after the last core series release in Emerald on the Game Boy Advance. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that had the fourth generation started a year earlier as it was intended to, the third generation games on GBA would have fallen into a similar situation as the Nintendo Switch lineup, where on average, one new Game Freak-made installment was released each calendar year. (2003 had no new games, but 2004 had both the Kanto remakes and Emerald.) It's clear that the developers of Diamond & Pearl did exactly what fans want the developers of the newer games to do nowadays. So in that case... why do Diamond & Pearl still suck? At least compared to Platinum, anyway. I don't know if I'm in the minority in this or not, but it feels like the Diamond & Pearl we did get felt like what would have been the 2005 version as opposed to a well-made 2006 version, explaining things such as the limited PokéDex and decreased frame rate compared to the Gen 3 installments on GBA (which embarrassingly remain the only games in the entire core series to be able to manage 60 FPS, I might add). Oh, but everything's okay, because we got Platinum eventually anyways, right? Yeah, we did- two whole years after Diamond & Pearl, the longest gap between a pair of base games and their definitive version to date, and three whole years after the intended 2005 release date Diamond & Pearl initially had. At that rate Game Freak might as well have made Gen 4 sequel games instead, but- wait, what's that? When they actually did this with Black & White for a change, those sequels weren't in development for any longer than a definitive version game would be (owed largely to the fact that scrapped "Pokémon Grey" content was reused for Black 2 & White 2), and people think Black 2 & White 2 are some of the best games in the core series catalog post-Gen 5's active lifespan?
If you made it this far into my post, congratulations. You've likely noticed by now that the issue isn't one extra year of development time being withheld by Game Freak. If Sword & Shield, Legends: Arceus, or Scarlet & Violet all got that extra year, there is a historical precedent to assume that the game could still be unenjoyable for a large number of fans regardless of how well any of these games or their multimedia merchandise performed financially. Even if you give them, say, three years, you're left with a game like Platinum, which, yeah, it's great that a polished version of Sinnoh does exist somewhere, but an argument can be made that Platinum is what Diamond & Pearl should have felt like from the start to begin with. The real fixes are going to come from things like content availability, accessibility measures, and giving players reasons to come back once the main story and/or postgame is completed. Other franchises have proven that yearly video game releases in a series can be enjoyable and affordable, and in this greater context, it's not a matter of how much time Game Freak and ILCA are given. It's a matter of what they choose to do with that time.
A number of Pokémon fans continue to be under the impression that many of the issues plaguing modern core series Pokémon games- not all of them, but a lot of them- would at least be easier to rectify if the developers just had some more time to actually work on these games. The common consensus opinion seems to be that the developers, usually Game Freak but also ILCA since the release of Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, deserve at least one extra year to work on newer installments, if not more, and that these games having more time to bake in the oven would help them feel much more polished. I cannot say I disagree with the argument that video games need to have the development cycle time they deserve to be able to grow into all-time classics or even just, dare I say it, an actually enjoyable experience. So certainly giving the developers an extra year would make these games better in the eyes of the public right? ...right?
Here's the dirty little secret about Pokémon games in the past that have been delayed. The final product we did eventually receive was still ultimately the same product. The most recognized instance of a delayed core series Pokémon game would probably be Diamond & Pearl's release, originally slated for the fall of 2005, being pushed back a year to what would eventually be revealed as September 2006, roughly two years after the last core series release in Emerald on the Game Boy Advance. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that had the fourth generation started a year earlier as it was intended to, the third generation games on GBA would have fallen into a similar situation as the Nintendo Switch lineup, where on average, one new Game Freak-made installment was released each calendar year. (2003 had no new games, but 2004 had both the Kanto remakes and Emerald.) It's clear that the developers of Diamond & Pearl did exactly what fans want the developers of the newer games to do nowadays. So in that case... why do Diamond & Pearl still suck? At least compared to Platinum, anyway. I don't know if I'm in the minority in this or not, but it feels like the Diamond & Pearl we did get felt like what would have been the 2005 version as opposed to a well-made 2006 version, explaining things such as the limited PokéDex and decreased frame rate compared to the Gen 3 installments on GBA (which embarrassingly remain the only games in the entire core series to be able to manage 60 FPS, I might add). Oh, but everything's okay, because we got Platinum eventually anyways, right? Yeah, we did- two whole years after Diamond & Pearl, the longest gap between a pair of base games and their definitive version to date, and three whole years after the intended 2005 release date Diamond & Pearl initially had. At that rate Game Freak might as well have made Gen 4 sequel games instead, but- wait, what's that? When they actually did this with Black & White for a change, those sequels weren't in development for any longer than a definitive version game would be (owed largely to the fact that scrapped "Pokémon Grey" content was reused for Black 2 & White 2), and people think Black 2 & White 2 are some of the best games in the core series catalog post-Gen 5's active lifespan?
If you made it this far into my post, congratulations. You've likely noticed by now that the issue isn't one extra year of development time being withheld by Game Freak. If Sword & Shield, Legends: Arceus, or Scarlet & Violet all got that extra year, there is a historical precedent to assume that the game could still be unenjoyable for a large number of fans regardless of how well any of these games or their multimedia merchandise performed financially. Even if you give them, say, three years, you're left with a game like Platinum, which, yeah, it's great that a polished version of Sinnoh does exist somewhere, but an argument can be made that Platinum is what Diamond & Pearl should have felt like from the start to begin with. The real fixes are going to come from things like content availability, accessibility measures, and giving players reasons to come back once the main story and/or postgame is completed. Other franchises have proven that yearly video game releases in a series can be enjoyable and affordable, and in this greater context, it's not a matter of how much time Game Freak and ILCA are given. It's a matter of what they choose to do with that time.
Yeah, I'm of the opinion that XY Ash is a Mary Sue-likely to the wide criticism of how noobish he became in BW despite making it top top 4 in DP. It just shows that the writers were not willing to commit giving Ash a dedicated growth and were willing to reset him for whatever their needs were. Like how SM his personality became more laid back.
On the topic of Serena, that moment where she pelts Ash with snowballs comes off as really immature- it showcases Serena as very selfish, indicating she cannot tolerate the idea of Ash not caring about her even when its quite obvious Ash needs sometime to solace.
And let's not for get the episode in which Serena impersonates Ash to battle against Jimmy, like any sane, law-abiding citizen. And for whatever reason, Ash is not disturbed by this and praises her efforts.
Actually, on the topic of Ash in general, I'm really happy they decided to retire Ash finally. Even as kids, me and my big brother of how irritated how Ash never seemed to grow and succeed despite his journey as a trainer. I truly feel that Gen 4 was Ash's peak and that was when he had used his team to reach his highest place. BW was when they should have had a new protagonist.
I actually disagree saying that her feelings towards Ash have zero influence on her development; if anything its a huge sway for her character development. The very reason she started on her journey was to return a hankerchief that Ash lent to her long ago. In the Skiddo race against her mother, it was Ash's encouragement that allows her to succeed. After changing her outfit, she specifically points to the ribbon Ash gave her. It was thanks to Ash that she learned a " never-give up" attutude that allowed her stitch a dress just in time for round 2. And lastly, at the the of XY, Serena states that she'll get better for Ash's sake before departing.
So yeah, I don't think it an overstatement that Serena's arc is hugely shaped by her feeling towards Ash.
This probably counts as an unpopular opinion: while I was expecting it to show up in a Legends Unova game, I feel like the Original Dragon is one of these kind of things we should never actually see, through my inner child really wants to finally do so.
We know they didn't originally plan for Kyurem to fuse with Reshiram/Zekrom, but its fusions work because they still feel incomplete, which they are. They manage to have their own identity and looks while still making it obvious they are a combination. But the Original Dragon should feel more natural,not look like the combination of the splitted parts -and that's a pitfall I see a lot of fellow artists fall in, specially with coloring. It should have been designed first before doing Reshiram and Zekrom's looks which seems unlikely.
But even if they did manage to create a perfect design that woud live up to more than a decade of expectations (as if theis fandom could be pleased in such a way lol) I kind of feel like it woud just take away some of the mysticism of the story focused so much in dual opposing sides. Maybe if they somehow made a recreation of it as a final boss it could work, trough I wonder how it would function mechanically -would it still be considered Kyurem? If not, it could be kind of an issue depending on how you could separate it. There was so much potential with Paradoxes there...
I'm probably overthinking it tho, and they will probably just throw a grey dragon at us and call it a day. I just think the design would have to live up to very high expectations while also feeling natural. It's a hard work, not impossible since there are awesome fan arts of it out thete, but still. Thanks for reading my nonsense.
We know they didn't originally plan for Kyurem to fuse with Reshiram/Zekrom, but its fusions work because they still feel incomplete, which they are. They manage to have their own identity and looks while still making it obvious they are a combination. But the Original Dragon should feel more natural,not look like the combination of the splitted parts -and that's a pitfall I see a lot of fellow artists fall in, specially with coloring. It should have been designed first before doing Reshiram and Zekrom's looks which seems unlikely.
But even if they did manage to create a perfect design that woud live up to more than a decade of expectations (as if theis fandom could be pleased in such a way lol) I kind of feel like it woud just take away some of the mysticism of the story focused so much in dual opposing sides. Maybe if they somehow made a recreation of it as a final boss it could work, trough I wonder how it would function mechanically -would it still be considered Kyurem? If not, it could be kind of an issue depending on how you could separate it. There was so much potential with Paradoxes there...
I'm probably overthinking it tho, and they will probably just throw a grey dragon at us and call it a day. I just think the design would have to live up to very high expectations while also feeling natural. It's a hard work, not impossible since there are awesome fan arts of it out thete, but still. Thanks for reading my nonsense.
For the record I also agree that the Original Dragon is something we probably won't "officially" get, or at least not one that is better than whatever most people imagined back in 2012.
That said the boss fight approach seems simple enough to finagle. Make the Dragon a "fight only" form from Kyurem collecting the Black/White Stones, and then separated after the fight for post-game encounters, akin to Eternamax Eternatus being fought before you actually can catch Zacian/Zamazenta and the Dragon being caught in its normal state instead.
I have thought about the yearly releases recently, and I have figured out another reason as for why they are bothering me. It is because prior to 2010, I had gotten used to new releases happening every other year.
During 2003-2005, we got new games every year with R/S, FR/LG and Emerald, respectively. Back then, I thought it was fine. After that, we had a break in 2006, followed by D/P in 2007. This was followed by another break in 2008, after which we got Platinum in 2009. After this, the yearly releases started (again). HG/SS, B/W, B2/W2, X/Y, OR/AS (then a break in 2015, thankfully), S/M, US/UM, LGP/E, S/S, semi-break in 2020 thanks to DLC, BD/SP, L:A and ScaVio, then another semi-break with DLC.
Having to play through one game every new year takes a lot of time, it took me even more longer back when I got both games from every pair. It became very stressful since I wanted to do everything in the games, and I was always hoping they would go back to releasing a game every other year instead of continuing with a new game every year. And that's something I'm still hoping for. Fortunately, things have started to move in that direction now that we have gotten DLC for both S/S and ScaVio instead of a brand new game, and there's no new game announced for this year, so things are looking a bit better.
Not quite. The Gen 5 games run at 60 FPS in battles, on the title screen and in 2D menus. Though they still run at 30 everywhere else outside of the opening movie, which runs at 15. This is according to Bulbapedia at least, I can't really confirm this myself as I don't see a big difference between 30 and 60 FPS unless it is shown side by side. However, the Gen 5 games always felt a lot faster than Gen 4, and battles are a lot faster, so I'm pretty sure this is true.
You'll need to remember that in Japan, B/W were released in 2010, not 2011, making the time between these game pairs closer to two years. And the time between the international releases was a year and a half, not just one year (like for most/all of the other yearly releases). Now I don't know if this meant they had a longer development time, but for me as a player, I really appreciated the extra time between the releases.
Edit: Fixed a mistake.
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This is a very valid point, so why do people keep insisting on Gamefreak having a longer development time when it comes to Pokemon games?
Let's look at the games' biggest problems (not counting Gamefreak trying to quietly phase out transfers)
1- Very poor performance (bad draw distance, bad FPS, bad textures) (bad human designs, dear god the bad human designs)
2- Games seem unfinished (menus instead of models for stores, towns with nothing to do in them, towns that are a fucking long corridor)
Gamefreak is not known for coding skills nor for their non-sprite graphic capabilities, but that could potentially be solved by just hiring people
but "just hiring people" is known to not scale well when it comes to actually finishing features, thus fans
Would this work?
who knows, but it's better that going do ho ho I guess the games just suck when it comes to x, but I dont buy the games for x so Im fine with the franchise decreasing quality do ho ho
The way I see it, the current main games are already below my standards, so I'm not playing them. As a result, from the perspective of official games I own and not just Showdown updates, I'm already waiting many years for content. There isn't actually a downside to longer dev times for me as a consumer: there would only be less distance between external goings-on and my own experiences.
The Alola titles are literally only matched/surpassed in terms of graphical fidelity for 3DS standards by the N64 Zelda remasters and a handful of "on-rails" games like Kid Icarus Uprising and Great Ace Attorney but go off I guess. Don't even get me started on individual Pokemon models having more polygons than a considerable chunk of playable characters in other games which often have one or two and not 700something. When you get lag spikes in double battles those aren't the lag spikes of a poorly-optimized slapjob, those are the lag spikes of a system being pushed to its limits.
This tends to occur when you do not have enough development time! Do you think GF's developers are happy about this? Do you believe these problems would still exist or at the very least not be heavily mitigated if SV had been worked on for as long as BoTW? Do you really? This goes for the graphics problems too! There aren't aspects of game dev that are magically immune to bad scheduling, it all trickles down.
"Fixing the scheduling won't magically solve everything" is a reasonable enough take I guess but until that really starts happening it's kinda unfalsifiable. If after 5 years of getting serious about it there's still little to show for their efforts then we can collectively reconvene. If we're going off history, however, it's hard to believe slowing things down would accomplish little to nothing.
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