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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
More like the Crash Twinsanity of Pokemon (the difference is that I like Crash Twinsanity)
Now that I think about it, SWSH is comparable to Wrath of Cortex as well, considering that one of its main criticisms was the inability to innovate.
Now that I think about it, SWSH is comparable to Wrath of Cortex as well, considering that one of its main criticisms was the inability to innovate.
I can't in good conscience put GOAT of the Wild in any kind of comparison with these two sorry games.
swsh is the dark souls of pokemon
dark souls is the swsh of dark souls
Just for the sake of discussion, I’d say SV. SwSh are structurally a very conventional Pokémon game, and while the DLC expands on the concept, the Wild Area is not much more than a glorified Safari Zone. The open world design philosophy to come is very clearly still in the early stages of gestation by the time of SwSh.
To make a clunky Zelda analogy, I suppose SwSh would be like A Link Between Worlds? In that they both are the beginning of implementing some degree of open world design into an otherwise very familiar shape of a game.
Ocarina of Time is a classic and a game that did many incredible things at a time when its closest competitors at the time in terms of gameplay were games like Tomb Raider, which were way smaller in scope and more limiting in the world building. Third person gameplay with large maps to explore in. It was a big technical leap forward for video games generally and for the Zelda franchise.
Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule field with everything bolted on around it was a genuine whhhhhaaattttt moment for so many people. It was “open world” before open world games really existed - you can play most of the dungeons out of order in some ways, there’s a lot of alternative routes and additional quests.
OoT in my head was the first time a game franchise changed things up so much that it was truly evolution, not revolution.
So no, Pokemon Platinum is not Pokemon’s OoT. That’s ridiculous. If you played every generation, as I did, from Gen 1 onwards, Platinum barely registers on the overall timeline - it’s a well polished third version of that fourth generation of Pokemon games, but it is not revolutionary or evolutionary from the third gen. The graphics are better, the maps are set up identically.
Remember that Ocarina of Time was the next Legend of Zelda game after Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy Colour. That jump and leap into 3D graphics and the huge world created was a huge leap forward.
The comparison for Pokemon I think isn’t the fourth gen, but in the third gen, and that big jump was Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire to Pokemon Coliseum, which is where we found the biggest technical jump between games.
So I refute the idea that Platinum is Pokemon’s Ocarina of Time. That’s ridiculous and overplays Platinum’s importance and underplays how important Ocarina of Time is to video game development.
I’d go so far as to say that Ocarina of Time is one of the most important video games of all time for what it achieved and what it pushed in the industry generally.
Pokemon is important to me and a big part of my life but I reckon I’d have to accept that its effect on videogame development is relatively minor - more important is how it as a franchise has influenced other brands in terms of its marketing strategy.
Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule field with everything bolted on around it was a genuine whhhhhaaattttt moment for so many people. It was “open world” before open world games really existed - you can play most of the dungeons out of order in some ways, there’s a lot of alternative routes and additional quests.
OoT in my head was the first time a game franchise changed things up so much that it was truly evolution, not revolution.
So no, Pokemon Platinum is not Pokemon’s OoT. That’s ridiculous. If you played every generation, as I did, from Gen 1 onwards, Platinum barely registers on the overall timeline - it’s a well polished third version of that fourth generation of Pokemon games, but it is not revolutionary or evolutionary from the third gen. The graphics are better, the maps are set up identically.
Remember that Ocarina of Time was the next Legend of Zelda game after Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy Colour. That jump and leap into 3D graphics and the huge world created was a huge leap forward.
The comparison for Pokemon I think isn’t the fourth gen, but in the third gen, and that big jump was Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire to Pokemon Coliseum, which is where we found the biggest technical jump between games.
So I refute the idea that Platinum is Pokemon’s Ocarina of Time. That’s ridiculous and overplays Platinum’s importance and underplays how important Ocarina of Time is to video game development.
I’d go so far as to say that Ocarina of Time is one of the most important video games of all time for what it achieved and what it pushed in the industry generally.
Pokemon is important to me and a big part of my life but I reckon I’d have to accept that its effect on videogame development is relatively minor - more important is how it as a franchise has influenced other brands in terms of its marketing strategy.
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Does that include the part where both games are very technically glitchy and unfinished, even acknowledging their strong suits/what people like playing them for?
Yeah, reception wise, Twinsanity got people more divided than games that are generally agreed to be mediocre/bad. Me personally, it does enough good to be an enyoable platformer, mainly the movement, the various scenarios and the collectables to pick up. The jankiness can get REALLY bad tho, and you can tell how unfinished the game is, to the point some collectibles are unused material.
Bro looks like Max Headroom without the swoosh. Pass.
Some Friday Hot Takes:
so in my continued replaying of Pokemon games, I started on the GBA games
FRLG used to be my favorite, but I couldn't get into it. After playing through almost every other game in the series and nuzlocking FRLG, I'm not terribly interested in a lot of the Pokemon. I do think that this burnout does NOT come from the Johto games
At the same time I'm replaying Ruby on cart and it's been a much more positive experience than I remember overall:
FRLG used to be my favorite, but I couldn't get into it. After playing through almost every other game in the series and nuzlocking FRLG, I'm not terribly interested in a lot of the Pokemon. I do think that this burnout does NOT come from the Johto games
At the same time I'm replaying Ruby on cart and it's been a much more positive experience than I remember overall:
- I like a lot of the Pokemon selection, and like playing as Pokemon that feel unique to the region (going back to playing sm Pokemon as a whole)
- Ralts' ability is an excellent introduction to abilities, because it tells you what each Pokemon you face's ability is
- I like the broken Pick Up. It makes replaying the games more fun because I can get more resources at my disposal than usual without breaking the game. I understand why they fixed it, and in some ways made it more useful, but it's fun to have the extra resources during a regular playthrough
- I feel like the game does do a lot of callbacks to Gen 1 in their own way, such as starting with a rock gym, making you go through a city you'll return to later for the gym, and going through a forest
- That said, I'm less forgiving of the battery issues. That is something they should have done without, by this point they knew it would affect the quality of future playthroughs.
- Also, they still needed to do something about hyping up certain Pokemon like the weather Pokemon and Keckleon who were clearly ass but had potential to be interesting
I mentioned I felt this way earlier, a lot of it is vibes, as HGSS is a fairly faithful remake
Aesthetic: to me, Crystal looks sm nicer. The sprites look great, contrasted with the white background. The Vileplume sprite goes crazy particularly in the last Team Rocket fight. I also like the artwork regarding the towns and routes. HGSS looks nice, but I prefer Platinum's in terms of Gen 4, and prefer Gen 3/s artwork style as well. Gen 4's is too refined. HGSS does have bigger caves, but honestly I didn't really have any more fun exploring them, they just took longer to traverse.
Differences:
A lot of subtle differences, like how they wrote Silver, and naming the Team Rocket sprites, didn't work well for me in the remake. Making more of Kanto felt cool, but I didn't like the vibe of the game as much, so I wasn't interested in the postgame. Catching more legendaries is cool, I just didn't care for the game so it didn't have a greatly positive impact on the experience. Stuff like Viridian Forest is cool to have, but it takes like 5 minutes to go through. Also, the Rock Climb HM was beyond disappointing. I mainly got access to trade evolution items and other stuff I didn't actually need or care about at that stage in the game.
Also, fuck the Safari Zone. That place is downright miserable, and makes me feel dumb for caring about catching all the Pokemon. I'd rather play at the stupid casino because they're basically the same thing, except the casino isn't a dumbed down version of regular gameplay.
Crystal also fixed some Pokemon locations and had easier access to the evolution stones, I also didn't care for the Pokeathlon lol. HGSS still makes many bad decisions as to Pokemon availability, although I do like access to Mareep and Girafarig
Power Level:
I have another rant coming about this below, but I kinda feel like Gen 4 screwed up the power level curve. A common critique of earlier generations, is that many Pokemon have bad movesets or take too long to get good moves. Johto especially is notable for being weaker than Kanto, many of the best tms in the game are locked behind the postgame.
The thing is, in Crystal, you didn't need them. Between the elemental punches and Badge Boosts, my teams I've used in normal playthroughs will be at the right power level to go through the Elite 4 with a little bit of grinding. All the Pokemon with "bad movesets" were still able to contribute, because the moves were strong enough against the competition they faced. Power is relative.
In Gen 4, the power level has increased greatly. Yet the tools you have access to have not. The Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Flamethrower are locked behind some dumb game at the Casino, alongside a few other valuable tms, which makes me want to complete the Battle Facilities in Platinum were resources are more readily available. Yes, you get access to the 70 Percent moves, but those aren't reliable and being forced to rely on them feels similarly to OHKO moves. I had to grind for awhile before the Elite 4 in HGSS because my team didn't have the tools to beat Lance and it was annoying. I can't enjoy the postgame if so many important resources are locked behind minigames.
Aesthetic: to me, Crystal looks sm nicer. The sprites look great, contrasted with the white background. The Vileplume sprite goes crazy particularly in the last Team Rocket fight. I also like the artwork regarding the towns and routes. HGSS looks nice, but I prefer Platinum's in terms of Gen 4, and prefer Gen 3/s artwork style as well. Gen 4's is too refined. HGSS does have bigger caves, but honestly I didn't really have any more fun exploring them, they just took longer to traverse.
Differences:
A lot of subtle differences, like how they wrote Silver, and naming the Team Rocket sprites, didn't work well for me in the remake. Making more of Kanto felt cool, but I didn't like the vibe of the game as much, so I wasn't interested in the postgame. Catching more legendaries is cool, I just didn't care for the game so it didn't have a greatly positive impact on the experience. Stuff like Viridian Forest is cool to have, but it takes like 5 minutes to go through. Also, the Rock Climb HM was beyond disappointing. I mainly got access to trade evolution items and other stuff I didn't actually need or care about at that stage in the game.
Also, fuck the Safari Zone. That place is downright miserable, and makes me feel dumb for caring about catching all the Pokemon. I'd rather play at the stupid casino because they're basically the same thing, except the casino isn't a dumbed down version of regular gameplay.
Crystal also fixed some Pokemon locations and had easier access to the evolution stones, I also didn't care for the Pokeathlon lol. HGSS still makes many bad decisions as to Pokemon availability, although I do like access to Mareep and Girafarig
Power Level:
I have another rant coming about this below, but I kinda feel like Gen 4 screwed up the power level curve. A common critique of earlier generations, is that many Pokemon have bad movesets or take too long to get good moves. Johto especially is notable for being weaker than Kanto, many of the best tms in the game are locked behind the postgame.
The thing is, in Crystal, you didn't need them. Between the elemental punches and Badge Boosts, my teams I've used in normal playthroughs will be at the right power level to go through the Elite 4 with a little bit of grinding. All the Pokemon with "bad movesets" were still able to contribute, because the moves were strong enough against the competition they faced. Power is relative.
In Gen 4, the power level has increased greatly. Yet the tools you have access to have not. The Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Flamethrower are locked behind some dumb game at the Casino, alongside a few other valuable tms, which makes me want to complete the Battle Facilities in Platinum were resources are more readily available. Yes, you get access to the 70 Percent moves, but those aren't reliable and being forced to rely on them feels similarly to OHKO moves. I had to grind for awhile before the Elite 4 in HGSS because my team didn't have the tools to beat Lance and it was annoying. I can't enjoy the postgame if so many important resources are locked behind minigames.
It actually took me awhile to come around to the Physical Special split and I still don't necessarily love it. Let's talk about it:
When Pokemon introduces new mechanics like abilities, the game gets more complicated: for example, before, you could earthquake a Weezing. Now, you can no longer Earthquake a Weezing. In the case of abilities, the introduction of the mechanic was positive, because it helped differentiate Pokemon. It gave them different roles, and added fun layers to gameplay where more creative strategies and complex interactions were feasible.
The Physical Special Split did the opposite of this: it ensured almost every Pokemon would get a useable strong STAB move. Before, a strong Physical Pokemon like Gyarados would think out of the box in terms of coverage options, now Gyarados gets to click an 80 BP super strong STAB like everything else. On that note, despite several Pokemon being claimed as useless before the PSS split, such as Kingler and Sneasel, they still sucked afterwards. The only differnce was now Pokemon like Gengar and Gyarados were even better than they were. When looking at the most popular OU pokemon, the only real benefactor of the PSS was probably Dragonite.
On top of this, it felt slightly poorly balanced in Gen 4. Some Pokemon would become too strong too early, while others would not be usable due to odd irregularlies in moveset availabilities.
I'd say Gen 5 showed why the PSS was necessary: the game was better balanced around it, the supporting moves and Pokemon were buffed so that they felt more usable again (a growing focus on Doubles helped), and most importantly, it gave Pokemon different roles, that was more than just getting stronger. I do think recent generations show the downside/the end result tho: everything gets 2-4 super strong attacks without drawbacks to click, which trivializes the main game, and the AI isn't set up or equipped to handle, and it reduces the game to who can outspeed and KO first.
When Pokemon introduces new mechanics like abilities, the game gets more complicated: for example, before, you could earthquake a Weezing. Now, you can no longer Earthquake a Weezing. In the case of abilities, the introduction of the mechanic was positive, because it helped differentiate Pokemon. It gave them different roles, and added fun layers to gameplay where more creative strategies and complex interactions were feasible.
The Physical Special Split did the opposite of this: it ensured almost every Pokemon would get a useable strong STAB move. Before, a strong Physical Pokemon like Gyarados would think out of the box in terms of coverage options, now Gyarados gets to click an 80 BP super strong STAB like everything else. On that note, despite several Pokemon being claimed as useless before the PSS split, such as Kingler and Sneasel, they still sucked afterwards. The only differnce was now Pokemon like Gengar and Gyarados were even better than they were. When looking at the most popular OU pokemon, the only real benefactor of the PSS was probably Dragonite.
On top of this, it felt slightly poorly balanced in Gen 4. Some Pokemon would become too strong too early, while others would not be usable due to odd irregularlies in moveset availabilities.
I'd say Gen 5 showed why the PSS was necessary: the game was better balanced around it, the supporting moves and Pokemon were buffed so that they felt more usable again (a growing focus on Doubles helped), and most importantly, it gave Pokemon different roles, that was more than just getting stronger. I do think recent generations show the downside/the end result tho: everything gets 2-4 super strong attacks without drawbacks to click, which trivializes the main game, and the AI isn't set up or equipped to handle, and it reduces the game to who can outspeed and KO first.
Pokemon fans that blame an entire medium for not liking a mon design are annoying as shit. I've seen people suddenly act like Geeta's design is fixed in 2D cuz of an off model frame in the anime that shrunk her eyes and it's like...y'all are genuinely stupid
Geeta has dumbass bugged eyes and hair regardless of the medium, though the games made the eyes less B E E G
Poor posing can make a char boring, but that's not the base design 90% of cases. Boltund line looking happy and playful in 2D art doesn't hide that it's a shit design to me, it's literally a recolored dog that's a poor man's Jolteon. Same for Pawmot line being incredibly mediocre design wise
Cyndaquil "fans" are probably the biggest whiners about this, they genuinely dismiss the line being flameless in many scenarios since Gen 2 in alt media, then lie saying it never flames up in XY-SwSh even though it does when it's attacking with a fire move
Ash's Cyndaquil literally couldn't flame properly as an ep plot, it's amazing how tunnel visioned fans are to only looking at game sprites. Even then, Dex entries note it only doing so when threatened/startled
Same for complaining about mon color, like lol. That is NOT a medium issue, they literally are trying to match 2D art. And leaks show us it was a late dev change, they're more saturated 2011-early 2012 :V
I do find it funny how the when people talk about shit Sky Battle anims (rightfully so), they ignore that amie...has actual grounded anims for those mons
Including the infamous Eelektross
Which ScaVio sadly do use for the latter...explicitly when not battling or Synchro
Regardless, not a medium issue. There are many sprites that have the "awkward boring idle pose" in FRLG, yet I'm not condemning an entire medium cuz that's stupid. Similarly, I'm not gonna go "Oh Pokemon was never meant to be 3D" when Porygon literally was made to address that, and the franchise got hooked on it for ads since 1997. Sugimori barely fucks perspective intentionally anyway, it's mostly just foreshortening
Geeta has dumbass bugged eyes and hair regardless of the medium, though the games made the eyes less B E E G
Poor posing can make a char boring, but that's not the base design 90% of cases. Boltund line looking happy and playful in 2D art doesn't hide that it's a shit design to me, it's literally a recolored dog that's a poor man's Jolteon. Same for Pawmot line being incredibly mediocre design wise
Cyndaquil "fans" are probably the biggest whiners about this, they genuinely dismiss the line being flameless in many scenarios since Gen 2 in alt media, then lie saying it never flames up in XY-SwSh even though it does when it's attacking with a fire move
Ash's Cyndaquil literally couldn't flame properly as an ep plot, it's amazing how tunnel visioned fans are to only looking at game sprites. Even then, Dex entries note it only doing so when threatened/startled
Same for complaining about mon color, like lol. That is NOT a medium issue, they literally are trying to match 2D art. And leaks show us it was a late dev change, they're more saturated 2011-early 2012 :V
I do find it funny how the when people talk about shit Sky Battle anims (rightfully so), they ignore that amie...has actual grounded anims for those mons
Including the infamous Eelektross
Which ScaVio sadly do use for the latter...explicitly when not battling or Synchro
Regardless, not a medium issue. There are many sprites that have the "awkward boring idle pose" in FRLG, yet I'm not condemning an entire medium cuz that's stupid. Similarly, I'm not gonna go "Oh Pokemon was never meant to be 3D" when Porygon literally was made to address that, and the franchise got hooked on it for ads since 1997. Sugimori barely fucks perspective intentionally anyway, it's mostly just foreshortening
> implying geeta isnt one of the best designs in this franchise
Saturday night Rankings (mainly from gens 1-5):
Rivals:
1. Blue: He's obnoxious in such a fun way. Definitely the best at playing the heel, and his in-game fights feel like they matter
2. Hugh (B2W2 guy): he is single-minded and what he represents is very on the nose, but it's so raw.
3. N: the idea of him somewhat outpaces the actual character, but still is great
4. Silver: I wish his in-game team was a little stronger, but I like his story a lot. I feel like he's a little worse written in HGSS, but the Claire/Lance fight was an absolute blast in the postgame
5. Cheren: I like him a lot, he reminds me of a lot of characters in children's books, like Klaus from a Series of Unfortunate Events, and is also the most like myself
6. Barry: Dares to answer the question, what would happen if you gave an 11 year old child unlimited access to stimulants (likely on behalf of his father, to see if it would provide a competitive advantage if used on Pokemon)
7. Bianca: I don't feel too strongly about this, but I kinda wished it hadn't been the girl character who gave up on being the best Pokemon trainer.. I understand it from a plot perspective ofc. She actually is a good fight before then too!!
8. Hau: I don't understand why he gets sm hate. He's the first character that really felt like a kid. I probably shouldn't comment until I finish the story tho
9. Brendan: I genuinely didn't realize he was mean to my character (May) until I read comments online because I didn't care enough to read his dialogue.
10. Wally: God Bless Us, Everyone!!
11. Nemona: nothing says someone has an insatiable love of fighting like losing literally every single fight fairly easily.
12. Arven: they didn't do the best job with his character, but he does function well as part of the story
New Pokemon Introduced:
1. Johto: I am cheating here, and semi-including the Gen 4 additional evolutions here because they were based on the Gen 2 Pokemon. Out of the entire series, about half of my favorite designs come from this generation. When I made of my top 100, the region with the most Pokemon was Johto. I don't love every single design, but there are like 10 Pokemon I'd consider if I had to get a Pokemon tattoo. I know people say they aren't necessarily the strongest, but they're such great designs I'm willing to deal
2. Black/White: This game has such an underrated Pokedex. I like how most of the dex is strong enough to be useable and has a niche. There's a ton of designs I really gravitate to, and choosing a team is hard because I feel connected to so many Pokemon and want to include them
3. Kanto: I like Kanto's a lot. Not much to say. I feel like this is the best generation for single-stage evolutions, and there's a ton of Pokemon I have a soft spot for. I've seen some of the Pokemon in games too frequently and get a little bored of them, but the top 30/40% of the dex absolutely rules.
4. Hoenn: I GUESS I like this dex. It has been growing on me as of late, but I feel like there's a ton of "meh" Pokemon that most people don't really fw. The gimmick Pokemon like Slaking, Shedinja, and Keckleon aren't really my cup of tea, there's stuff that gets highlighted that isn't really interesting enough to. I do like some of the designs a lot tho, and after my current Ruby playthrough I may feel more positively.
Funnily enough, ADV has shifted my taste a little bit, because I've had a lot of success with Salamence and Claydoll as of late
5. Sinnoh: I like the cross-gen evolutions, and there's like 5-10 other designs I really like, but it's a small dex, and there's like 1-2 many misses. There is also room for growth tho.
Starters:
1. Typhlosion
2. Swampert
3. Blastoise
4. Torterra
5. Sceptile
6. Samurott
7. Snivy
8. Feraligatr
9. Blaizken
10. Zard
11. Chimchar
12. Empoleon
13. Magenium
14. Venasaur
15. Embroar
Rivals:
1. Blue: He's obnoxious in such a fun way. Definitely the best at playing the heel, and his in-game fights feel like they matter
2. Hugh (B2W2 guy): he is single-minded and what he represents is very on the nose, but it's so raw.
3. N: the idea of him somewhat outpaces the actual character, but still is great
4. Silver: I wish his in-game team was a little stronger, but I like his story a lot. I feel like he's a little worse written in HGSS, but the Claire/Lance fight was an absolute blast in the postgame
5. Cheren: I like him a lot, he reminds me of a lot of characters in children's books, like Klaus from a Series of Unfortunate Events, and is also the most like myself
6. Barry: Dares to answer the question, what would happen if you gave an 11 year old child unlimited access to stimulants (likely on behalf of his father, to see if it would provide a competitive advantage if used on Pokemon)
7. Bianca: I don't feel too strongly about this, but I kinda wished it hadn't been the girl character who gave up on being the best Pokemon trainer.. I understand it from a plot perspective ofc. She actually is a good fight before then too!!
8. Hau: I don't understand why he gets sm hate. He's the first character that really felt like a kid. I probably shouldn't comment until I finish the story tho
9. Brendan: I genuinely didn't realize he was mean to my character (May) until I read comments online because I didn't care enough to read his dialogue.
10. Wally: God Bless Us, Everyone!!
11. Nemona: nothing says someone has an insatiable love of fighting like losing literally every single fight fairly easily.
12. Arven: they didn't do the best job with his character, but he does function well as part of the story
New Pokemon Introduced:
1. Johto: I am cheating here, and semi-including the Gen 4 additional evolutions here because they were based on the Gen 2 Pokemon. Out of the entire series, about half of my favorite designs come from this generation. When I made of my top 100, the region with the most Pokemon was Johto. I don't love every single design, but there are like 10 Pokemon I'd consider if I had to get a Pokemon tattoo. I know people say they aren't necessarily the strongest, but they're such great designs I'm willing to deal
2. Black/White: This game has such an underrated Pokedex. I like how most of the dex is strong enough to be useable and has a niche. There's a ton of designs I really gravitate to, and choosing a team is hard because I feel connected to so many Pokemon and want to include them
3. Kanto: I like Kanto's a lot. Not much to say. I feel like this is the best generation for single-stage evolutions, and there's a ton of Pokemon I have a soft spot for. I've seen some of the Pokemon in games too frequently and get a little bored of them, but the top 30/40% of the dex absolutely rules.
4. Hoenn: I GUESS I like this dex. It has been growing on me as of late, but I feel like there's a ton of "meh" Pokemon that most people don't really fw. The gimmick Pokemon like Slaking, Shedinja, and Keckleon aren't really my cup of tea, there's stuff that gets highlighted that isn't really interesting enough to. I do like some of the designs a lot tho, and after my current Ruby playthrough I may feel more positively.
Funnily enough, ADV has shifted my taste a little bit, because I've had a lot of success with Salamence and Claydoll as of late
5. Sinnoh: I like the cross-gen evolutions, and there's like 5-10 other designs I really like, but it's a small dex, and there's like 1-2 many misses. There is also room for growth tho.
Starters:
1. Typhlosion
2. Swampert
3. Blastoise
4. Torterra
5. Sceptile
6. Samurott
7. Snivy
8. Feraligatr
9. Blaizken
10. Zard
11. Chimchar
12. Empoleon
13. Magenium
14. Venasaur
15. Embroar
Could never be him...
Tbf Typhlosion needs a better pose, but I won't blame the medium
Literally no Typhlosion sprite has ever come close to its Gold sprite where it's daintily hopping around like it knows it's gonna fuck you up but it's decided to have some fun while it does it
Feraligatr getting skinny in Gen 4 makes me sad, RIP his jaw and hunched back
I'm of the weird category where I'd say most of Golduck's front sprites suck largely for how his head or eyes are drawn. I like his Yellow sprite with no complaints, but the rest
-RGB are lol
-Gold and Crystal his body is super long, legs squat. Crystal also has colors wrong for some reason
-Silver's is good
-RSE isn't too bad for proportions, but pose isn't as good as Yellow's
-FRLG his bill is wrong
-DPPt what even is this 2nd frame? Bill for both DP and Pt are off in different ways, and head spikes are too short
-HGSS bill is too pointy, and head spikes are too short
BW is Plat based so similar beak/spike issues
I genuinely prefer the Gen 6 model proportions despite weak posing. The Home render weirdly shrinks his spikes despite the actual game model not doing so...
I'm of the weird category where I'd say most of Golduck's front sprites suck largely for how his head or eyes are drawn. I like his Yellow sprite with no complaints, but the rest
-RGB are lol
-Gold and Crystal his body is super long, legs squat. Crystal also has colors wrong for some reason
-Silver's is good
-RSE isn't too bad for proportions, but pose isn't as good as Yellow's
-FRLG his bill is wrong
-DPPt what even is this 2nd frame? Bill for both DP and Pt are off in different ways, and head spikes are too short
-HGSS bill is too pointy, and head spikes are too short
BW is Plat based so similar beak/spike issues
I genuinely prefer the Gen 6 model proportions despite weak posing. The Home render weirdly shrinks his spikes despite the actual game model not doing so...
They even removed his fat ass. Truly the worst part about Feraligatrs sprite in Gen 4.Feraligatr getting skinny in Gen 4 makes me sad, RIP his jaw and hunched back
I'm of the weird category where I'd say most of Golduck's front sprites suck largely for how his head or eyes are drawn. I like his Yellow sprite with no complaints, but the rest
-RGB are lol
-Gold and Crystal his body is super long, legs squat. Crystal also has colors wrong for some reason
-Silver's is good
-RSE isn't too bad for proportions, but pose isn't as good as Yellow's
-FRLG his bill is wrong
-DPPt what even is this 2nd frame? Bill for both DP and Pt are off in different ways, and head spikes are too short
-HGSS bill is too pointy, and head spikes are too short
BW is Plat based so similar beak/spike issues
I genuinely prefer the Gen 6 model proportions despite weak posing. The Home render weirdly shrinks his spikes despite the actual game model not doing so...
still not the worst typhlosion discourse of all time! :/
Honestly I could write a whole essay about this but I'll try to keep it short lol
Why Pokémon Needs Loading Screens
I'm not talking here about a technical, software reason for loading screens: in my eyes, Pokémon, conceptually, benefits more from
having loading screens over seamless areas. Let me explain:
In the older games, towns and routes were compact aproximations of their real life counterparts. You could travel between towns in a couple
of minutes and the towns themselves only had a dozen buildings, at most. You could say this is purely due to hardware limitations, but
I'd argue it helped create a better sense of immersion. You'd instinctively understand that what you're seeing is a representation of the
Pokémon world, that there was more to it than you could see, to the point it never felt weird that towns looked much bigger in adaptations
of the source material. This isn't something you could only achieve in a top-down game of course: for all of its flaws, SwSh managed to give
its towns a true sense of scale, even if the maps themselves weren't any more complex than previous games. You can even see this outside of
Pokémon: the towns of Dragon Quest XI, for exemple, are actually pretty small when you think about it, but by making them individual areas with loading screens, the devs were able to frame them in a way that makes them feel big.
That's the magic of loading screens: by making a distinct separation between areas, you create a gap in the player's mind to be filled in
by their own imagination. By putting a loading screen in between areas, you can give the sense that there's a lot of space in between them
without having to actually create that space. You could even justify this in-universe for better immersion, by making the player take a bus or a train to travel between maps for exemple.
SV, in contrast, aimed to create a more seamless experience, both for exploration and battles, but by doing so, I'd argue that now players
need a bigger suspension of disbelief to immerse themselves in the world. Since you now have complete access to the world, you can clearly
see how limited it is: you can travel between towns in minutes; you can see that each town only has a handful of buildings. The flimsiness
of the world is plain for everyone to see. BOTW, arguably the game's main inspiration and reason to exist, could get away with a seamless
world because of its post-apocalyptic setting and the sense of isolation it was aiming to create, so it made sense that the settlements would be
pretty small. That approach doesn't quite work for a world as bustling and active as Pokémon. This problem also extends to battles in a way, as
the artificiality of turn-based battles is even more apparent when they occupy the same space as the rest of the world.
So yeah, that's my take. Sorry if it sounds too out-there, I tried to explain it as clearly as I could.
Why Pokémon Needs Loading Screens
I'm not talking here about a technical, software reason for loading screens: in my eyes, Pokémon, conceptually, benefits more from
having loading screens over seamless areas. Let me explain:
In the older games, towns and routes were compact aproximations of their real life counterparts. You could travel between towns in a couple
of minutes and the towns themselves only had a dozen buildings, at most. You could say this is purely due to hardware limitations, but
I'd argue it helped create a better sense of immersion. You'd instinctively understand that what you're seeing is a representation of the
Pokémon world, that there was more to it than you could see, to the point it never felt weird that towns looked much bigger in adaptations
of the source material. This isn't something you could only achieve in a top-down game of course: for all of its flaws, SwSh managed to give
its towns a true sense of scale, even if the maps themselves weren't any more complex than previous games. You can even see this outside of
Pokémon: the towns of Dragon Quest XI, for exemple, are actually pretty small when you think about it, but by making them individual areas with loading screens, the devs were able to frame them in a way that makes them feel big.
That's the magic of loading screens: by making a distinct separation between areas, you create a gap in the player's mind to be filled in
by their own imagination. By putting a loading screen in between areas, you can give the sense that there's a lot of space in between them
without having to actually create that space. You could even justify this in-universe for better immersion, by making the player take a bus or a train to travel between maps for exemple.
SV, in contrast, aimed to create a more seamless experience, both for exploration and battles, but by doing so, I'd argue that now players
need a bigger suspension of disbelief to immerse themselves in the world. Since you now have complete access to the world, you can clearly
see how limited it is: you can travel between towns in minutes; you can see that each town only has a handful of buildings. The flimsiness
of the world is plain for everyone to see. BOTW, arguably the game's main inspiration and reason to exist, could get away with a seamless
world because of its post-apocalyptic setting and the sense of isolation it was aiming to create, so it made sense that the settlements would be
pretty small. That approach doesn't quite work for a world as bustling and active as Pokémon. This problem also extends to battles in a way, as
the artificiality of turn-based battles is even more apparent when they occupy the same space as the rest of the world.
So yeah, that's my take. Sorry if it sounds too out-there, I tried to explain it as clearly as I could.