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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
I have never seen a fanbase for any ongoing media franchise as utterly obsessed with nonexistent patterns as the Pokemon fanbase. I see shit like "Oh we gotta get a BW remake in Gen 10 because it fits the pattern of releasing remakes in even numbered gens" and I just. Literally where did this impulse come from. You can say "Oh it's because this series was so predictable for so long" but that hasn't been the case for a decade and even then I'm pretty sure Call of Duty fans don't do this shit
You say "utterly obsessed" like it's a bad thing, and not part of the appeal of Pokemon. People are going to find non-existent patterns in everything, it's part of being human. The mystique of the world of Pokemon drives children to circulate rumors to each other about things like the truck Mew, Pikablu, and so on. Pokemon is a necessarily social game, so it's got a huge social base that's interested in thinking about these things and communicating about them. It also happens to be the biggest media franchise on the planet, which certainly helps.
It's annoying because when it doesn't happen people get viscerally upset and say the devs suck / don't know what they're doing
Shit, I've done this before when the theories for SV DLC, which were based on patterns in the game, vastly surprised the actual story. I'm guilty-!
Think about how many times people have gotten upset about not getting a second region lollllll
double post bc editing on mobile is awful
Also this is a long grudge I've held for like 6 years now, in SWSH hype season I told people in a Discord that a new Eeveelution wasn't gonna happen and was practically bullied by some people for that take lol
And ofc, no one gives a shit about how rude they were like that when they're wrong- they forgot long ago lmao
Also I just wanna get this out of my system because I don't know when I'll get another opportunity but I'm stunned at how many people are still asking for BW remakes. I thought Unova fans wanted followup on Blueberry Academy and a check-in on Emmet but a surprisingly large chunk apparently just wanna reheat the 2010 DS game and cram it in the next year while Kalos gets all the actual cool new content and worldbuilding. "But the original games are too expensive now and I want new players to experience them" ok, fair enough. Ask for a DS Pokemon Legacy Collection or NSO ports then.
I have seen one genuinely good argument for a BW remake and that's restoring the Dream World in an entirely in-game form. Everything else, in my view, is tantamount to asking for a boring, inferior product as a Unova revisit. This isn't even BDSP doom: They could release a Supreme Black and Wondrous White that's absolutely gorgeous and lovingly crafted with 5 years of dev time and more content than HGSS and my overriding thought on it "Why didn't you make a Link Between Worlds-style BW3 with all this stuff?????"
Legends has raised the bar. The possibilities for returning to old regions are basically near-infinite now. Let go of remakes.
I have seen one genuinely good argument for a BW remake and that's restoring the Dream World in an entirely in-game form. Everything else, in my view, is tantamount to asking for a boring, inferior product as a Unova revisit. This isn't even BDSP doom: They could release a Supreme Black and Wondrous White that's absolutely gorgeous and lovingly crafted with 5 years of dev time and more content than HGSS and my overriding thought on it "Why didn't you make a Link Between Worlds-style BW3 with all this stuff?????"
Legends has raised the bar. The possibilities for returning to old regions are basically near-infinite now. Let go of remakes.
That sucks that there's people who have behaved badly or had really shallow reactions, but I don't think the non-existent pattern-finding is a thing that can or should be resolved when it's such a core element of why the series is fun to engage with. "Hoenn confirmed" was probably one of the funniest Pokemon memes of the early 2010's. Pokemon thrives off of imagination; some people described how intrigued they were about the possibility of going to the power plant in the trailers for Pokemon X and Y, even though the dungeon wasn't particularly enjoyable when I actually got around to playing it. The "missing" parts of Kalos's map still drive discussion about the games over a decade later. The potential and boundaries of games drives discussion and speculation about other games, such as Dark Souls and Disco Elysium.
I think there's actually too much shallow reading into the themes and elements of Pokemon as a series, like in the lack of discussion on the Kanto region's design as involving a rural/natural periphery versus an urbanized core. Some of this is also because the themes and motifs that inspired Pokemon are not in the global consciousness as much, such as the concerns about genetic experimentation and cloning that were high-profile in the 1990's. People describe Team Magma and Team Aqua as "cults" instead of thinking about what they might be trying to communicate about rigid and organized attempts to tip the scales of a natural balance in service of a narrow-minded goal. Scarlet and Violet are clearly trying to say something about issues like bullying, misunderstandings, and rejection: the Koraidon/Miraidon that loses a "territorial dispute" and becomes the player's partner, Penny and Team Star, Ogerpon and the "Loyal" Three (and Pecharunt), and Kieran's arc across both DLCs.
I definitely enjoy looking for smaller patterns in Pokemon too, though. In fact, sometimes I feel like there's not enough of it! A lot of the design of RBY seems to have been kind of forgotten and less-discussed. Base stats and movesets for Pokemon have a lot of these little quirks and overlaps, and some of them become defunct with things like the special split, stat buffs, regional forms, evolutions, and new games.
Part of it I feel is due to remakes softening some things, but even in OG Kanto I feel its themes for Urbanism and environmentalism were poorly conveyed. It's an urban area, but it barely acknowledges the experiences there, and is mostly unrelated to the game's straightforward objective (get badges while stopping a yakuza/gangster group)
Like, the 1996 GF Pokedex book states that Koffing, Muk, Gengar are mons that are the result of said pollution in urban environments, but in game none of the mon encounters or even in game dex entries supports this. Koffing and Grimer* lines are found in Pokemon Mansion, instead of more thematic places like Power Plant or other areas that has pollution, Gengar line are restricted to the graveyard in Pokemon Tower
*Grimer actually is found in Power Plant, but just for Yellow and LGPE, seemingly cuz Ditto took its place. FRLG interestingly makes it fishable in Celadon City, but the area looks clean...
The lack of committing to a theme has ironically led to some crack fan theories. People still think Ditto is a failed Mew clone when;
-only Yellow and LGPE has it in Pokemon Mansion. It's found in multiple routes
-the 1996 Pokedex book doesn't note any connection to Mew/Mewtwo
-GS similarly show it not being that rare in the wild
The Pokedex book also has Porygon's theft by Team Rocket not be part of a larger scandal, it's just them simply stealing Sylph tech then selling it in casinos
The influence of TR in Kanto is arguably more important than the themes of urbanism, and we know in development for RG that Blaine was potentially involved with them + Power Plant, but the final game just treats them pretty generically and separate. Interestingly Adventures references the connection...
And this is just the tip of game design correlating to worldbuilding, I feel Kanto's turbulent dev and establishing style is why it's so odd and obscured compared to later games
Like, the 1996 GF Pokedex book states that Koffing, Muk, Gengar are mons that are the result of said pollution in urban environments, but in game none of the mon encounters or even in game dex entries supports this. Koffing and Grimer* lines are found in Pokemon Mansion, instead of more thematic places like Power Plant or other areas that has pollution, Gengar line are restricted to the graveyard in Pokemon Tower
*Grimer actually is found in Power Plant, but just for Yellow and LGPE, seemingly cuz Ditto took its place. FRLG interestingly makes it fishable in Celadon City, but the area looks clean...
The lack of committing to a theme has ironically led to some crack fan theories. People still think Ditto is a failed Mew clone when;
-only Yellow and LGPE has it in Pokemon Mansion. It's found in multiple routes
-the 1996 Pokedex book doesn't note any connection to Mew/Mewtwo
-GS similarly show it not being that rare in the wild
The Pokedex book also has Porygon's theft by Team Rocket not be part of a larger scandal, it's just them simply stealing Sylph tech then selling it in casinos
The influence of TR in Kanto is arguably more important than the themes of urbanism, and we know in development for RG that Blaine was potentially involved with them + Power Plant, but the final game just treats them pretty generically and separate. Interestingly Adventures references the connection...
And this is just the tip of game design correlating to worldbuilding, I feel Kanto's turbulent dev and establishing style is why it's so odd and obscured compared to later games
I think there's a fundamental difference between trying to understand the cultural, historical context of pokemon games and concepts (even though, in my opinion, pokemon has always been pretty cowardly about actually saying anything interesting lol), and just making shit up and swearing up and down its true. "the mega forms are all designed to look like x's or y's" is not interpreting existing text, its being delusional and being annoyingly smug about it.
The reason why hoenn confirmed was funny was because by the time it left /vp/ no one took it serious. it was literally mocking the overtheorizing and pattern seeking behavior of the fandom, and then it got revived when hoenn was finally confirmed for realsies.
The reason why hoenn confirmed was funny was because by the time it left /vp/ no one took it serious. it was literally mocking the overtheorizing and pattern seeking behavior of the fandom, and then it got revived when hoenn was finally confirmed for realsies.
Also ok sorry for double posting but its a completely different topic that's been on my mind: Yknow how when people bring up the azure flute, the first joke is "lol the azure flute was too complex but they made the regi puzzles?? is gamefreak stupid??"
Maybe its a topic people talked about and I missed it, but why do people act like thats some sort of epic gotcha and not a pretty understandable reaction to feedback? I know that the inclusion of braille in the game guide was not universal, and with the fact not all kids would even keep game guides around, the number of calls for help/confusion over the puzzle would be pretty large across most places. it wouldnt surprise me if they were like "ok guys, next time if we make a puzzle like this the information NEEDS to be in the game itself" and avoided similar puzzles in general.
hell, we only returned to pretty insane convoluted puzzles and evo methods in the recent 2 gens, and I think its influenced by the speed of leaks and information research: sure runerigius evo method is stupid as hell, but its also going to be revealed in 1-3 or so days regardless, so it doesnt matter. and we can talk about kids still playing the game, but all kids i know will google shit and check wikis (before even facing a challenge really, they'll get a pokemon and immediately check if it evolves and how), they aren't that hopeless stupid
Maybe its a topic people talked about and I missed it, but why do people act like thats some sort of epic gotcha and not a pretty understandable reaction to feedback? I know that the inclusion of braille in the game guide was not universal, and with the fact not all kids would even keep game guides around, the number of calls for help/confusion over the puzzle would be pretty large across most places. it wouldnt surprise me if they were like "ok guys, next time if we make a puzzle like this the information NEEDS to be in the game itself" and avoided similar puzzles in general.
hell, we only returned to pretty insane convoluted puzzles and evo methods in the recent 2 gens, and I think its influenced by the speed of leaks and information research: sure runerigius evo method is stupid as hell, but its also going to be revealed in 1-3 or so days regardless, so it doesnt matter. and we can talk about kids still playing the game, but all kids i know will google shit and check wikis (before even facing a challenge really, they'll get a pokemon and immediately check if it evolves and how), they aren't that hopeless stupid
Southern Kalos is the zoomer version of "hoenn confirmed" tbh
Now watch people lose their minds over not visiting it again even though Lumiose City is shown to be the main focus of Legends ZA.
Now watch people lose their minds over not visiting it again even though Lumiose City is shown to be the main focus of Legends ZA.
Braille was not the problem with the Regi puzzles. The intended solution to those puzzles was:
Explore the 3 routes of 1-way water currents THOROUGHLY. You're looking for a single 3-wide gap that's not visible on your screen when you step into the water.
Dive(you should have your dive mon already with you tbh)
Translate the braille to tell you to surface on a specific tile. If you are off by one, this won't work and you won't know why.
Translate the braille telling you to use Dig.
Leave, fly to Pacificlog Town, get a mon that knows Dig, redo everything up until this point.
Use Dig.
Translate the braille talking about Relicanth and Wailord.
Leave, go catch both of those mons.
Relicanth is a 5% encounter rate in the underwater portion of exactly 2 routes and IIRC doesn't show up in any trainer teams; Wailord is at least reasonable.
Return the the Sealed Chamber AGAIN. Did you remember Relicanth, Wailord, a mon with Dive, and a mon with Dig? Forget any of them, leave and come back again.
Correctly interpret the braille telling you that party order is the solution.
Translate the flavor text braille about a sealed powerful mon.
Leave.
Wander the world with no indication of anything until you stumble on an out-of-the-way area you've been before that has a new doorway.
Translate the braille again and get told about something weird you need to do.
Leave, return with the correct mon.
Follow the instructions; be wrong
Try again and maybe get it right?
Spam balls against the Legendary.
I get what they were going for, and I think it's preferable to the "the Legend is just sitting in this cave" approach of Gen 1, but it's a puzzle that's random and frustrating. No step follows from any previous one and you'll be repeating the same actions several times. And then the actual Legendary locations are a pain to find. With a guide, this sort of thing is easy, without a guide most kids are going to assume they did something wrong, broke it, and give up.
It's not that hard, I was a kid when I did all of that with no guides and English isn't even my native language. Triggering the Meloetta encounter in SV is way more arcane than the regis puzzle.
The braille alphabet does actually appear in-game, though I'm pretty sure it doesn't appear until after the sign telling you to resurface, and it's also not obvious that what you're looking at is even an ordered alphabet to begin with.
I am mildly skeptical of this take when we just got an entire terabyte of internal documents and prototypes leaked and none of them even hint at this supposed pattern. It's a fun idea but kinda falls apart when you look at the likes of Camerupt, Rayquaza, or Manectric - not to mention that the body plan of practically anything bipedal can form an X shape by virtue of having limbs.
I don't even disagree insofar as it being a bad battle theme, but I think it does a good job of setting the tone for "you are now fighting the creator god". It should be off-putting and weird, I feel like. Arceus is my least favorite Pokemon just because I don't think Pokemon should have a designated creator god (and it's also why I'm infinitely grateful the more fleshed-out mythos from the Teraleak didn't make the cut, but that's a separate discussion altogether), but I think Arceus' theme does an excellent job of setting the tone, even if it's not very good as a conventional battle theme.
I don’t think that Kanto’s themes of urbanism vs environmentalism were poorly conveyed. Pokemon is partly based on the tension between older hobbies of bug collecting in the countryside against the more urbanized world of the 1990’s where children were spending less time in a natural environment. Kanto is built around an urban core of Saffron, Celadon, and Vermillion, which is off-limits at first. The player literally travels in a big loop that weaves around the core of Saffron City, traversing through natural cave systems and multiple built underground paths. The Pokemon of the most far-flung or rural parts of Kanto are the ones that most resemble wild animals from our world: Pidgey, Caterpie, Beedrill, Sandshrew, Ekans, etc. However, the core of the region is associated with fewer varieties of Pokemon. The ones that relate to pollution and urbanization, you mention Koffing and Grimer, notably are obtainable later in the game in a place that was destroyed due to a moment when science and technology being used to exploit Pokemon. There’s a contrast between Pikachu and Magnemite for where they’re encountered in the region initially, and lots more to be traced. Geography defining the Pokemon world isn’t new either: Hoenn is split up into geographic areas that can only be fully traversed by gaining the tools to cooperate with Pokemon in order to explore this overworld with techniques like Rock Smash and Surf. Hoenn is also about the divide between the land and the sea, but also how these coexist with each other. The region is shaped like a yin-yang symbol. Sinnoh is split by Mt Coronet, which bars the player from passing over the midline of the region twice before they’ve even got three badges.
Kanto’s themes of genetic engineering and the conflicts and harmonies between science and nature are present throughout the region. Pallet Town, Pewter City, and Cinnabar Island all have scientific institutions that are the defining features of their towns. Fossil Pokemon, Ditto, Eevee, Mewtwo, and Mew are deeply entangled with the tension between the natural world and the emerging ability of people to manipulate life. Yes, the Ditto and Mew connection is often a result of fandom over reading, but there’s an explicit theme that connects many of these Pokemon together just beyond the “all Pokemon are connected” theme. Whether or not there’s a direct connection between Ditto and Mew beyond linked locations and colors and Transform, let alone fanon trying to make it explicit, there’s a very unsubtle theme of genetics that many of these Pokemon are involved in.
These themes of environmentalism vs urbanization are why Team Rocket is villainous, as they exploit Pokemon in a world that is up front about how people and Pokemon become their best selves by coexisting and cooperating. It’s not coincidental that Team Rocket have presences in places like Mt Moon by stealing positive scientific discoveries, Pokemon Tower where they disrespect the lives of Pokemon, Celadon City being an urban hub and shopping district, and Saffron City and the takeover of a huge beneficent tech company. Team Rocket are less concentrated in the periphery, where they are outsiders. However, the urban core is their home turf, and their presence being a gate towards the end-game is pretty explicit in the theme of proving that cooperation with Pokemon trumps exploitation of Pokemon. The gifted Lapras even relates to this theme by being an endangered Pokemon and one that is entrusted to someone who demonstrates their commitment to cooperation. When Team Rocket is defeated, they’re basically exiled to the periphery. In fact, Johto does the reverse of Kanto during Team Rocket’s revival, having them begin causing trouble in the periphery before they finally convene and take over the urbanized core again, this time in Goldenrod City.
There’s much more to the games than you and others in this thread are recognizing. These themes are persistent throughout the series and are expanded upon further each time the world becomes larger. Johto is explicitly in contrast to Kanto with its ruralism, isolation, budding scientific institutions, traditionalism, and mysticism. This is hammered home even harder in the post-game exploration of an even more urbanized Kanto. The environmentalist themes never go away either. The villainous teams in the early part of the series explicitly use or sabotage technology and scientific discoveries, tying back to these themes of environmentalism and respect for nature: Team Rocket uses Slowpoke tails for money, broadcasts radio waves to force evolution, powers the Rocket Hideout with Electrode, and takes over the radio tower as a way to intimidate, propagandize, and revive. Team Magma/Aqua steal submarines and research and attack scientists, and Galactic do the same with the Valley Windworks (notably renewable energy) and Professor Rowan. There isn’t an organization in Pokemon that is saying nothing, and Pokemon is absolutely not “cowardly” Bakugames. The evil organization of Alola existing on an artificial WHITE island called a “paradise” separate from the four islands of the region could not be less subtle. The invasive species motifs of Ultra Beasts and the associations between all of them and human encroachment on the natural world is trying to say something about the effect people in the real world are having on the environment, especially of the land that Alola is based on.
There are inevitably things about the world of Pokemon that fundamentally do not make sense politically or are just not coherent, and that’s okay. Pokemon is fantasy (like explicitly based on genre fantasy RPGs) and it’s not going to be a perfect reflection of reality. However, the games are trying to say more than they’re often understood as saying. There’s a justifiable amount of cynicism surrounding aspects like the dual-versions and trade evolutions that absolutely do facilitate the financial aspects of the series. However, the themes of connection and self-betterment in the series come out through these elements: you can’t become your best self without interacting with others and making connections.
These connections are also why I think the moaning about esoteric game design in Pokemon is shallow and misses the point. The paratext of the games is part of the experience of Pokemon as a social game: you won’t be able to catch every Pokemon or find every Pokemon without cooperating and sharing information with others. We attain mastery by making connections and cooperating with others. Older adventure games like original The Legend of Zelda are designed around players sharing information with each other, taking notes, using all of their resources, and cooperating to figure out the games. Pokemon isn’t any different, and it’s always promoted socializing with others to solve problems in the games. Trading, exchanging strategies, and sharing information about where to find Pokemon have always been core aspects of the series for this reason. The incompleteness of the two versions isn’t just to sell but also to drive people to interact so they can create more understanding and enjoy something together.
I find "urbanism vs environmentalism" to be shallow in and of itself. The human population isn't going away, so the way to preserve as much of nature as possible is to stop sprawling out and commit to making building up livable. Putting rural traditionalists on the side of nature comes off as only looking at surface appearances. A criticism I will also frequently direct at the mon choices when the devs do try for an environmentalist message. All the cute mammals that correspond to common pets are frequently significant disruptions to the environment, meanwhile the role of invasive species is played by *checks notes* a relative of coral made out of the material other reef-builders use for their foundations which *checks notes* cannot reproduce in this environment at all.
I'd say gen 5 is the only time where the message felt like it actually landed. Modern vs traditional was completely separate from the plot, and the sympathetic activist character is willing to give respect to (still 100% natural in-universe) weirdos like Klink and Sigilyph.
Congrats you mentioned the only pokémon game that actually tried to say something of worth. what is kantos message? vague environmentalism with no direction or purpose other than "isnt technology and human advancement kinda scary guys? anyway heres some yakuza". what is johtos message? "shintoism is still epic and awesome guys. anyway heres some yakuza". what is hoenns message? "extremist environmentalism... is bad. anyway heres some environmental yakuza". what is sinnoh message? idk cults exist and sometimes youre depressed. what is unovas message? "guys.... nuance is real. and peta is wrong #pwned" what is xys message? i'll be honest that one i dont even remember anymore. i think they just wanted some crazy villain guy. what is galars message? uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. idk i think hops narrative of feeling his brothers shadow is fun but everything else is nonexistent. paldea finally brings back some proper narrative but its not a large theme as much as you have interpersonal conflicts which dont really send a message (because thats not what they are there for. unless the message is if you dont have parents you become fucked up i guess?). so the only message is kinda "bullying is bad".
the reason im so dismissive of all of these is because pokemon refuses to actually engage with anything other than surface level baby's first narrative stuff. all it says is something very basic that almost every other work spits out and then doesn't follow up with anything. Oh kanto is about environmentalism? thats cool, then what? nothing. theres nothing. its as deep as a puddle.
and you know pokemon doesnt have to be deep. it could and id appreciate it more but ive accepted its always going to be simplified and surface level. but i refuse to act as if theres anything deeper in pokemons messaging. when gamefreak actually starts thinking for more than 2 seconds on their themes i'll give them a chance
The theme of urbanism vs environmentalism is hardly shallow. That there is conflict between human needs and the needs of non-human life doesn't mean that humans have to go away because that tension is fundamental to why Pokemon is compelling and constantly flashing its theme of "WE NEED TO COEXIST" in neon lighting. I specifically pointed out scientific institutions like the Pewter Museum and Oak's Lab because they reflect that scientific knowledge can coexist with the natural world, and they're often better together! Rural traditionalism being only surface appearances doesn't check out. There are entire locations in Hoenn that are the way they are because people are going out of their way to be respectful towards nature: Fortree City is built amongst the forested environment, Pacifidlog Town exists peacefully above a Corsola colony, the mining operations of the Rusturf Tunnel were cancelled because they disrupted the local wildlife, and the Sea Mauville in ORAS expands even further on the Abandoned Ship by turning it into an ecologically protected area. In the last case, a place that was once planned to be used to extract resources from the environment instead is reintegrated as a new environment itself!
Kanto isn't the only game to have an intentional message. If you read the original post, I linked to a land-sea conflict in Japan over development that parallels Team Magma and Team Aqua. Hoenn is extremely interested in conveying environmentalist themes and the interdependence of natural forces like the land and the sea. Everything with Sinnoh and Hisui is about the importance of connection with others. The landscape of Sinnoh, like its inspiration of Hokkaido, is geographically difficult to traverse, which creates isolated communities that force people to interact with each other. It's not a coincidence that this is a major theme in DPP when those were the games that also introduced the GTS, which is retrospectively brilliant on a metatextual level given that we saw an explosion in online play that drove the creation of forums like Smogon. BW and its sequels are concerned with rigidity against diversity, which I discussed in my response above. There's an excellent video by an essayist named Skyehoppers on the confused but still intentional message of X and Y about fascism and its toll on people and the environment. SWSH makes the Pokemon franchise's focus on energy extraction as being in conflict with nature the most apparent it's ever been with the plotline with Chairman Rose, Eternatus, and the Dynamax phenomenon. Galar having two defunct mines and an energy company as the true villainous team is absolutely a thematic choice taken from the region of the real world it's based on. Given how frequently Pokemon is commenting on real-world geographical and environmental situations, I don't think it's fair to label it as being shallow.
Instead, your shallow response actually reflects a refusal to engage with these themes. Pokemon is admirable for being able to convey its themes to all ages, and its universalist themes work when we are all living in the natural world. Children are capable of grasping the theme of working hard to become the best version of yourself (a Pokemon master), but this is something that is still applicable no matter where you are in your life. It's not just Kanto that's about environmentalism: every Pokemon game addresses tensions that exist between science and nature, the built environment and the natural environment, and people and non-human life. The relationship between Alolan Rattata and Yungoos even reflects a desire to evolve Pokemon in a way that comments on human interventions in the natural world, same with the Aether Foundation conserving Corsola due to them being prey for Mareanie. I don't know what to say to you if you think that a relationship between Pokemon that reflects new technologies and even failed technologies of biocontrol isn't thematically rich or relevant.
You don't even have to think about Pokemon that deeply to encounter its themes and ideas. Think about why a series with environmentalist themes would regularly feature places of energy extraction like defunct electrical power plants (RBY, RSE), wind turbines (DPP), coal mining towns (DPP, SWSH), and solar power plants (XY), and even feature a Pokemon like Necrozma that is incomplete because it was exploited for its light. There is something deeper to Pokemon, and it seems like you're missing out on it by being deliberately obtuse about it.
It be like that sometimes
Reddit was upset when I posted about the Battle Frontier not having a snowball's chance in hell of making it to BDSP. Iirc, some people were arguing about it here too, but in general, the community is a lot nicer here.
I want a BDSP-style, ILCA-faithful remake, directed by Masuda himself, of Black and White. Not BW2, Black. And. White.
Unironically, it would be a massive update by getting rid of those awful sprite distortions and having actual 3D.
Counter-point: Galarian Yamask.
The Azure Flute wasn't complicated at all tbh, all you needed was a random paragraph written with some flowery, grandiose style like "At the peak of Sinnoh, where legends are seen, an unheard tune calls a new one, supreme."
There, Azure Flute fixed. Seriously, it's that simple.
Still forever pissed off that the leak for Gen 3 dev had Archie actually be good, but blamed by the media thanks to corruption in Devon Corp (Maxie and his close employees) changed for final. It'd be better than....2 sides-ing eco terrorists, which ORAS made more generically evil
Honestly this talk of themes reminds me of how that argument of there being a theme typically comes up when story is incredibly sparse, but "vibes" are good. Like a theme is just one aspect of the story, if it's conveyed way too poorly or unrelated to the main plot, it's just a meh story. Note, I do like Hoenn's environmentalism in world building, but Archie/Maxie were handled too stupidly, and leaks show that it was to suddenly prop up Kyogre/Groudon vs the earlier plot
RGB is extremely simplistic for objective/story, and I'm actually fine with that. But it genuinely has poor game design due to turbulent dev, and I've seen better RPGs/Action games for OW movement and NPCs in other games on the same hardware. I will NOT rose tint it as "but Tajiri had such a strong connection to the plight of urbanism when he grew up" when it's super disconnected from the actual objective, nor lends itself to another. The player never has a choice to actually be aware of it, just that a mafia group thrives around. Hell, nothing even connects Mewtwo to Team Rocket in the actual games, that was shit the anime and Adventures tacked on to make TR more important to world building
The worst thing is how it took till Gen 7 to have sidequests, and how most dex entries are explicitly just fluff, not actual things that impact world building and interactivity. GF like the idea of a sprawling roster, but they don't have the dedication to integrate it fully into their world
Hell I'd argue this applies to many post 2000s Ghibli movies having a weak plot hard carried by aesthetic and repeated themes, but that's beyond a spicy take
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