Brand new unpopular opinion: Mega Dragonite looks pretty good and doesn't even look lazier than the average mega. I have to think people forgot what most megas looked like because most of them really don't change the designs all that much, Mega Dragonite genuinely just looks like a typical mega lol.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
Mega Dragonite looks majestic actually, and I love that it incorporates the more beautiful and magnificent elements of Dragonair's design into it, truly being magnificent and larger-than-life.
I'm already not a fan of regular Dragonite (at least as an evolution to Dragonair), this new design is even goofier looking, but Dragonite already looks pretty goofy. While it does incorporate some fo Dragonair's features, it still looks completely different. If the wings were on its back rather than it's head, I think this would be pretty uncontroversial.
I'm not a fan of Mega Evolutions in general, I think most of the design fall into the category of "not trying hard enough" and it's only a few outliers that really go all out with the execution, like Mega Rayquaza, Metagross, Diancie, (and bc this is the Unpopular Opinions thread) Heracross, etc. Like just look at stuff like Tyranitar or Aggron, it's just the same but spikier and wondering myself how do they even move around lol.
On that sense, Mega Dragonite fits right at home. It's mid.
On that sense, Mega Dragonite fits right at home. It's mid.
I agree. It's very consistent with how Megas are generally designed.
With that said, I hate most Mega designs.
Yeah Megas are so fundamentally silly that it's just not worth getting worked up over any specific one.
I mean on this front I always just assumed Megas were only assumed for battle or other specific activities rather than meant to be a consistent liveable physiology. Hedgehogs don't walk around with their quills CONSTANTLY spiked, it's only when they need it for a confrontation.
This is backed up by dex entries of the mega forms and similar lore. It's taxing and uncontrollable over a long duration, which is why it's only active mid-battle.
I feel like there needs to be a gimmick clause for official comp. Natdex on Showdown is very silly with it
Like I don't need to face an opponent using a Mega, Zmoves, Dmax, AND Tera across mons, the gimmicks are already busted where 1 on a team is enough. VGC especially this gets silly
Like I don't need to face an opponent using a Mega, Zmoves, Dmax, AND Tera across mons, the gimmicks are already busted where 1 on a team is enough. VGC especially this gets silly
Realistically I can see them changing what gimmicks are allowed for different seasons. It would be like how they've been shifting what pokemon are legal per season. For example one could be Megas and Tera, next could be Megas and Z-moves, next could be just Z-moves, so on and so forth.
I never felt excited about catching Legendary Pokémon, and the main reason is the lack of connection with them. Sure, you can understand them based on their dialogue from other characters, diaries, and lore, but you never feel like you truly get to know the Pokémon on a personal level. Plus, all it takes is just to capture the Pokémon in a master ball, and that’s really it. Because these legendaries are so strong, I feel like playing with them is on easy mode, and I never felt satisfied or deserving of using these Pokémon. There are a few exceptions, such as Koriadon/Miraidon, where the game clearly establishes a relationship between the player (and their friends) and the legendary Pokémon. For example, Koriadon/Miraidon helps the player fight off a group of Houndour and Houndoom, allows the player to ride it throughout the journey, “shares” a sandwich with the player, and annoys Arven, helping in the final battle against an opposing Koriadon/Miraidon. These interactions make it clear that Koraidon/Miraidon enjoys being with the player due to the trust that has developed between them. There are other examples, like “Nebby” and Zacian/Zamazenta, but I feel Koriadon/Miraidon best demonstrates how a legendary Pokémon can naturally become friends with the player.
In contrast to legendaries, I feel more excited to catch the common Pokémon met throughout my journey. Some are powerful, like BW Darmanitan, RB Snorlax, or USUM Hawlucha, but you have to work to make them strong. There are times when they can’t defeat a boss alone and need help from their allies, not to mention they would start with weak move sets and poor stats, or require special evolution methods. Spending time with them, catching them, using them in battles, and evolving them got me more interested in them, as opposed to most Legendaries. Not to mention, most of them are like the “everyman” Pokémon (for lack of a better word), so I feel it's also more of a fair fight against bosses, who also happen to be using the same kind of Pokémon.
In contrast to legendaries, I feel more excited to catch the common Pokémon met throughout my journey. Some are powerful, like BW Darmanitan, RB Snorlax, or USUM Hawlucha, but you have to work to make them strong. There are times when they can’t defeat a boss alone and need help from their allies, not to mention they would start with weak move sets and poor stats, or require special evolution methods. Spending time with them, catching them, using them in battles, and evolving them got me more interested in them, as opposed to most Legendaries. Not to mention, most of them are like the “everyman” Pokémon (for lack of a better word), so I feel it's also more of a fair fight against bosses, who also happen to be using the same kind of Pokémon.
The Arceus encounter in DPPt is cool because the combination of the Hall of Origin music and the fact that the key item was never released gives it a very strong "you're not supposed to be here" vibe.
Every time I see this man's name attached to something it genuinely makes my skin crawl. I don't want to automatically say something along the lines of "he's a bad person" when I quite frankly know nothing about his personal life (for all I know he could be a really great person!), but there's a reason why "Masuda ruined Let's Go" and especially "Masuda ruined BDSP" aren't the kinds of unpopular opinions this thread is looking for. And even then, the Let's Go one might just be me coping with the lack of FireRed & LeafGreen content in that game.
If there's one role I think Masuda excels at, it is actually as a composer. As a game director, though? Oh, boy. Let's take a look at the list of games he directed, actually. Before I say anything else, let's at least give this man a shot before I proceed to absolutely clown on him.
- Crystal (co-directed with Satoshi Tajiri)
- Ruby & Sapphire
- FireRed & LeafGreen
- Diamond & Pearl
- Black & White
- X & Y
- Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee
- Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl
Also, what the heck was he doing from 2013 to 2018? I feel like there's a very small but noticeable gap there, and there's another forming from 2021 to present day. Junichi Masuda being a bad game director on average is the "unpopular opinion" for the sake of me posting this, but as much as I think his decisions have negatively impacted the story, characters, and even some of the new Pokémon of the games he did lead, there at least was new games. Five years remains the record for his longest stint without an Executive Director role, but there are still people out there who like the bulk of his games even if I only like a small handful of them myself. Where is this man and what is he doing? I'm genuinely asking because I'm curious. Did he retire after BDSP or something? Was there a BDSP style Kalos remake that got scrapped? (Hey, it wouldn't be the first time a Kalos game got cancelled, so that tracks.)
Yeah that's the point lol
I know Let's Go gets some hate but I think it was well-executed for what it was (a bridge between Go and the mainline games) and I enjoyed it on those merits. It was meant to be simpler, a little cuter, and a way to
Also, Masuda became the "Chief Creative Fellow" at Game Freak mid-2022, which is why you don't see his name in the credits as Director/Producer anymore.
I'm going to be honest, I don't entirely get your hate toward Masuda as a director. I thought people generally liked RS and BW, with DP and XY still being... well... DP are flawed, mostly with the regional 'Dex, but I probably spent the most time in the postgame of Diamond compared to any other game because of how almost the entire National Dex was available in one way or another. I haven't ever revisited Gen 6, so I don't have a great memory on how the game played out, but I want to say the gameplay was probably reasonable, especially with Kalos's large Pokémon selection. There are definitely issues (awkward early game pacing, lack of Megas available/used in the story, questionable villain writing), but it introduced character customization with aplomb and had what I usually see regarded as the best online features in the series.
If your problem with these games as a whole is that they're they're the "base" games and not the upgraded "third/sequel" games, I don't think the fault for that lies on Masuda's shoulders. The decision to make Emerald/Platinum/BW2 was probably a group decision (so, sure Masuda might have had a say in it, but he's going to be limited on what he can put in the base game pairs as director with that decision made).
Really? He's not going to be directing these things anymore? Thank the freaking Lord.
...alright, alright, I'll stop hating on him. Am I being a bit dramatic for the sake of getting my points? Oh, absolutely. It's quite literally in my nature to overcomplicate everything. All jokes aside, I did what I came back here to do and that was post an unpopular opinion. Even so, though, my opinion has shifted a little bit. Like you said, it's not his fault he got, for lack of a better word, "stuck with" the base games for the most part. Originally this opinion came about as a result of me looking at different peoples' directorial roles and asking myself, "why haven't we seen that guy in a while?". I'll admit it was probably unfair of me to do this to him for as long as I have, but I've always compared each of them based off how popular and well-received their catelog is on average. Three examples immediately come to mind:
- Shigeki Morimoto: Was Executive Director for Emerald and HeartGold & SoulSilver, in Masuda's absence as he was busy with Diamond & Pearl and Black & White respectively, but hasn't seen a directorial role since then in any generation
- Kazumasa Iwao: Originally was just the Executive Director for Ultra Sun & Moon, but then came back out of nowhere to lead Legends: Arceus too (I thought he might return for Legends ZA as well, but this has since been debunked)
- Shigeru Ohmori: Masuda's own handpicked successor as the director of new main games, he first led Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and has since worked on Sun & Moon, Sword & Shield, and Scarlet & Violet's base games
Gonna be honest. Your last two posts come off like the presumptuous sort of reading-between-the-lines that makes me sympathetic toward any game developer who never wants to do an interview with anybody ever.
I'd say the biggest reason why the original series of the anime fell off is they had no idea the show would explode in popularity, and the characters were not intended to last past a year and a half. The anime was originally going to end after Kanto and the Mewtwo movie, but because it became so popular it continued.
You can tell while watching through the Johto saga that the writers just had no idea what to do with Misty or Brock, and outside a handful of eps that focused on them, the writers just treated them like background characters in most episodes. Even all the filler characters tended to get more screentime than them in your average ep (since most eps plots revolved around the 1 episode filler characters Ash and co. met in every ep), so they often got sidelined to background exposition. Didn't help matters Misty got stuck with Togepi at the time. Honestly everytime I've gone back to rewatch the older seasons I actually feel sorry for Misty/Brock fans, I think a lot of people just didn't realize at the time how little focus they were getting toward their characters or their pokemon. I never understood why Misty fans tried to deny that for so many years either, she rarely got a chance to battle or shine outside a few eps here or there and never had any major arcs centered around her beyond an ep. They were quite literally the most stagnant characters of the entire anime for an individual region arc, lol.
Sure, you could argue Hoenn should of been Brendan and May, and DP could have been Lucas and Dawn, etc...with Ash leaving as early as Johto, but I do still think Ash staying for awhile was important as it let us see him gradually develop into a competent trainer. If it wasn't for BW's semi-reboot, you could say Ash had somewhat believeable development to the end of his run, even with the character alterations to him in Sun/Moon and JN making him seem a bit younger and more energetic.
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Warning, disparaging post
I feel Gen 3 they wanted him to mentor May, but then May shifted aggressively to Contests and her rivalry with Drew (corrected by precita) so this was partially dropped (partially cuz she was a very novice trainer initially, but as the contests came by Ash wasn't as needed). Dawn meanwhile is May 2.0 effectively, but with even less of mentoring cuz contests were set early. This was also unfortunately when Team Rocket got overused in Gen 3-4
Ash's dev unfortunately effectively plateau'd Gen 3, with Gen 4 making him have less attitude, even if outside that for skill he was nearly at his strongest. If not for the Paul rivalry he would've been perceived as boring. Though it's straight up horseshit how the League was set, he should've won then
Gen 5 is a bit more than just rebooting Ash/Pikachu's skill/IQ only, they genuinely wanted to cater to the Gen 1 fans. Iris is a failed Misty attempt of a sniding follower, and Cilan is Brock 2.0. Team Rocket being weirdly competent is weird, which makes Ash's regained idiocity more frustrating cuz how are you losing to this guy!?
Gen 6 as much as fans overrate his skills comes super cardboard for personality. Made the shipping tease with Serena very awkward, with Bonnie and Clemont just...being there (though Bonnie killing a guy is wild). And again, he lost the league disappointingly
Bear in mind, I don't like Gen 7/8 Ash, or the artstyle for humans, but Ash being dumb hyper is better than being a dumb regressive idiot and bland cardboard. And the League win was much needed for a send off. Though I find Brock/Misty coming back very transparently uncreative "we need to ref the Gen 1 anime"
I do think the anime should've ended or passed the torch around Gen 3, specifically for Ash. I mentioned it in another post before, but Ash losing the league in 1998 was extremely uncommon for shounen protags, and even now across the genre. It's a shame it was a "crutch" to delay sending him off
I feel Gen 3 they wanted him to mentor May, but then May shifted aggressively to Contests and her rivalry with Drew (corrected by precita) so this was partially dropped (partially cuz she was a very novice trainer initially, but as the contests came by Ash wasn't as needed). Dawn meanwhile is May 2.0 effectively, but with even less of mentoring cuz contests were set early. This was also unfortunately when Team Rocket got overused in Gen 3-4
Ash's dev unfortunately effectively plateau'd Gen 3, with Gen 4 making him have less attitude, even if outside that for skill he was nearly at his strongest. If not for the Paul rivalry he would've been perceived as boring. Though it's straight up horseshit how the League was set, he should've won then
Gen 5 is a bit more than just rebooting Ash/Pikachu's skill/IQ only, they genuinely wanted to cater to the Gen 1 fans. Iris is a failed Misty attempt of a sniding follower, and Cilan is Brock 2.0. Team Rocket being weirdly competent is weird, which makes Ash's regained idiocity more frustrating cuz how are you losing to this guy!?
Gen 6 as much as fans overrate his skills comes super cardboard for personality. Made the shipping tease with Serena very awkward, with Bonnie and Clemont just...being there (though Bonnie killing a guy is wild). And again, he lost the league disappointingly
Bear in mind, I don't like Gen 7/8 Ash, or the artstyle for humans, but Ash being dumb hyper is better than being a dumb regressive idiot and bland cardboard. And the League win was much needed for a send off. Though I find Brock/Misty coming back very transparently uncreative "we need to ref the Gen 1 anime"
I do think the anime should've ended or passed the torch around Gen 3, specifically for Ash. I mentioned it in another post before, but Ash losing the league in 1998 was extremely uncommon for shounen protags, and even now across the genre. It's a shame it was a "crutch" to delay sending him off
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I agree that he should've won in DP, then get packed up by the Elite 4 or Cynthia.
There, no need to end his journey. The whole argument of "Ash must not win or we'll have to retire him" was stupid. I'm not even going to mention Alola, he got a ring in the Orange Islands!
Now his book ended with Mr. Can't Catch a Dub becoming the World Champ with a fresh team.
Charizard, Snorlax, Sceptile... All of y'all on fraud watch.
That's the one gripe I have with Masuda as a director. It is significantly easier to build upon a solid foundation, and a lot of the games he directed, as horribly flawed as they were, did provide that.
But then...
Piece of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!
"Ash, upon obtaining the title of League champion suddenly realized he wasn't that into battling. The trend of Pokémania was over... After mulling it over with his friends, he realized his true calling: a Country Swing Dance Instructor down in Pacifidlog
Pikachu said 'fuck this' and left the bizarre specimen of a human, settling to be Max's ace Pokémon for the Battle Frontier
Brock finally got psychotherapy and realized his unresolved maternal issues causing his women seeking behavior. He got over his lesbophobia
Dawn got her sandwich. It was some good ass gourmet shit"