Unpopular opinions

Ikr, Bubblebeam is really powerful especially at that point in the game where your Pokemon are not fully evolved and you are facing an OU-level mon.

And what are you doing at Lv 100 anyway? I made it to the Elite Four when my Pokemon is in the low 50s
My n-th playthrough of it in order to raise guys up to evolve for my national dex. Typically, just my Empoleon, Staraptor, and four Pokemon I wouldn't want battling holding EXP Shares. I think my first actual time I was in my 60s. It was the rematch team but she was the only time the rematch team ever gave me any problems.
 
Stealth Rock should have been banned long ago, it's far too powerful relative to the other entry hazards and screwed over a lot of otherwise good Pokemon.
They really aren't centralizing, while they do make some Pokemon less viable they also keep broken forces in check, stall for instance would be much more fearsome without them. I also find it weird to take this discussion in OR, I have never been screwed by them in game, or in any battle facility.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Millky95 :
Free Roam Region: My idea of a free roam region would work like so: Right off the bat you have access to all the cities/towns with all the gyms. You can take on the Gyms in any order without needing an HM to get to them. In my head I see it as a circular path (similar to the later part of BW) though with additional paths for shortcuts like a tunnel (and maybe even an actual transit system). However that's all you have access to, because there are other routes which you can't access due to it being blocked by a certain obstacle that needs an HM to be cleared. From here it can separate to two scenarios:
1. Linear HM System: As Gokuzbu said, you receive HMs depending on how many badges you get. This helps slowly expand what areas you can explore, helps with scaling, and also can be useful for telling a story as you can have the player access the next story event by order of HMs gotten.
2. Specific HM System: A more complicated system, a specific HM is linked to a certain Badge. This can be used to help create a unique experience to the player as depending on what Badge they got gives them access to areas at different times then other players would have. This may also mean they'll get access to different variety of Pokemon. You could even "layer" the obstacles to further this, like one branch would require Cut - Strength - Rock Smash while another branch a few routes away requires Strength - Rock Smash - Cut to go further in. That would help with the scaling problem as each new area would provide stronger trainers and wild Pokemon to battle. Where the problem comes in is with story. They can either base when events occur on number of badges and have you need to go to locations which don't require a HM (a more linear story) OR they can just have event flags depending on what HMs you get so you're experiencing pieces of an overall plot (though they would need to program different teams for the villains to use to match the level you'll be at).
HM Puzzles: Also wouldn't mind to see more places like the Trick House which has HM puzzles.


WideTomato :
Tip-toeing Gravel: I still say they need to nerf it a bit. Like if a Pokemon is weak to it, no matter if its double or quadruple, it only removes 1/4th of their HP (that way Pokemon quadruple weak to Rock-types can at least be sent in more then once). I'd also argue you should need to layer Stealth Rock to do that sort of damage. At the same time I think Spikes should do Ground-type damage or be changed to a Normal-type move.
 
I absolutely despise Third Versions in every sense of the word and I am so glad Game Freak didn't repeat the idea after Platinum. Yellow it made sense because it was literally a special edition; and edit to the game to change it in such a way it felt like you were playing the anime. But from then on after it's literally just so lazy and annoying. It gets to the point where I honestly felt RS and DP were deliberately gutted just so you had an incentive to get the 'full game' when the third version came out. The Third Version wasn't even a new game; it was just a slight edit - oh, I'm sorry, it had the distortion world. Whoop dee fucking doo - to the game you already had, and it was nothing but an improvement. Unless you were absolutely desperate for a Glameow, when Platinum came out, it invalidated Diamond and Pearl's existence in every way and made them completely redundant.
So why the fuck do people favour this and are so sour towards the idea of sequels, actual new games which improve upon and enhance the experience of the previous game you got rather than invalidate it? The logic of this community never fails to baffle me at times.
 
I absolutely despise Third Versions in every sense of the word and I am so glad Game Freak didn't repeat the idea after Platinum. Yellow it made sense because it was literally a special edition; and edit to the game to change it in such a way it felt like you were playing the anime. But from then on after it's literally just so lazy and annoying. It gets to the point where I honestly felt RS and DP were deliberately gutted just so you had an incentive to get the 'full game' when the third version came out. The Third Version wasn't even a new game; it was just a slight edit - oh, I'm sorry, it had the distortion world. Whoop dee fucking doo - to the game you already had, and it was nothing but an improvement. Unless you were absolutely desperate for a Glameow, when Platinum came out, it invalidated Diamond and Pearl's existence in every way and made them completely redundant.
So why the fuck do people favour this and are so sour towards the idea of sequels, actual new games which improve upon and enhance the experience of the previous game you got rather than invalidate it? The logic of this community never fails to baffle me at times.
I think a part of the backlash is coming from Kyu-B and Kyu-W. Normal Kyurem in BW had a cool design and a mysterious connection to Zekrom and Reshiram. A lot of people (AKA me because I totally count as a lot of people) wanted to see Pokémon Gray so Kyurem could be all featured and get more powerful, but what they (I) did NOT want to see was some bizarre, awkwardly designed Kyurem-Reshiram fusion or whatever. Also, BW had generally a better plot than BW2 with that whole questioning your morality thing, up until the part where they back out ("psyche, totally supervillains"). In BW2, it's basically... Ghetsis trying to freeze things?

That said, I'm not opposed to the idea of sequels, but rather just didn't like BW2.

As for unpopular opinions:
XY are quite easily up there as some of the best games, just behind GSC and BW1. The new 3D graphics weren't all, it was primarily for me that Kalos is just a beautiful and rich region with many gym-less towns that add to it, and Lumiose is awesome.
BW1 are amazing games.
I won't put GSC being amazing here because that's not unpopular.
The original RSE games are actually not that good.
ORAS annoyed me for one reason.
 
I absolutely despise Third Versions in every sense of the word and I am so glad Game Freak didn't repeat the idea after Platinum. Yellow it made sense because it was literally a special edition; and edit to the game to change it in such a way it felt like you were playing the anime. But from then on after it's literally just so lazy and annoying. It gets to the point where I honestly felt RS and DP were deliberately gutted just so you had an incentive to get the 'full game' when the third version came out. The Third Version wasn't even a new game; it was just a slight edit - oh, I'm sorry, it had the distortion world. Whoop dee fucking doo - to the game you already had, and it was nothing but an improvement. Unless you were absolutely desperate for a Glameow, when Platinum came out, it invalidated Diamond and Pearl's existence in every way and made them completely redundant.
So why the fuck do people favour this and are so sour towards the idea of sequels, actual new games which improve upon and enhance the experience of the previous game you got rather than invalidate it? The logic of this community never fails to baffle me at times.
While mostly a fair point, I do have to bring up Pokémon Blue in Japan. It is virtually identical except they used an updated game engine, new sprites, and different catch rates. At least Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum did more than shuffle version exclusives around.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I believe Blue redid a bunch of the Pokemon sprites (which got redone again for Yellow) and some glitches were fixed. I know for a fact there's a glitch that lets you complete the entire game in less than 10 minutes you can only do in Red and Green.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Kurona :
Thirding The Sequel: I too was confused why so many people were against the idea of a sequel. I could only guess because it was yet another paired games and those who want to buy every game were a bit upset they now had to buy two games instead of one. I guess it could also be that people wanted to see how they would combine the story/wanted access to both Reshiram and Zekrom in one game.
Personally I really liked they went the sequel route and while the story wasn't the best (being it was your rival's story you hijacked), I was still interested to see how things changed, especially how everyone reacted after Team Plasma's plot. I also felt the did a decent job adding new twists to old areas like starting us on the bottom left or Unova, the Castelia Sewers, and flying across Unova upon reaching Mistralton which notably gave us access to previous post game locations (and also locking previous main game locations into new post game locations). While I will admit once I got the the mainland Unova I did feel I was treading old ground in some places, that was to be expected since we're still in the same region. Still prefer BW's story, but for me BW2 didn't disappoint.


Phione :
Original Kyurem: Oh yeah, that's another thing people wanted to see. Yeah, I'm hoping in the future we'll get to see Perfect Kyurem, I mean if one DNA Splicer combines Kyurem with with of the dragons that must mean TWO DNA Splicers are needed to make Perfect Kyurem! And we know there are multiple DNA Splicers, we just need to get to a region which just so happens to have two.
OR they could just make the Perfect Kyurem a Mega Evolution... but the question for whom? For just normal Kyurem or maybe allow Kyurem's forms to Mega Evolve (if you thought 780 BST was broken, wait for 800 BST!... and then 820 when Arceus Mega Evolves. POWER CREEP AHOY!).


I can think of a much more impressive thing done with a Gen I game.
 
Kurona :
Thirding The Sequel: I too was confused why so many people were against the idea of a sequel. I could only guess because it was yet another paired games and those who want to buy every game were a bit upset they now had to buy two games instead of one. I guess it could also be that people wanted to see how they would combine the story/wanted access to both Reshiram and Zekrom in one game.
Personally I really liked they went the sequel route and while the story wasn't the best (being it was your rival's story you hijacked), I was still interested to see how things changed, especially how everyone reacted after Team Plasma's plot. I also felt the did a decent job adding new twists to old areas like starting us on the bottom left or Unova, the Castelia Sewers, and flying across Unova upon reaching Mistralton which notably gave us access to previous post game locations (and also locking previous main game locations into new post game locations). While I will admit once I got the the mainland Unova I did feel I was treading old ground in some places, that was to be expected since we're still in the same region. Still prefer BW's story, but for me BW2 didn't disappoint.


Phione :
Original Kyurem: Oh yeah, that's another thing people wanted to see. Yeah, I'm hoping in the future we'll get to see Perfect Kyurem, I mean if one DNA Splicer combines Kyurem with with of the dragons that must mean TWO DNA Splicers are needed to make Perfect Kyurem! And we know there are multiple DNA Splicers, we just need to get to a region which just so happens to have two.
OR they could just make the Perfect Kyurem a Mega Evolution... but the question for whom? For just normal Kyurem or maybe allow Kyurem's forms to Mega Evolve (if you thought 780 BST was broken, wait for 800 BST!... and then 820 when Arceus Mega Evolves. POWER CREEP AHOY!).




I can think of a much more impressive thing done with a Gen I game.
Yeah, but that was not 100% inherent to the game.
It's still amazing!
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
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I think the reason why the idea of sequels got so much backlash is because, from my personal observations of being on Pokemon forums like here, people generally strongly dislike significant change in the traditional formula. At the time when fifth generation was alive and well, and we only had Black and White, many of us Pokemon fans were very much accustomed to the standard Pokemon release formula of each generation: it would begin with a pair of identical games that have differences in available Pokemon, then a solitary third version, as well as more recently (at that time), remakes of an older generation catered to fit the theme of that generation. So of course, us Pokemon fans were expecting that very same formula, as many of us were expecting a Pokemon Gray to complement BW (and possibly RS remakes, though those didn't happen and were saved for this generation-we're living now in the RS remakes era!). Sequels to the games were about the last things we were expecting. As such, when BW2 was revealed, many of the Pokemon fans were shocked and didn't really like the idea because we expected a third game so much, that the introduction of BW2 basically crushed everyone's speculations about how Kyurem would be handled. It was such a huge deviation from the traditional formula and none of us were really expecting such an idea to ever happen, nor did we ever expect a Black Kyurem and White Kyurem. It's also because version exclusives remained the same so there was no way you could ever get all three members of the Tao trio in one game without trading, nor could you get things like having both Braviary and Mandibuzz in the same game without trading, and vice versa with things like Goth and Reun. The fifth generation as a whole gets a lot of hate now because it deviated from the traditional formula and BW1 made the fifth generation stick out as a "reboot" generation. Basically, the main reason people are so sour towards BW2, and Generation V as a whole, is that it was "different".

That being said, while I was very surprised when BW2 was revealed, I decided I would get the games and to be honest, I actually really liked White 2. It had an interesting and brand new storyline, basically showing us what Unova has become after Hilbert/Hilda and N have finished the BW1 story, and it also gives us a clue as to what has become of Cheren and Bianca and what they do now. And now that I think of it, I think sequels were far the more logical step for the generation than a third game. Why? Well, firstly, Black and White did have differences like Black City and White Forest, as well as the differences in Opelucid City. Kyurem's relation to the regional trio is also different from that of Rayquaza, Giratina, and potentially Zygarde. It also allows us to explore more of Unova, and more Pokemon to be available in the game. There were new characters and I liked how we see how things have changed in Unova over the timeline.

Another thing I like about sequels is that they forced you to buy Black and White 1 to have any legitimate clue what is going on in BW2. Now typically, with third versions, one could have easily skipped GS, RS, or DP and waited for Crystal, Emerald, or Platinum to be released so they have the "full experience". However, that's not really the case with BW2. You kind of have to have experience with the first games to know Black and White 2 well. Basically, you get the grasp of the story of BW1, but BW2 isn't just a new interpretation of events: it's a true sequel that continues the story, like Ghetsis once again being on the loose for his goal to take over Unova, in a different and more sinister way that involves the use of Kyurem. I liked the introduction of new locations and everything. Basically, with sequels, you not only get a new experience in a new game, but it also kind of requires that you have the original games as well to fully enjoy the sequels.

Those are just my thoughts, if I can think of more unpopular opinions of mine later, I'll post 'em at a later time.
 
I don't even bother reading through the thread, I just came here to spout some hot opinions.

  • There's literally nothing good about Gen III. RSE almost killed the series and made me stop playing Pokemon for years. FRLG are also worse games than RBY.
  • ORAS suck too, mostly because Hoenn is a bad region.
  • XY are my favorite Pokemon games and Lumiose City is an excellent place. Come at me.
  • The story in BW is not good and I can't understand why people like it.
  • Yellow is better than Red/Blue.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Reasoning for these opinions provided for anyone who cares to ask.
 
I don't even bother reading through the thread, I just came here to spout some hot opinions.

  • There's literally nothing good about Gen III. RSE almost killed the series and made me stop playing Pokemon for years. FRLG are also worse games than RBY.
  • ORAS suck too, mostly because Hoenn is a bad region.
  • XY are my favorite Pokemon games and Lumiose City is an excellent place. Come at me.
  • The story in BW is not good and I can't understand why people like it.
  • Yellow is better than Red/Blue.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Reasoning for these opinions provided for anyone who cares to ask.
Okay.
  • How did Gen 3 'nearly kill the series', given how the franchise is still going strong to this day and RSE sold pretty well? Barring your subjective view of the game, of course. After all, what 'kills a series' has nothing to do with that.
  • What makes BW's story subpar to you?
  • How many of your statements were sincere?
 
The jokes regarding some Pokémon designs (Mega Manectric, Mega Salamence) are just not funny in the slightest, IMO. I don't know, the jokes got stale and old so extremely quickly. Don't get me started on Mega Ampharos. Ugh. This may be because Manectric and Salamence are among my all-time favorites and I absolutely adore their Mega Evolutions, but the jokes were funny for a split second.
I once overanalyzed Mega Salamence's design, too. If anyone's interested, I'll post that analysis here. I wrote it because I got a little too salty about all the fucking jokes running around (and are still going around in February 2015) and because the design made a lot of sense, IMO. Besides, an anime short shows that after Mega Evolution, Mega Salamence still has two separate wings, which it can meld together at will to remain airborne at all times.

On another note, the Forces of Nature are my favorite minor Legendary trio. Yes, I'm being brutally serious. I've said it. They're my favorites, as all of them are fun to use, the Incarnates look pretty cool and the Therians have my favorite designs of all minor Legendaries period. I love the Legendary Golems, too.

I find Eelektross to be a vastly underrated Pokémon, since it's a freaking electric lamprey with arms and there's so much you can do with it because of its vast movepool. This guy literally has the widest movepool among Electric-types and can use it to a great extent. I feel this way about many Pokémon, most of them being underrated and unfortunately overshadowed by other things.

I'll add more when I feel motivated and when I have things to talk about, but here's some things.
 
And we went five and a half pages before a potential argument started! That is surprisingly long considering the title of this thread might as well be nice b8 m8 i r8 8/8

Anyhow.

Mega Salamence's design did take a while to grow on me, but I do find myself liking it now. I think my problem with it is that all it's art and models and such showed it with it's legs tucked in; but when I saw it's menu sprite I think I fell in love. There's such a difference between it's legs being tucked in which looks a little silly imo, and it's standing pose which looks... really strong and intimidating.
Mega Slowbro's design, on the other hand, I've always loved. I honestly think people take it too seriously, it's fucking Slowbro, it's supposed to be silly.
I don't only hate Jigglypuff's inclusion in Smash because it takes up a space for a better Pokémon; but I honestly find it's moveset and hitboxes annoying to play with and against.

I once overanalyzed Mega Salamence's design, too. If anyone's interested, I'll post that analysis here. I wrote it because I got a little too salty about all the fucking jokes running around (and are still going around in February 2015) and because the design made a lot of sense, IMO. Besides, an anime short shows that after Mega Evolution, Mega Salamence still has two separate wings, which it can meld together at will to remain airborne at all times.
Please do. Kind of interested
 
Okay.
  • How did Gen 3 'nearly kill the series', given how the franchise is still going strong to this day and RSE sold pretty well? Barring your subjective view of the game, of course. After all, what 'kills a series' has nothing to do with that.
  • What makes BW's story subpar to you?
  • How many of your statements were sincere?
Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion". And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now. The fact that there was no backwards compatibility (RIP Time Capsule ;_;7) was also a huge turn-off for many players, including me. Gen III was essentially a new beginning and many original fans decided to stop playing there. In my opinion Gen III is extremely poorly executed and the absolute low point of the series.

BW's story is subpar because it's not good. Here's a quick recap of the story:
-N: "Dude, do you like truth or ideals? Never mind, you're wrong, fuck you."
-Ghetsis: "Release all your Pokemon!"
-N: "lol maybe we can both be right, maybe things aren't so BLACK AND WHITE." (Get it? Deepest lore, 10/10)
-Ghetsis: "Jokes on you, I'm actually just a regular cartoon villain who wants to take over the world."
-The end
You can think whatever you want but this is not a good story. I don't want pretentious and "deep" pointless dialogue to cover up a story that's essentially just "stop the bad guys like you always do".

You're actually asking how many of my statements were sincere? Like, seriously? Why wouldn't they be? Do you think I'm here just to troll people like you? Well, I could be doing that too, but this time I'm not. I don't see any reason to lie to the fine people of Smogon and the Pokemon community. When you start reading a thread about unpopular opinions, you should be prepared for some unpopular opinions.
 
Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion". And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now. The fact that there was no backwards compatibility (RIP Time Capsule ;_;7) was also a huge turn-off for many players, including me. Gen III was essentially a new beginning and many original fans decided to stop playing there. In my opinion Gen III is extremely poorly executed and the absolute low point of the series.

BW's story is subpar because it's not good. Here's a quick recap of the story:
-N: "Dude, do you like truth or ideals? Never mind, you're wrong, fuck you."
-Ghetsis: "Release all your Pokemon!"
-N: "lol maybe we can both be right, maybe things aren't so BLACK AND WHITE." (Get it? Deepest lore, 10/10)
-Ghetsis: "Jokes on you, I'm actually just a regular cartoon villain who wants to take over the world."
-The end
You can think whatever you want but this is not a good story. I don't want pretentious and "deep" pointless dialogue to cover up a story that's essentially just "stop the bad guys like you always do".

You're actually asking how many of my statements were sincere? Like, seriously? Why wouldn't they be? Do you think I'm here just to troll people like you? Well, I could be doing that too, but this time I'm not. I don't see any reason to lie to the fine people of Smogon and the Pokemon community. When you start reading a thread about unpopular opinions, you should be prepared for some unpopular opinions.
I have to agree here, this are unpopular opinions not because a bunch of people agree on them but because they are personal point of view on an element of the franchise that IS NOT SHARED BY MANY.

Even tough I love B/WW story line and many do he is allowed to dislike it without criticism XD
 
Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion". And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now. The fact that there was no backwards compatibility (RIP Time Capsule ;_;7) was also a huge turn-off for many players, including me. Gen III was essentially a new beginning and many original fans decided to stop playing there. In my opinion Gen III is extremely poorly executed and the absolute low point of the series.

BW's story is subpar because it's not good. Here's a quick recap of the story:
-N: "Dude, do you like truth or ideals? Never mind, you're wrong, fuck you."
-Ghetsis: "Release all your Pokemon!"
-N: "lol maybe we can both be right, maybe things aren't so BLACK AND WHITE." (Get it? Deepest lore, 10/10)
-Ghetsis: "Jokes on you, I'm actually just a regular cartoon villain who wants to take over the world."
-The end
You can think whatever you want but this is not a good story. I don't want pretentious and "deep" pointless dialogue to cover up a story that's essentially just "stop the bad guys like you always do".

You're actually asking how many of my statements were sincere? Like, seriously? Why wouldn't they be? Do you think I'm here just to troll people like you? Well, I could be doing that too, but this time I'm not. I don't see any reason to lie to the fine people of Smogon and the Pokemon community. When you start reading a thread about unpopular opinions, you should be prepared for some unpopular opinions.
I understand that you dislike Gen 3 and I respect that, but your argumentation is quite flawed.

Your first reason is that many players of Gens 1 and 2 stopped playing when RS came out. While this is true, there are two things you need to know.
1. A lot of older fans may've stopped playing, but just as many continued playing the games and were extremely happy with RS. The games attracted a huge slew of new fans to the series, a lot of which who grew up with RSE. Most of these fans got their chance to play Kanto in a format they were used to, in the form of FRLG. Sure, they're not the same as the old games, but it's self-explanatory for remakes to show some differences to the original.
2. Speaking of FRLG, your plea about the lack of backwards compatibility between GSC and Gen 3 is partially rendered moot by FRLG, Colosseum and XD granting players the opportunity to get all Pokémon in their own Generations. Yes, it must suck to not send your old favorites over, but you could still obtain all Pokémon in one Generation. This brings me to another point: were it not for this lack of backwards compatibility, the programmers could never have rewritten the statistical structure for Pokémon and bestow upon us the clear, defined, easy-to-use values system. We would not have had natures. The games would lack the combined statistical complexity and utility that they currently have if GSC and RS/FRLG/E were compatible.

Your summary of Gen 5's story could be done for pretty much any game ever. Here, let me give you summaries for all of them.
Gen 1: Fight gang crook. Become best Trainer.
Gen 2: Fight remainder of gang crook. (Get Bell and fight Legend.) Become bestest Trainer.
Gen 3: Two idiots endanger the world without thinking of consequences. Climb a miles-high tower and summon Jesus Dragon. Also, become best Trainer.
Gen 4: Misanthropic psycho awakens two gods, disturbs third. You beat him, he QQs. Become best Trainer.
Gen 5: You're on a journey with your friends and find a definite rival. You fight his mooks and keep facing him. You put your beliefs on the line to save the world. Turns out your rival's foster father is the biggest scumbag ever and you kick his sorry ass.
Gen 6: Nothing to say here. This game has no contingent story.

See, I can do this for all Pokémon games. They all have the same goal of beating Gym Leaders and becoming the Champ, just with different events going on to immerse you more. Pokémon games aren't known for story, but rather for the satisfaction of beating monsters with your own monsters. It's one of the most basic JRPGs, but because of its lack of superficial complexity, it is very accessible to a wide audience. This is Pokémon, man, not Xenoblade Chronicles. If you want to play a great game with an amazingly immersive story, go play that. If you want a Pokémon game with a great storyline, then give the Mystery Dungeon games a try (especially the second series is really story-heavy).

As I have stated, I fully respect your opinion. You should always prepare for disagreements and counterarguments, however, since that's basically the point of an opinion. Anyway, have a fine day.
 
Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion". And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now.
Actually, that really is a major factor. When Pokémon came out in 1998, the general audience was about 5-11. By the time Ruby and Sapphire came out, the oldest were now in college and the youngest were entering puberty, also known as "anything we liked now sucks since it is 'for babies'".
Also, this is combined with another factor: popularity backlash. This almost always happens when something hits and is as huge as Pokémon was between 1998-2003. People just get sick of it that many stop caring simply because it is popular. Don't believe me? Look at Frozen. A year ago, it hit like a fucking hurricane on pop culture. A year later, it is still going. And many who liked the film when it came out are starting to hate it because they are sick of hearing some eleven-year-old girl singing "Let It Go" for the five trillionth time. Ruby and Sapphire just had bad timing in that case.
Finally, changes in the anime could also be responsible. The changes between Johto and Hoenn in the anime is what made me leave the fandom originally.

Now, I will admit that Generation III is my least favorite generation. Hell, I've never beaten a Generation III game. I keep getting close, but I always lose interest. I've beaten Generation I, IV, V, and VI games (I've never actually played Generation II, just the Generation IV remakes), but I've never beaten a single Generation III game. That says something. But I don't think for a second that the games themselves nearly killed the franchise.
 
Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion".
Well, then just say it made you lose interes-

And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now. The fact that there was no backwards compatibility (RIP Time Capsule ;_;7) was also a huge turn-off for many players, including me. Gen III was essentially a new beginning and many original fans decided to stop playing there. In my opinion Gen III is extremely poorly executed and the absolute low point of the series.
...admittedly, I can relate to this rather well. I also played the first generation as a little kid, and yes, even where I lived Pokémon was all the rage until Gen 3, maybe even by the end of Gen 2. I think it's not so much the original audience having grown up, but the overall feel and atmosphere of the games being so drastically different, what with the art style and graphics, and I guess the lack of backwards-compatibility with Gen 2 hurt it as well (I can't relate to that as much since I never actually used that feature to transfer Gen 1 Pokémon). But personally, I still loved Gen 3. It felt different, but still good to me.

BW's story is subpar because it's not good. Here's a quick recap of the story:
-N: "Dude, do you like truth or ideals? Never mind, you're wrong, fuck you."
-Ghetsis: "Release all your Pokemon!"
-N: "lol maybe we can both be right, maybe things aren't so BLACK AND WHITE." (Get it? Deepest lore, 10/10)
-Ghetsis: "Jokes on you, I'm actually just a regular cartoon villain who wants to take over the world."
-The end
You can think whatever you want but this is not a good story. I don't want pretentious and "deep" pointless dialogue to cover up a story that's essentially just "stop the bad guys like you always do".
I can agree that the dualism shtick may get annoying, but it was the generation's whole thing. See, it's not neccessarily the game's own story that's deep and impressive, but it's the fact that a Pokémon game straight-up makes it clear to the player, in its own way, that people have different, oftentimes even drastically conflicting outlooks and opinions on things and that we should be accepting of that (my post is so ironic right now). It's not so much the character development (I agree that that's an overrated aspect of Gen 5). It's the moral of the story.

You're actually asking how many of my statements were sincere? Like, seriously? Why wouldn't they be? Do you think I'm here just to troll people like you? Well, I could be doing that too, but this time I'm not. I don't see any reason to lie to the fine people of Smogon and the Pokemon community. When you start reading a thread about unpopular opinions, you should be prepared for some unpopular opinions.
Sure, and I was. But the way you phrase it:
I don't even bother reading through the thread, I just came here to spout some hot opinions.
can very well be interpreted as:
I'm just gonna leave my bait here and let the hate come, since this looks like the perfect topic for it!
And I guess that's not the case, but it could've been.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Mega Salamence:
While I never hated it I more though the design as awkward. I knew what they were going for but I thought that the wings didn't look very aerodynamic (though I didn't know they could separate, makes them make a bit more sense). Actually it tucking its feet into its harness made perfect sense to me, it was just the shape of its wings took when in flight mode.

Mega Slowbro:
I get the design behind Mega Slowbro and do think it looks funny, I just think it could have been pulled off a bit better. However it did give rise to my favorite Mega concept, Mega Slowking:


Now thinking about it, I get the idea behind a lot of Mega Pokemon, I just don't sometimes agree with it. Infact I sometimes feel they went the direction they do because its a twist on what people expect and I hate when creators do that. I don't like twist for a sake of a twist.

JigglyBrawl:
Jigglypuff is honestly only in Smash because its a lineage character. The original 12 Smash Characters will ALWAYS be in a Smash game. Personally I kind of wish they had used another Pokemon like maybe Meowth (if only because of its significance in the anime) or Charizard from the start, but I guess they wanted another character like Kirby who had multiple jumps so chose Jigglypuff.
That said, they've done a pretty good job of carving a niche with Jigglypuff, and she has one of the more funnier Final Smashes. That said I do hope they keep Charizard in the roster from now on.
FUN FACT: Did you know that during Brawl's development that Plusle & Minun were going to be fighters? Only a few text files were found of them so there's no to go on how they would have fought, though probably something akin to the Ice Climbers.

Doom's Opinion:
First, as Norne pointed out, it's not about being sincere, its about being honest with your opinions. While I don't personally agree with some of the things said, everyone has a right of their own opinion. Everything is subjective and bias.
I will of course "counter" some of DoomOvDoom points. Do I expect to change his opinion? No, but personally I feel I want to defend my reasons for thinking the opposite way, maybe for any viewer to make up their own decision if they already haven't.

Gen III: People growing out of something doesn't mean Gen III is the worst gen that almost killed Pokemon, it meant people moved on. Sometimes you just grow out of things, doesn't make them bad, doesn't make them good, your tastes just change or don't have the time anymore for that thing. Also if I recall Gen III came out when many of those who played the first two gens were entering Junior High School or High School and, well, peer pressure and all.
And yeah, sucks there was no backwards compatibility but I feel that's Nintendo's fault more then GameFreak. The technology was just too different, though apparently people have found ways to do it nowadays thought its complicated and requires a lot of gadgets. I suppose them releasing FRLG was sort of their way of trying to make amends by letting you replay those past times with modern mechanics
Also, old lost players are made up by new younger players. There's a reason Pokemon heavily markets to kids, and I would say Pokemon gets more new fans each generation then they lose. And of course they try to please the old fans, but their main target are getting new fans because a series which doesn't is a series who is doomed to fail. Plus kids have tons of disposable income (aka, their parent's income).
Black & White Story: I would say you're taking things at face value. The reason I like Black & White's story is because they got the player to be a part of the story and felt the villains were made interesting, especially N. Initially Team Plasma is just a front by Ghetsis (which I felt was made clear) who manipulated those who honetly thought Pokemon and people should be separated. He went as far as raising a child with this idea and hammering it into him just so he could use the child to take control of a Legendary to accomplish his scheme. It's not that N isn't lying, N is just following what he truly believes but sadly those are false beliefs. This in turn turns Ghetsis from a cartoon villain to a real complete monster and sociopath and I felt that gave the player a stronger reason to stop him. And N was full on with the plan to release everyone's Pokemon despite knowing there are good people, feeling the good was in the minority. It's not until Ghetsis revealed his plan and was defeated did N change his mind and decide to go off to figure out who he truly is.
XY Story: On the other hand the only interesting thing about XY's story is Lysandre and the Kalos War. I've said it multiple times, but it feels like they came up with the idea for Team Flare and the idea for Lysandre separately and mushed them toghether, they honestly just don't fit quite right. And even Lysandre goes back and forth with giving you a chance of stopping him, doing just that, and him deciding to go ahead anyway (I think he does that 3 times!). Also you don't encounter Team Flare enough, their goofy each time you meet them, and you beat them before the 8th Gym.
However I do agree Lumiose City is pretty nice.
 
I wasn't the biggest fan of Black and White's story either. While I admit that Ghetsis was an awesome villain, I did feel that the story either needed to be more explicit with it's morals or just didn't go far enough.

I felt "Team Plasma is really evil for evil's sake" a cop-out for the glorified cock-fighting ethics of Pokemon battling and capturing. It's like they brought up the point, but then avoided any resolution or discussion on pokemon = cockfighing by making Team Plasma stoopid evil (kick the Munna!) and the grand reveal that they duped N all along. The moral of coming to understand one another and idealism vs. realism was fine, but to me it seemed like a pop-up solution to ignore the problem addressed throughout the rest of the game. It left me longing for answers, is pokemon battling ethical? All I got out of it was "the pokemon like to beat each other up."

I felt that Gamefreak wrote themselves into a corner on this, and I don't exactly know how they could justify the game's core mechanic in-story (maybe that pokemon are barbaric and really do love to fight and everybody needs to have some because otherwise the towns/cities will be overrun by wild pokemon? That... actually sounds pretty cool if not very E for Everyone).

Not to say I hated the games (loved the geography, so very Earthbound-like! Also the pokemon designs, and I also liked how the limited regional pokedex made some parts of the game more challenging. Ghetsis was a great boss-fight). And not to say the story didn't have it's merits (Bianca's mini-story was sweet, the point in N's Castle where they tell you Team Plasma can access your PC hit me pretty hard, and again everything to do with Ghetsis). It's just eventually I got tired of characters waxing poetic philosophy that really didn't mean anything (Cheren in particular was my worst offender. It's hard to listen to a "get stronger" speech fight after fight when A) Pokemon do all the fighthing B) The trainer's only tool is their mind C) Cheren is a horrible tactician).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while this game tried very hard to have a story, I found it worse and more distracting than other generations with their excuse-plots. Because they tried so hard and failed at it (to me) meant that it was more distracting and glaring than an excuse plot, leaving me stammering "GET ON WITH IT!" more often than not.
 
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The moral of coming to understand one another and idealism vs. realism was fine, but to me it seemed like a pop-up solution to ignore the problem addressed throughout the rest of the game. It left me longing for answers, is pokemon battling ethical? All I got out of it was "the pokemon like to beat each other up."

I felt that Gamefreak wrote themselves into a corner on this, and I don't exactly know how they could justify the game's core mechanic in-story.
To be fair, this also had me stumped for a long time. But then I considered this:

Pokémon battles, with Trainers using items to help them, teaching them techniques, and having rules to play by, is basically a sport in-universe. It's like human martial arts, except you're also able to breathe fire and shoot ice beams and all that. Pokémon are made out to be creatures with intelligence comparable to that of humans, and it seems that many of them do inherently enjoy sparring like this. Think of the fundamentals of certain fighting Shounen anime/manga: Fighting for the thrill; the whole "you can understand eachother through battles" deal; et cetera.

On the flipside, we have fights like those depicted in Mewtwo Strikes Back or the war in X/Y. These aren't professional matches, but brutal struggles to the death, and clearly shown to be a bad thing.
 
To be fair, this also had me stumped for a long time. But then I considered this:

Pokémon battles, with Trainers using items to help them, teaching them techniques, and having rules to play by, is basically a sport in-universe. It's like human martial arts, except you're also able to breathe fire and shoot ice beams and all that. Pokémon are made out to be creatures with intelligence comparable to that of humans, and it seems that many of them do inherently enjoy sparring like this. Think of the fundamentals of certain fighting Shounen anime/manga: Fighting for the thrill; the whole "you can understand eachother through battles" deal; et cetera.

On the flipside, we have fights like those depicted in Mewtwo Strikes Back or the war in X/Y. These aren't professional matches, but brutal struggles to the death, and clearly shown to be a bad thing.
I feel the same way, I just wish they were more explicit in the story with this. I mean there's an entire "fighting" type where almost every pokedex entry depicts how much they love to spar. Still doesn't explain other habits like removing animals from their natural habitat or the more heartless and clinical approaches to competitive battling (hands up if you chain breed and release the ones with imperfect natures/IV's/abilities) but that's reading into the game too much.

I felt without the story directly referencing why pokemon fights are okay, Black and White was a lot like watching an episode of Captain Planet with the roles reversed, where complex moral and ethical debates are saturated by bombastic stupid villainy. I get that the games are aimed at kids, but so was Earthbound/Mother 3. Give kids some credit, they're smarter than you think.
 
They need to remake Kanto and Johto with Megas and the Physical/Special split. FRLG and HGSS were enjoyable, but I'd much rather play through the old regions under new rules. It'd be really cool.

I absolutely adore dual-type mons, to the point where my in-game teams would be exclusively dual-types (without overlapping--12/18 types covers almost anything!) and it infuriates me when one lacks good STAB for one of its types.

Dragon Rush would be the most popular Dragon-type move of them all if not for lol 75% accuracy. 100 BP with a flinch chance is much better than 85 BP (Pulse) or the SpA drop (Draco).

I despise "nuker" moves like CC, Superpower, Draco, etc. They rob you of momentum and force your sweeper to act as more of a pivot, and God help you if you have a Choice item.

Never liked Choice items anyway. Great for late-game cleanup, but I prefer flexibility, thank you very much.

A couple of beefs with the anime. For one, I would love to see trainers just let their mons battle, acting more as coaches than issuing every single order. You have something like Alakazam which supposedly has an IQ of 3,000, otherwise known as enough brainpower to remember every move it can possibly learn, much less battle strategies. Ash's Pikachu is one of the most experienced Pokemon in existence--why can't it just go to town on its own, especially with a trainer with a tendency to make rookie mistakes despite being so close to winning a league the writers had to throw in a Diabolus Ex Machina to keep him away?

Also, it would have been better to just let Ash win the league and get immediately curbstomped by Cynthia. Ash has a (real) League title and the fans are happy, while the net result for the writers remains the same: Ash realizes he's not good enough and heads for Unova.

And I wish the anime writers would pay a bit more attention to game mechanics. The Cynthia/Paul match in the Sinnoh series always irks me, mainly because I can't get the second exchange out of my head. Weavile is a physical attacker that has the first move. It ought to have simply OHKOed with Ice Punch, and instead it goes for Blizzard (nice 70% accuracy off 45 SpA there)? This isn't really even metagaming, that's pretty basic stuff right there. Some of the ways in which the bend the rules are pretty neat, but there are a handful of just depressing moments, too.
 

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