Unpopular opinions

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor

I... Magmortar is... er...

...

Okay, I can't really defend this guy. The design is ugly as heck especially around the face that looks like a burn victim and whatever is going on in the back with the spikes and flamey tails but I just want to say that even a horrible design can look good with the right pose.

Specifically this pose, the HG/SS sprite. Especially if you put some pokeball seals on it so it looks like it fires at it's opponent as it pops out of the ball. The only time this 'mon has ever looked somewhat cool almost. Don't know why the sprite is better than the official artwork seeing as the poses are almost identical. I'd say the sprite draws less attention to the butt ugly face and seems to emphasize the red in the colors (while on the art I'm drawn more to the yellow). It's like, on the art it looks like red flames on a yellow body, but the sprite looks like yellow flames on a red body. Does this make any sense to anyone? Am I crazy?
Hmm, let me try something:

MagmortarBetterDesign.png

Doesn't look too bad. Decided to elongate the bill so it looks like a duck bill and not a duck version of black face. I also got rid of any other instance of that clashing pink color. I colored the thigh joint so that it continued the body's pattern design and colored the back spikes red. I think it looks a bit better, if you can get over the jaggedness because the only image editing program I have is paint.

EDIT: I redid it so it's outline wasn't so edgy.
 
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Isn't it weird that absolutely no one has a problem with any of the gen 2 evolutions (Crobat, Porygon2, Steelix, Blissey, Umbreon etc.) But gen 4 ones get several complaints such as being overdesigned, adding shit on top of an already finished design and the like. I'm not sure I agree with it all, though Rhyperior is hideous.
 
The quality of the games are getting worse because our community isn't vocal enough about the recent flaws. Scrapped kalos, rushed alola, underdeveloped characters, never a post game, ect.

I'm not looking forward to the switch because if they keep doing what they did with the 3Ds titles it's not only going to below people's expectations, with forced characters and a Faceroll of a plot, paying 60 dollars for that is not going to be acceptable anymore imo.

Game reviewers shouldn't keep giving bare bones reviews about the "story" and never going deep enough to actually give the games valid critism. Besides "too much water" which probably made them even more wary of ever giving the games a bad score.
 
The quality of the games are getting worse because our community isn't vocal enough about the recent flaws. Scrapped kalos, rushed alola, underdeveloped characters, never a post game, ect.

I'm not looking forward to the switch because if they keep doing what they did with the 3Ds titles it's not only going to below people's expectations, with forced characters and a Faceroll of a plot, paying 60 dollars for that is not going to be acceptable anymore imo.

Game reviewers shouldn't keep giving bare bones reviews about the "story" and never going deep enough to actually give the games valid critism. Besides "too much water" which probably made them even more wary of ever giving the games a bad score.
I remember they said that they want to accelerate the cycle of generations. If they really do, it's not looking really good for the future of Pokemon as both creative-wise and strategic-wise the game will be exploited way sooner than it can be, as well as ideas being half-baked instead of being well-thought before they roll out (I'm looking at you as well Kalos).
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Well, that's certainly an unpopular opinion, though I don't think in the way this board intended. Let's break it down.

The quality of the games are getting worse because our community isn't vocal enough about the recent flaws. Scrapped kalos, rushed alola, underdeveloped characters, never a post game, ect.
Now that's a loaded statement.

I wouldn't say the games are getting worse, but rather they're getting more casual. GF had evolved the game so that it's target audience, children, can play through the main game without getting too frustrated, giving up, and move onto the dozens upon dozens of other games that's available to them. And because they're not staying around after the main game, it probably feels like a waste of time to add in any major game content that adds more difficulty/complexity other than the Pokemon Tower expy. It's probably why XY, ORAS, SM, and USUM are providing a post game story episode or mission quests to keep the casual audience with the game a little while longer until all there is left is to do the Battle Tower expy and battle competitions which they aren't interested in.

Not being vocal enough? Hi, despite having posted over a hundred messages on these forums, let me be the first to welcome you to Smogon! Our hobbies include dictating competitive battling rules, complaining when the next Pokemon games news is coming out, and thinking we know better than the developers of the game! Oh, Pokemon fans are vocal about what we like and don't like, GF just doesn't care. And not because they're jerks or anything, it's just that they constantly want to do something new and focus on those new mechanics. They may also want to give each generation its own unique feeling, and that means having certain mechanics be left behind no matter how popular it was (also giving them something to go back to if they decide to do a remake/revisit). And to be fair, GF hasn't completely not listened, they're constantly adding in quality of life features making getting and raising your perfect team more and more easier... though it does feel like baby steps most of the time but steps in the right direction at least.

Lightning Round:
Scrapped Kalos:
20th Anniversary somehow snuck on them and they had a choice: release a third version which wouldn't sell that much and be limited to what XY had to offer OR release an entire new generation that will sell better, has updated graphics, new Pokemon and mechanics, and use it to celebrate the 20th Anniversary without being limited to what a previous game had.
Rushed Alola: This also probably meant development of the next games had to be cut short. Though Alola is at least getting a second pair of games to expand upon what it had... though with Nintendo rushing them to move onto the Switch there's still probably some rushing going on not just for USUM but also the Switch game.
Underdeveloped Characters: Any specifically? I find that many of the Alola characters had quite notable characteristics for what role they had in the game. Not everyone can get a story arc that spans through the entire game, some just need to make do with the time given to them and I felt most did a satisfactory job.

I'm not looking forward to the switch because if they keep doing what they did with the 3Ds titles it's not only going to below people's expectations, with forced characters and a Faceroll of a plot, paying 60 dollars for that is not going to be acceptable anymore imo.
Pokemon games are usually $45. Correct me if I'm wrong, but has there ever been a full price Pokemon title?

EDIT: I didn't know Nintendo games prices are based on console and not individual franchises. Though to justify a $60 all they'd need to do is provide high definition graphics (which modders have already done, hopefully GF will also put the budget toward giving each Pokemon more unique animations while idle in battle or in Pokemon Refresh).

Let's first see what they're even doing for the Switch game before decrying it. Yes, they're probably now in a rush to make it and development is in full throttle, but that doesn't necessarily mean it won't be a fulfilling experience. Though I would say after the initial paired Switch games would be when the quality of the games should start to wow us as they shouldn't have to rush any more. Be this for the second pair of Gen VIII or Sinnoh remakes.

Game reviewers shouldn't keep giving bare bones reviews about the "story" and never going deep enough to actually give the games valid critism. Besides "too much water" which probably made them even more wary of ever giving the games a bad score.
Game reviews are a hard thing as the reviewer has to give their opinion of the game, what they liked, what they didn't like, problems they had, and finally if they recommend it or not. In addition to that they have to keep away from spoilers and do this all within a word/text limit because people reading the review just want to know if the game is good or not.

I think who you want is a game critic, someone who specifically digs into a game, finds its faults, and point them all out with indepth analysis and maybe suggestions from them or the community. Now Smogon is pretty much an entire thread of Pokemon game critics, but our criticism mean little if GF ain't listening or listening only for what they're willing to change.
 
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Isn't it weird that absolutely no one has a problem with any of the gen 2 evolutions (Crobat, Porygon2, Steelix, Blissey, Umbreon etc.) But gen 4 ones get several complaints such as being overdesigned, adding shit on top of an already finished design and the like. I'm not sure I agree with it all, though Rhyperior is hideous.

Well, if you really look at them the designs really aren't that complex. All use a mostly 2-color palette (probably because they were made for a Gameboy Color game) and Porygon2 is arguably less complex than regular Porygon.

Only Crobat and Scizor are radically different then their pre-evolutions, but Scizor's design is pretty awesome and Crobat is an improvement over this:

Yeah it's hard not to like Crobat when you've got this skeleton in your closet.

...should I have included Hitmontop? It's technically a new evolution, but the pre-evo is also new.

Edit: Forgot Bellossom.
 
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Pokemon games are usually $45. Correct me if I'm wrong, but has there ever been a full price Pokemon title?
Small nitpick since I can't agree enough with the rest of the post, but what franchise the game is is completely irrelevant -- when it comes to pricing of Nintendo games, it's dependent on the console. In the UK, 3DS games are £40 while Switch games are £60. Similar equivalents will be found depending on your country and currency. So if a Pokémon game happens on the Switch, I find it highly unlikely it'd be the exception to normal Switch game pricing and be £40.
 

breh

強いだね
evidently an opinion so unpopular it made you write a whole long-ass post

on one hand, I appreciate the strides that gf has made in making the games playable competitively without RNG abuse. it is genuinely easy to get a pokemon you want with the right moves perfect IVs.

on the other hand the new games since (I'll say) after gen 5 lack any sort of heart. xy was boring (quick quiz - what was the name of the grass gym leader? name like literally any characteristic about him beyond his appearance / his pokemon), oras was empty compared to the immense number of little touches they put into hgss, s/m were kind of a step in the right direction but overly linear and so incredibly full of cutscenes. the story is kind of forced, lillie is dumb (holy fuck she crossed a bridge! with murkrow!!), gladion is literally a stock chuunibyou (this is the extent of his character development, he even does the stupid "hand over eye" thing), and hau never shows emotion besides lol malasadas man xD

that the game is slowly losing its basis as "pokemon" and turning into an anime (or maybe more fittingly a visual novel) is depressing and probably not going to stop anytime soon.

I'm not saying pokemon story is ever particularly good (see: purrloin purrloin purrloin) but usually the games themselves aren't also total pushovers. they could fix this in a couple ways (make the exp share give super nerfed exp until you upgrade it in postgame, give you a z-ring in postgame, etc.) but it seems like every recent game is really intent on giving you as many instant win buttons as possible. in practice these "instant win buttons" have always existed as x-items to a certain extent, I guess, but it is probably a lot easier to avoid x-items than it is to avoid mega evolutions (which are literally shoved onto you in xy) and z-moves.

another part of it is that the game still hasn't really caught up to infinite tms. almost every pokemon now has access to some sort of STAB and/or a strong move on their higher offense. opponent trainers, on the other hand, largely just use the last 4 default learned moves, attack with random ai, etc. you can say whatever you want about kids' low attention spans or whatever, but when was the last time you ever felt challenged by a pokemon game, even as a child playing your first one? the thing that makes me want to least return to a pokemon game is the boring-ass grind of getting through endless trainers with common trash (especially in evil teams) that's lower level and doesn't give anything near decent experience.

the route music hasn't exactly "declined", but it doesn't always feel creative any more. the battle themes still have their high points, but a lot of the routes / areas are "sense of grandeur orchestral music: 543" and tend to blend together. it's hard to place why, but a lot of the themes don't have a melody to them - stuff like the pokeball factory and aether paradise are rare exceptions.

that gamefreak cannot into game balance is a different problem
 
^ also my thoughts as well. It's funny, because some fans say BW2 was the best third versions yet. However the first half of the game it was just "get the damn cat back"

Also, in response to Pikachu: another issue is, as you mentioned, children being the target audience. Because of that the feedback they got from them has what made these games so casual in the first place. Not disagreeing with your points about GF not paying enough attention because of new features. I just feel like as a game, pokemon has more potential than sitting in a room collecting dust after the main story (and the delta episode and perhaps RR are great steps in that direction. But as you said baby steps)

To me higher graphics on console is great (now hd remaster gale of darkness pls) but it doesn't mean much if say because of ultra HD aura spheres characters only talk to you for 10 minutes, and they're supposed to be the main cast. (It's concerning when the anime has done a somewhat better job at character development and that is usually not written too well for obvious reasons) As you said, we don't know much to assume much. But it's important to keep the bar set as low as possible, because these games may be their greatest challenge yet after say gen 3. We'll see.

Game critics don't have nearly as much reputation as game reviews do however. Most scores you see by googling most pokemon game is in the high numbers, and maybe the reviewer will mention something like no post game. But it's only a slap on the wrist. Not saying 6-7 games were "bad" but not enjoyable in the sense of "20 years and we've only really come this far in storytelling and content " sort of thing.
 
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I don't know how people would feel about what I am going to express. Before I get to what I mean, I want to say that I hate event exclusive Pokemon and by now we have like seventeen with one of them being required to get Phione. and every Gen introduces 2+ more.
With Deoxys having broken the rule in ORaS that we can catch an event-exclusive in-game without an event trigger, was huge to me and it bothers me that this isn't done in SM.

IMO, GF should start turning some of those Pokemon to in-game catchable Pokemon similar to Deoxys from now on since I doubt they can keep coming with multiple of the same events every generation and people will miss out of some. I missed every arceus event so far for example.
 
I don't know how people would feel about what I am going to express. Before I get to what I mean, I want to say that I hate event exclusive Pokemon and by now we have like seventeen with one of them being required to get Phione. and every Gen introduces 2+ more.
With Deoxys having broken the rule in ORaS that we can catch an event-exclusive in-game without an event trigger, was huge to me and it bothers me that this isn't done in SM.

IMO, GF should start turning some of those Pokemon to in-game catchable Pokemon similar to Deoxys from now on since I doubt they can keep coming with multiple of the same events every generation and people will miss out of some. I missed every arceus event so far for example.

I just wish events actually unlocked things to discover in the games again. So boring to just download a wonder card.

Platinum/HGSS gave us designated areas & actual content for Pokémon like Shaymin, Darkrai, Arceus, & Celebi. Legendary Pokémon lose their mystery & intrigue when they don’t have a game-designed area.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
I don't know how people would feel about what I am going to express. Before I get to what I mean, I want to say that I hate event exclusive Pokemon and by now we have like seventeen with one of them being required to get Phione. and every Gen introduces 2+ more.
With Deoxys having broken the rule in ORaS that we can catch an event-exclusive in-game without an event trigger, was huge to me and it bothers me that this isn't done in SM.

IMO, GF should start turning some of those Pokemon to in-game catchable Pokemon similar to Deoxys from now on since I doubt they can keep coming with multiple of the same events every generation and people will miss out of some. I missed every arceus event so far for example.
I'm hoping USUM has one, is perfect for a Darkrai release (among others but let's not get too greedy)... though sadly I think if a Mythical was available for normal capture they would have advertised it. *Sigh*

But I do agree they should start making Mythicals available for normal capture, at least in the second edition games and remakes. Fun fact, I didn't get a Mew until XY, always missed the rare few events that gave it out until the very most recent one (in the US, hey GF when are you releasing that Mew you gave away for the 20th movie. I'm waiting).

ACTUALLY...
That's another problem with the Mythical Pokemon. Because in Japan they give them away like candy! Japan has plenty of giveaways which offer Mythicals every year. But if you're not living in Japan good luck getting any of those if they aren't the main giveaway for the recent movie! And I do not get it! Why aren't we getting all these events too? Is Pokemon Company Japan not allowing it for some reason, a bias toward their home market? Is it the International branches not caring? Also, is no country but Japan allowed to make Events? Just as Japan releases a Jirachu for every Tanabata Festival why can't the US have a Victini for every July Fourth? There's some people who seriously need a painful slap, a pink slip, or a hardy F*** YOU and than forced to allow whatever power they're using to prevent these other events and the ability to create events to the international branches (and put someone in charge of them that actually cares)!


Anyway, it would be a major missed opportunity for them not to pull a Delta Episode and do an "Alpha Episode" in the Sinnoh Remakes and offer Arceus up for in-game capture. Or heck, since Sinnoh has 4 Mythicals maybe they can release two. It would be one less Mythical giveaway they'd need to worry about. I'd probably make it Manaphy since I doubt they'll be releasing another Pokemon Ranger game and a post game set of missions/quests where you help the Pokemon Rangers doesn't sound like a bad idea (and give Looker a rest, why not show side games some love and put in a character from the Ranger games like Hastings, Murph, maybe some of the villains like the Go Rock Quad, Sinos Trio, and/or Pinchers admins).
 
I don't know how people would feel about what I am going to express. Before I get to what I mean, I want to say that I hate event exclusive Pokemon and by now we have like seventeen with one of them being required to get Phione. and every Gen introduces 2+ more.
With Deoxys having broken the rule in ORaS that we can catch an event-exclusive in-game without an event trigger, was huge to me and it bothers me that this isn't done in SM.

IMO, GF should start turning some of those Pokemon to in-game catchable Pokemon similar to Deoxys from now on since I doubt they can keep coming with multiple of the same events every generation and people will miss out of some. I missed every arceus event so far for example.
I've said this before and I'll say it again; but after a given event Pokémon's generation has passed, it stops being special and has no reason to remain event-exclusive. At the very least, a Pokémon should lose its event exclusivity 2 generations after its introduction. Especially important for Diancie.
 
Mythic and Box-Legend pokemon are pretty contentious to begin with, as outside of some select tournament rules on the Battlespot, you can't really do much with them. They aren't VGC legal, they can't be used on the Battle Tree or Maison, and nothing in-game ever challenges you if you're using most of those legendaries, it's just so worthless.

Sure there's the Uber Tier but that's on the simulators, not off the cartridge.

That's part of the reason I miss White Tree Hollow/Black Skyscraper, as it's the only facility to offer a challenge for those using Box-legends or mythic pokemon.

For that reason, I like that the amount of Box-legends and mythics is starting to taper off from the craziness of Gen 4 (and to a lesser extent 5) in favor of either less legendaries altogether or more "lesser-legends" like the bird trio or the ultra beasts. Because at least they're all street-legal.
 
Let's salute to some unpopular pokemon designs:

Dewgong, often called the most boring design in the game, which I don't entirely agree with. Despite being based on a manatee, Dewgong definitely has more seal and walrus in there with it's tusks, horn, and body shape. But at the same time there's this fish like ripple in the fins that give it a lace like quality.

You can see what I'm getting at best in the Gen3 sprites, that tissue ripple on the fins.

Unfortunately, Dewgong is another mon that didn't benefit from the switch to models as now you can barely tell there's a texture on the fins.
Real talk, ever since the RBY days I've always thought Dewgong was right up there with Articuno as the most beautiful thing ever ( and I still do )--sleek and its simplicity is easy on the eyes; just nice to look at. Besides, guys, it's got puppy eyes, how can you not like something with puppy eyes? Just go ahead and tell me you club baby seals too as you look them dead in the eyes with that stone-cold heart of yours.
 
Some critiques I have with common Pokemon critiques. I mostly agree with the core idea behind these critiques, but not necessarily the execution.
  • Pokemon should shift from a turn based battle system to an action oriented battle system
I like the general idea behind this, to make Pokemon a more interesting game by forcing the player to keep track of more things instead of just mashing A in some cases. I don't feel that changing the battle system is the best way to do this, however, since a huge portion of the competitive fanbase loves the turn-based battle system and the intricacies involved in it. The turned based battle system still has a lot of ways it can become more interesting (though whether it becomes equally cumbersome is something to consider). Things like the terrain more closely impacting the battle outside of just weather effects or Pokemon having access to more actions besides attack (like "jump" or "block") are some major changes that could make Pokemon games more interesting without changing the core battle system, but those are just my thoughts.
  • Pokemon games should become more challenging.
I agree with this idea. Even though I feel people overblow how easy the new games are compared to the old ones, it can't be denied that they are still much easier to complete than many other modern RPGs. I don't have a problem with the idea itself, but rather, the common solution everyone uses to "fix" this.

The most common solutions to increasing Pokemon difficulty is inflating the level curve. You see this all the time in most Pokemon ROM hacks and even all of the remakes made by Game Freak, with the exception of FRLG. In the best case scenario, this results in a slightly more difficult game, with that being the case of HGSS. In the worst case scenario, it results to the game coming to an absolute crawl as the player is forced to grind until they barely reach the level of the games boss by that point, before being forced to grind again as the cycle repeats itself. I feel ORAS alone shows that the level curve is not the culprit behind Pokemon games having low difficulty given that most people found the games to be easier than RSE (w/o using the exp share mind you) despite the level curve being much higher. Things like the AI's actions and Pokemon movesets all matter a lot more than the level curve in determining the difficulty of the game. Thankfully, most ROM hacks nowdays don't fall into this trap and have more balanced level curves, yet more difficult AI, so it isn't as much of an issue as it was in the past.
  • Pokemon should become an open world game like BOTW.
I see benefits to doing this, but at the same time, I honestly don't feel Pokemon really has enough content to justify something like this. I feel doing things like reintroducing those "fork in the road" scenarios present in Gen I or having another region to explore like Gen II is good enough honestly.
 

earl

(EVIOLITE COMPATIBLE)
is a Community Contributor
While I understand the sentiment of "the games have gotten easier and shallower", I personally believe it's not so much the games as it is us, the original players, getting older. The difficulty of the games have always been braindead easy (illiterate 6 year old me could beat Gold lol) and it's not like there's really been any significant character development in the games (Gary is always an asshat, Silver learns "oh maybe u should nice to mons, can't even remember May's character, Wally just gets stronger and more confident, what a twist!, Barry stays annoying, etc) and the stories have always been predictable and formulaic. The games have (in my opinion) mostly stayed the same in terms of difficulty and story quality since gen 1. Music is harder to judge due to nostalgia, could go either way. Post-game content has declined, but I can't say the "pinnacle" of post-game, HGSS's Kanto, was particular enjoyable. Levels are stagnant so the first gym is a slight challenge and everything after that is a joke.

This is all on the assumption that Exp Share is off

This doesn't apply to gen 6 those were shit imo
 
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The open world meme needs to die.

Been here since people criticized doom clones for having no history and they got renamed to FPS during the half life era, been there while people got mad at FPS being railroad missions that don't rely on mazes or arenas like Doom did and saw the critics, I was there when people ignored classic Prey as a maze shooter doom hybrid that wasn't railroady and saw people bitch about linearity as a bad thing.

Saw when people rightfully criticized hallway RPG with colour pallette changes and exponential hp increases as the difficulty toggles, I fucking saw when people started to compare games to this on the Sandbox argument.

I saw sandbox atrocities and fetch quest plague MMO and a decline in respect of both classic RPG and maze shooters.

It was only until recently that story driven titles with gameplay as their focus saw a resurgence after we slowly got rid of the sandbox meme.

We are close to repeating the cycle, sigh.

Linearity isn't bad, when linearity is ignored we end with atrocities like Johto, when linearity is pushed by people trying new toggles and scripts we get SM or the very slow start of BW.

You just fucking need to know how to use it, for all of this "sandbox" advocates I really, really need you to play Doom 2, Doom 2016, Prey classic, then play a fetch quest simulator, you will then understand the true concept of player freedom.

Throw in FF4 vs an FF 12+ and you will notice how slow the later game play feels, I recommend FF4 before FF6 as FF4 is more clunky and gives a less polished experience that can be used better to compare more RPGS.

You want grind and gameplay, just fetch any monster hunter as that's a golden standard for action elements with based RPG formulas, if you want a true RPG experience I recommend Baldur or NWN up to hordes of the underdark, the Aurora engine is still the best tool to self game design I have seen, you basically buy the aurora engine and play a campaign made on it, if you love games and what make games enjoyable especially on the RPG genre try NWN, you can make anything happen with the aurora engine.

Sorry for sounding like a fucking elitist, but I'm old enough to know that sandbox is a meme and the action driven RPG would be the end of main Pokémon hand-held games as we know them, they drive developers into a trap that is very hard to escape.
 
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I don't think Pokemon has been getting "easier". Most times, when I see people complain about how "easy" Pokemon games are, they fail to mention how they're using optional methods of making the game easier such as the Experience Share, Z-Moves, healing items, or other things.

Totem Pokemon are a step in the right direction when it comes to difficulty. SM, and so far in my current playthrough, USUM, have provided challenging difficulty when it comes to Totem bosses and required strategy to beat despite being a tad overleveled (using the EXP Share with a team of 10) because I'm not using healing items in battle.

Imagine former Gym Battles in the Totem style. It could be as simple as Cheren's Lillipup being backed by a Helping Hand Patrat or a Viola's Vivillon having the assistance of a Water Sport Surskit. It could also be as complex as Gardenia having Sunny Day Cherrim + Reflect Turtwig directly assist Roserade or Marlon using Rain Dance abusing, Surf using ally Pokemon to heal his Water Absorb Jellicent.

These are all aspects that are done or hinted at through current Totem bosses we have today and these strategies make boss fights harder. I really do think that Pokemon has increased the difficulty curve this generation and it drives me insane how I always see people talk about how Pokemon has gotten easier.
 
I don't think Pokemon has been getting "easier". Most times, when I see people complain about how "easy" Pokemon games are, they fail to mention how they're using optional methods of making the game easier such as the Experience Share, Z-Moves, healing items, or other things.
The Experience Share can be argued maybe, but Z-Moves and especially healing items are basic gameplay mechanics. Arguing not using them makes the game harder is like saying not using Materia and Limits makes FF7 harder.
 
That you can choose not to use things doesnt mean the games aren't easier regardless. You could choose not to use moves with a BP over 60 if you wanted. You could choose not to use anything in the games, but what's there is there. If more powerful stuff is available to you than before, etc., then the games are easier.

The biggest issue to me, and one that isn't optional, is that experience gained from defeating an opponent isn't divided among the participating 'mons anymore. Every switch means another member of your team gets 100% of the available experience.

I think the games are easier in some big ways. They're also harder in some ways. A lot of opponents are better designed, especially in the latest games. They also feel much easier because of a ton of "quality of life" improvements and things like items and money being much more plentiful and plentiful much earlier.
 
idk. i view stuff like healing items as instruments to aid a pokemon beyond their actual ability. Using 60BP > moves isnt really that. But I see where you're coming from.

I just think that if you tackle every boss like "Use SE Effective Pokemon until it faints, revive it with another Pokemon, ad infinitum" then it's harder to actually claim that the game is easier because you did that to yourself.

I just think that some of the totem bosses are harder than the likes of Red, Cynthia, or other renown "difficult" bosses. There's a lot more strategy that goes into it beyond just grinding to their levels.
 
Pokemon is fairly easy overall, but determining difficulty is (duh) difficult because of the large variety of Pokemon and moves you can field. You make the difficulty, starting with your team.

You can go to the specific In-Game Tiers thread and pick all S Tier Pokemon, then come back and say the game is laughably easy... or you can go with more random selections and say the game is challenging (my USUM team has 5 Pokemon that are weak to Ice and 4 that are weak to Fairy, for instance, but it's a coincidence due to which Pokemon I wanted to have) but in the end, it's your selections what make most of the difficulty (except for ORAS where you have to be trying to not overlevel the AI).

Something similar happened to me in Moon. With the Exp. Share almost always on (only off when trying to make levels even) the game was never particularly easy to me and I actually lost in my first Elite Four challenge (because of a team that was frail and particularly weak to Hala's team).
 
I nearly wiped at USUM SPOILER because the bastard got 2 USUM SPOILER crit on my Mudsdale and Tsareena also the rest of my team was weak to rock, I clutched the fight with a modest Kommo-o devastating drake.

Pokémon difficulty lies at team choices from a ridiculously high amount of choices vs exploration bonuses and tools given.

If anything Pokémon is one of the true RPG games that don't create fake difficulty in exponential hp gains, giving non playable tools to the AI and luck based missions.

That's a big boost to Pokémon playability in the RPG genre.

Mod edit: Be careful with USUM content outside its dedicated forum!
 
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