Unpopular opinions

I still somewhat wish they went a different direction with Pidgeot's mega though..

Making it go from a phisical attacker to a special one is already weird enough (well, at least you don't really get the Mega during ingame main story anyway), and Pidgeot itself doesn't really get many attacks to use No Guard either...
If they at least bothered to make him learn an extra attack or two, even phisical... :|
Ehh, its Physical Movepool is lackluster so I don't think making it physical would have helped. What Pidgeot needs is a special Normal Move. Come on GF, give Pidgeot Boomburst!!!!! Or at least Hyper Voice. And Focus Blast too!
 
Pidgey is best burd simply because one time that gave it an aviator cap and no other bird pokemon can fight that, except Murkrow/Honckrow with their false-hats.

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And if that's not good enough for you, here's pidgey in a mailman cap
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Pokemon is a lot like Team Fortress 2, superiority is established with hats.

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See here? This is a face that says "I own you."

For a more serious opinion, while the story of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time & Darkness is good for a pokemon game, that's still a pretty low bar. In fact, having pokemon get super existential about their existance and dealing with "the darkest timeline" makes the game seem unintentionally farcical, either because none of these serious subjects are given depth or because it's friggen Pokemon.

Although while the movie has yet to come out, the Detective Pikachu movie is really looking good despite the massive tone clash of gritty detective noir and pikachu. One could argue it's success is because it acknowledges and embraces this divide in a tongue-in-cheek way, but I come back to my theory on hats as displays of dominance. Pokemon with hats > Pokemon without hats.
 
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Even though Detective Pikachu will not release to the public until next Friday, it'll be one of those movies I will be willing to ignore the art style in favor of the story and humor. To those interested, I suggest looking forward to it.
 
For a more serious opinion, while the story of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time & Darkness is good for a pokemon game, that's still a pretty low bar. In fact, having pokemon get super existential about their existance and dealing with "the darkest timeline" makes the game seem unintentionally farcical, either because none of these serious subjects are given depth or because it's friggen Pokemon.
I'll take this farther and say that Pokemon as a franchise might not be able to do good stories period (I've not read the magna though, so I might be wrong). It might not be set up properly set up to do so and it'd be too late to fix that. When your franchise's "best regarded stories" (BW1, SM, PMD2, etc.) still fail at being decent stories when put up against stories across all time, you know you've something wrong. I don't think I care too much though. Story is hardly the only thing I care about with games, and Pokemon is hardly an exception. As long as it's not insufferably bad like XY's or PSMD's plot, I don't generally tend to care too much (that doesn't include gameplay being bad or meh, like XY or ORAS for the former and BW1 for the latter). Give me a hard mode hack, let me edit it to my whims, and let me and my monsters kick some butt. That tends to satisfy me with this franchise the most these days.
 
Well I wouldn't go that far. Besides future upcoming movies staring electric rodent gumshoes, there's a certain movie I'm rather fond of that had a very entertaining story:

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So I don't think the fanchise as a whole is incapable. Main series games themselves... I'm not so sure.
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
Ohohoho... Unpopular opinions! Time to get real!
I... Actually care ALOT for story in video games. It feels dull to fight people and stuff like that without story. It feels... Pointless. But! When you're fighting someone who has tormented the heck out of you throughout the whole game, or you're fighting them to save the world, it makes it more epic and satisfying.
ALSO! I find Staraptor pretty fucking overrated. All it is is a bird with a Mohawk! So what if it's great in battle? I hate Cresselia, and it's a great battler! At least Braviary gave off that American vibe and has epic Pokedex entries! And at least Toucannon is more than just a bird with a Mohawk, and is based off of a very interesting animal, has that beak, and those intimidating eyes!
Now, go on. React to me. Disagree or agree, speak it out. I'll be fine!
 
For a more serious opinion, while the story of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time & Darkness is good for a pokemon game, that's still a pretty low bar. In fact, having pokemon get super existential about their existance and dealing with "the darkest timeline" makes the game seem unintentionally farcical, either because none of these serious subjects are given depth or because it's friggen Pokemon.
Nah, the story is bad.
Time travel shenanigans are usually extremely difficult to write well, and Time & Darkness fell short. Grovyle is stupid, but the plot treats it as some super smart character. Grovyle wasted extremely valuable time and resources by seemingly disrupting the world and having you and your friends go after it by stealing Time Gears when it should've explained its motives, maybe not make itself clear to Dusknoir, but try to get cooperation from the guild???? Like conspire to lay a trap for Dusknoir? Dusknoir does end up tricking you and your friends, but Grovyle doesn't do anything to avert that image, like, if it knows the truth, surely it'll have a much more coherent explanation?

It also ended up having your partner, Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie be seriously unnecessarily hurt and also endanger the entire Wigglytuff Guild. You and your friends ultimately stop Grovyle and cause Dusknoir to take a foot, which is something easily prevented if Grovyle let its intentions clear and convincing, so Grovyle ends up endangering the world by being a moron.

And there's the part where the Wigglytuff Guild trusts some random smirking smooth-talking strangers over their own trusted members and then let their trusted members starve as punishment, a quite infamous part of the game. So after it's established that Chatot is an asshole, I didn't give a shit about its supposed tear-jerking scene when it took a blow from your team.

So, I didn't care that much about the ending either when Grovyle pushes Dusknoir into a portal and yammers on and on about whatever.

And then there's the time travel stuff, which is just contrived and crap and I have more questions about it, but they play it so painfully straight. I think I stopped caring about the story once I realized how "stopped" time is yet your own characters don't seem to be paralyzed for whatever reason.

Ohohoho... Unpopular opinions! Time to get real!
I... Actually care ALOT for story in video games. It feels dull to fight people and stuff like that without story. It feels... Pointless. But! When you're fighting someone who has tormented the heck out of you throughout the whole game, or you're fighting them to save the world, it makes it more epic and satisfying.
ALSO! I find Staraptor pretty fucking overrated. All it is is a bird with a Mohawk! So what if it's great in battle? I hate Cresselia, and it's a great battler! At least Braviary gave off that American vibe and has epic Pokedex entries! And at least Toucannon is more than just a bird with a Mohawk, and is based off of a very interesting animal, has that beak, and those intimidating eyes!
Now, go on. React to me. Disagree or agree, speak it out. I'll be fine!
I'm not saying there should be no story, but I think story should just be a vehicle to move gameplay along, so something very easily understood and you don't have to think much about the plot details and all.

As for Staraptor, I'm not sure why you'd egg on it for being "a bird with a Mohawk". You can get really reductive in any Pokemon you dislike, as I've seen that same complaint for Toucannon as "just a toucan" or Vanilluxe as "just ice cream" or Charizard "just an orange dragon" (and I hate Charizard lol).
 
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Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
So what if you don't like Charizard? Fine with me. But yeah Vanniluxe is pretty uncreative (come at me people, I refuse to lose) and... Well I have more interest in Toucannon than a bird with a Mohawk, it has stuff that makes it less lousy than a bird with hair.
 
So what if you don't like Charizard? Fine with me. But yeah Vanniluxe is pretty uncreative (come at me people, I refuse to lose) and... Well I have more interest in Toucannon than a bird with a Mohawk, it has stuff that makes it less lousy than a bird with hair.
... at least it's better than whatever's going on with Mega Pidgeot's crest...
 
1) I hate the oversaturation of new mythical/legendary Pokemon. They're not special or cool anymore
2) I hate that AG has been overrun with teams of all legendaries, particularly the unholy trio of P Groudon, P Kyogre and M Rayquaza (+ Arceus x3)
3) I generally dislike the use of Megas and Z moves because they seem... cheap. Also what is this...Digimon? I've seen a lot of players spam 2 and 3 but when their 'strategy' fails you realise they do dumb crap like use grass attacks on a fire type once they can no longer just mindlessly spam the same OP Pokemon.
4) Pokemon got too weird from B/W onwards. Extremely weird
5) I dislike most of the Pokemon based on inanimate objects but everybody loves Aegislash
 
2) I hate that AG has been overrun with teams of all legendaries, particularly the unholy trio of P Groudon, P Kyogre and M Rayquaza (+ Arceus x3)
I mean, if someone is trying to win, then why not use strong Pokemon?

I've seen a lot of players spam 2 and 3 but when their 'strategy' fails you realise they do dumb crap like use grass attacks on a fire type once they can no longer just mindlessly spam the same OP Pokemon.
That's not really the fault of mechanics, and more so your opponents being bad.
 

Ruft

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1) I hate the oversaturation of new mythical/legendary Pokemon. They're not special or cool anymore
2) I hate that AG has been overrun with teams of all legendaries, particularly the unholy trio of P Groudon, P Kyogre and M Rayquaza (+ Arceus x3)
3) I generally dislike the use of Megas and Z moves because they seem... cheap. Also what is this...Digimon? I've seen a lot of players spam 2 and 3 but when their 'strategy' fails you realise they do dumb crap like use grass attacks on a fire type once they can no longer just mindlessly spam the same OP Pokemon.
Based on this post I doubt you've played any competitive Pokémon outside of low ladder AG.
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
1) I hate the oversaturation of new mythical/legendary Pokemon. They're not special or cool anymore
2) I hate that AG has been overrun with teams of all legendaries, particularly the unholy trio of P Groudon, P Kyogre and M Rayquaza (+ Arceus x3)
3) I generally dislike the use of Megas and Z moves because they seem... cheap. Also what is this...Digimon? I've seen a lot of players spam 2 and 3 but when their 'strategy' fails you realise they do dumb crap like use grass attacks on a fire type once they can no longer just mindlessly spam the same OP Pokemon.
4) Pokemon got too weird from B/W onwards. Extremely weird
5) I dislike most of the Pokemon based on inanimate objects but everybody loves Aegislash
If you read what my characteristic is on my profile, you'll see why I disagree with 1-3.
Based on this post I doubt you've played any competitive Pokémon outside of low ladder AG.
Uhh dude, PU fits that realitively well too, no megas, not many viable Z move users, and no viable legendaries (except for Regirock.)
 
I mean, if someone is trying to win, then why not use strong Pokemon?
There's nothing wrong with using strong Pokemon, it's just when you start seeing 5 or 6 teams in a row using the same 3 to 6 strongest Pokemon over and over that there's a problem. Sure I'll use a legendary or two, throw in a few Ubers as well, maybe even a mythical Pokemon that has a bullcrap signature attack in order to have some kind of chance, but does the entire god damn team have to be bullcrappery? AG mean you can use all the things that other tiers don't allow, but do you have to use ALL of the things? Ubers is a bit too strict in that things like Baton Pass are banned (as annoying as I find it), OU is also strict in that Ubers are banned. I get the feeling that eventually people will stop using 'ordinary' Pokemon that don't have Megas altogether, unless they use a copy-pasted gimmick, strategy like F.E.A.R. All the variety and challenge will be gone. Then the game will really and truly have lost its heart and soul.

That's not really the fault of mechanics, and more so your opponents being bad.
True, but I do think the appeal of being able to spam Arceus' has facilitated making some people lazy and complacent.

Care to elaborate?
Primarily storyline-wise, though I find some mechanics that were introduced and new Pokemon bizarre as well, though I do like that there are increasingly more unusual type combinations which is great if you like using coverage to you advantage.

Based on this post I doubt you've played any competitive Pokémon outside of low ladder AG.
I have over the years though obviously I explicitly stated a gripe with AG; you're not psychic. It's lower tier AG that is more creative and as I've gone up the ladder the use of legis increases, because you just can't get ahead without them.
 
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MZ

And now for something completely different
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There's nothing wrong with using strong Pokemon, it's just when you start seeing 5 or 6 teams in a row using the same 3 to 6 strongest Pokemon over and over that there's a problem. Sure I'll use a legendary or two, throw in a few Ubers as well, maybe even a mythical Pokemon that has a bullcrap signature attack in order to have some kind of chance, but does the entire god damn team have to be bullcrappery? AG mean you can use all the things that other tiers don't allow, but do you have to use ALL of the things? Ubers is a bit too strict in that things like Baton Pass are banned (as annoying as I find it), OU is also strict in that Ubers are banned. I get the feeling that eventually people will stop using 'ordinary' Pokemon that don't have Megas altogether, unless they use a copy-pasted gimmick, strategy like F.E.A.R. All the variety and challenge will be gone. Then the game will really and truly have lost its heart and soul.



True, but I do think the appeal of being able to spam Arceus' has facilitated making some people lazy and complacent.
Here's an opinion that'll be unpopular to a decent few people like yourself. I hate how people get hate for playing how they want to in AG. The meta is one where you can bring pretty much anything so why would you ask to restrict its purpose? If people want to use all legendaries, go for it. That doesn't even mean their team is good lol. If you want to use a team that isn't competitively viable, okay. But don't attack people because playing competitively is fun for them. Similarly I won't hate on people who get off on one playstyle like stall or psyspam or BP because it's their prerogative. Look, while plenty of people want to use teams that are competitively unviable and keep cycling around low ladder as you seem to want more people to do, it's clearly not for everybody. I will always use these teams you call "bullcrappery" because I have fun using competitively viable teams and if I wanted to use mons that sucked in AG, as you've requested, I'd use them in a different meta where they aren't bad. This has zero correlation with "soul". AG was literally invented and designed to allow play like mine and why do you get to say it's not ok? So many people share your opinion and I've never come close to understanding why anyone would want to ruin AG by adding restrictions and hating on others.
 
I like the linearity in Pokemon Black and White. B/W had by far he most focused Pokemon gameplay experience of all the main games because of how linear it was. The games took advantage of the linearity by focusing on story and characters. And this story is set up brilliantly in the first hour of gameplay.

The intro of black and white in general is extremely focused. The game teaches you anything you need to know, but nothing more than that. It cuts out the bullshit, so there is enough time left to set up the two main story archs without throwing the pacing off. Bianca's arc is set up in the first 10 minutes, and 10 minutes later you will have seen Ghetsis' speech and you will have battled N. After these story archs are introduced, almost every major character interacts with either one of these stories in some way. You know, most gym leaders interact with team plasma, and Elesa resolves Bianca's daddy issues and completes her arch. I think this setup is the reason why the games are so linear. They had to be to tell an overarching story and still have a natural order of events. The pacing of B/W would be all of the place if it wasn't for the linearity.

And, imo, it worked. B/W does have a story that is more compelling than your average Pokemon story. You don't want to beat the gyms just to become the champion, you want to beat gyms to become stronger so you can beat these bastards over at team Plasma. This drives you to progress in the game, despite the linear gameplay.

However, that isn't to say that I think that linearity is necessarily good. Sun and Moon were also very linear, but those games didn't take advantage of it. The story about the aether foundation and the UB's is only introduced after like half of the game is already completed. So before that time, completing the kinda lame island challenge is the only real objective in the game. At the start of the game, there isn't even an elite four to look forward to either. Lillie is the only major character that gets some devolopment, but she alone is not nearly interesting enough to sustain the whole first half of the game. At least, not compared to the many different interactions you have with B/W characters like Lenora, Burgh and Elesa.

Basically, while I would say that the story in S/M is decent, it takes so long to get the ball rolling with nothing to distract you that the linearity in S/M really stands out negatively. Meanwhile, in B/W, there are so many different interesting characters to distract you from the fact that the gameplay is quite linear.
 

Codraroll

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Basically, while I would say that the story in S/M is decent, it takes so long to get the ball rolling with nothing to distract you that the linearity in S/M really stands out negatively. Meanwhile, in B/W, there are so many different interesting characters to distract you from the fact that the gameplay is quite linear.
It also doesn't help much that SM and USUM start with about an hour of the player mashing the A button before being allowed to go somewhere on their own. But they're not allowed to go far before they're either forced to turn around, or led into more A button mashing. The game only gets a semblance of opening up once you're done with Hau'oli City, but you're not going to get far before it's more A button mashing time. Gen V does have its long conversations too, but nowhere near the endless cutscenes of the start of the Gen VII games.

The second problem I have with Gen VII's linearity over Gen V's is that while Gen V has its roadblocks, they're usually resolved a little further back than the roadblock itself. It is usually possible to have the roadblock solved before you encounter it. But Gen VII's linearity is always of the type "GO TO THE FLAG!" and if you try something else: "OH NO YOU DIDN'T GO TO THE FLAG, WE FADE TO BLACK, YOU ARE NOW TELEPORTED TO FACE THE FLAG AGAIN!" The game is extremely blatant about where it wants you to go at all times, leaving very little freedom to explore.

These two things combined are some of the main reasons why I think Gen VII is the worst generation in Pokémon by a long shot. They make the games extremely tedious to play. There is never anywhere to go but straight forward, and the (only) way forward is full of unskippable cutscenes explaining the basic ideas of Pokémon in minute detail. Pokémon games have sky-high replay value in principle, since there are so many different 'mons and different ways to use them. But Gen VII goes out of its way to guide you, as if you've never touched a Pokémon game before and constantly keep forgetting what is going on. Combined with the bit about telling you which of your moves is super effective, I can see why some people say the Pokémon games literally play themselves these days.

I just bought Ultra Moon since I wanted to try the story again with different Pokémon, but getting started is a massive pain in the rear. It takes ages to get to the point where it feels like you're on the road with your team. And you still don't get away from that endless "go to the flag" feeling. The game feels restrictive and sluggish in its linearity, to a degree the other games don't.
 
It also doesn't help much that SM and USUM start with about an hour of the player mashing the A button before being allowed to go somewhere on their own. But they're not allowed to go far before they're either forced to turn around, or led into more A button mashing. The game only gets a semblance of opening up once you're done with Hau'oli City, but you're not going to get far before it's more A button mashing time. Gen V does have its long conversations too, but nowhere near the endless cutscenes of the start of the Gen VII games.

The second problem I have with Gen VII's linearity over Gen V's is that while Gen V has its roadblocks, they're usually resolved a little further back than the roadblock itself. It is usually possible to have the roadblock solved before you encounter it. But Gen VII's linearity is always of the type "GO TO THE FLAG!" and if you try something else: "OH NO YOU DIDN'T GO TO THE FLAG, WE FADE TO BLACK, YOU ARE NOW TELEPORTED TO FACE THE FLAG AGAIN!" The game is extremely blatant about where it wants you to go at all times, leaving very little freedom to explore.

These two things combined are some of the main reasons why I think Gen VII is the worst generation in Pokémon by a long shot. They make the games extremely tedious to play. There is never anywhere to go but straight forward, and the (only) way forward is full of unskippable cutscenes explaining the basic ideas of Pokémon in minute detail. Pokémon games have sky-high replay value in principle, since there are so many different 'mons and different ways to use them. But Gen VII goes out of its way to guide you, as if you've never touched a Pokémon game before and constantly keep forgetting what is going on. Combined with the bit about telling you which of your moves is super effective, I can see why some people say the Pokémon games literally play themselves these days.

I just bought Ultra Moon since I wanted to try the story again with different Pokémon, but getting started is a massive pain in the rear. It takes ages to get to the point where it feels like you're on the road with your team. And you still don't get away from that endless "go to the flag" feeling. The game feels restrictive and sluggish in its linearity, to a degree the other games don't.
Just you wait until Sword and Shield. We'll probably come running back to S/M apologizing for ever calling it "tedious" or "hand-holdy" as the new games take these to the proverbial "11"... Game Freak seems to believe anyone picking up their games A) has never even touched a video game in their life much less Pokemon, and B) has next to no attention span and thus needs to be constantly guided what to do next...
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
Heh. I always hate linearity (unless it's done in one of the best ways possible). Thing is, thanks to the infamous genwunners, I would say "Gen 1 is the worst gen ever!" But, a major thing that saves me from saying such is the fact it's super non-linear. Seriously! You can beat Sabrina before Koga, Giovanni before Blaine, all the previously mentioned gym leaders can be fought before Erika and Surge. Basically, once you get your tail end off of the St.Anne, you are more free than nearly anything (up until victory road anyways). Because of the diversity, It's hard not to be amazed. Now don't get me wrong, it's not the only reason why I'm not like "Gen 1 stinks, blah blah fucking blah!", but it's one of the biggest reasons of all. However! There is one acception (although this isn't Pokemon I'm about to talk about, it's still a great example). So in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, you can just go to the area to the right of the entrance to Hoohoo university, but there is something plain outrageous. You see, you would be level 13 - 15 your first time in the area of the HooHoo university entrance area, but you can go to that area instead of Hoohoo University. But! There is something that totally ruins that non linearity. You see, the enemies are level 23, 24, and 26 respectively. Because of that, it takes 10 turns to win a battle, and two hits, and you are dead meat. That is almost the only way to make me hate it, by making that non linear option plain frustrating.
 
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The trope you're talking about is called a "beef gate" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeefGate), a developer enforced quasi-linearity where you have the freedom to go down multiple paths but without the experience or skills certain paths are blocked by monsters too strong to overcome. And since tropes are tools and not inherently bad or good, some people prefer beef gates because getting slaughtered in a fight feels like I'm the one at fault here for attacking something too strong to face rather than the developer putting, oh a troupe of dancing men to block my path even though I've got a level 100 Mewtwo in my party.

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Who are you to tell me I can't go here, YOU'RE NOT MY DAD!

Some beef gates I like are essentially "challenge roads" or alternative experiences for players with a better grasp of the game concepts than a new player, giving the game some replayability for those that like a challenge. An example is Fallout New Vegas, where there's two paths to the titular city: a big long U-turn through several towns to teach you the ropes and skills, or a short path infested by giant killer tarantula hawk wasps.

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While the bee path is murder for a new player, people familiar with the games survival, radar, and stealth systems can use skill and luck to dodge all the bees and get to New Vegas (with maybe some save scumming). So the Beef Gate can be overcome at level 1, it just takes a lot of skill.

Granted, I always take the long U-turn since the best characters are there.
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But like your Mario & Luigi experience, sometimes Beef Gates are just unfair and frustrating. I find Final Fantasy II unplayable without a guide because there is only one correct path but no navigation help in-game, so one step out of line and the enemies use your bones as a toothpick.

We talk a lot about is linear better than non-linear but really it's just two different avenues to create an experience and neither one is actually better than the other. Linear games can be more directed and crafted at the expense of freedom, while non-linear games provide freedom and choice but take a lot of work and time to make all those choices meaningful. I guess I'd compare Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (non-linear) to Okami (linear), both being dungeon crawling action-adventure games but dungeons in that Zelda have puzzles centered around just one item while Okami starts with simple puzzles that grow in complexity as you gain tools for your toolkit They're both good, but they deliver different experiences.

But as Kanto demonstrated, you can compromise between the two, giving points of linearity and non-linearity. I like to call this objective based gameplay, where you're given a list of tasks but not an order to complete them in and when you finish them all the game progress further a bit.

Others will still cry foul though, as while Kanto's non-linearity is celebrated a lot of people hate it in the Johto games, due to how it messes up the experience curve. After Goldenrod you've got two paths but the trainer levels sit around 24-ish before jumping up to 35 right before the Radio Tower mission, while my poor pokemon can fight every trainer and still be at level 30. And that's hardly the only instance of this, as when you return to Kanto you've got complete freedom but also a huge level spike and few trainers to grind with.

Personally HG/SS is still my favorite in the series, but I acknowledge it's got level-up issues.
 
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Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
The trope you're talking about is called a "beef gate" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeefGate), a developer enforced quasi-linearity where you have the freedom to go down multiple paths but without the experience or skills certain paths are blocked by monsters too strong to overcome. And since tropes are tools and not inherently bad or good, some people prefer beef gates because getting slaughtered in a fight feels like I'm the one at fault here for attacking something too strong to face rather than the developer putting, oh a troupe of dancing men to block my path even though I've got a level 100 Mewtwo in my party.

View attachment 173979
Who are you to tell me I can't go here, YOU'RE NOT MY DAD!

Some beef gates I like are essentially "challenge roads" or alternative experiences for players with a better grasp of the game concepts than a new player, giving the game some replayability for those that like a challenge. An example is Fallout New Vegas, where there's two paths to the titular city: a big long U-turn through several towns to teach you the ropes and skills, or a short path infested by giant killer tarantula hawk wasps.



While the bee path is murder for a new player, people familiar with the games survival, radar, and stealth systems can use skill and luck to dodge all the bees and get to New Vegas (with maybe some save scumming). So the Beef Gate can be overcome at level 1, it just takes a lot of skill.

Granted, I always take the long U-turn since the best characters are there.


But like your Mario & Luigi experience, sometimes Beef Gates are just unfair and frustrating. I find Final Fantasy II unplayable without a guide because there is only one correct path but no navigation help in-game, so one step out of line and the enemies use your bones as a toothpick.

We talk a lot about is linear better than non-linear but really it's just two different avenues to create an experience and neither one is actually better than the other. Linear games can be more directed and crafted at the expense of freedom, while non-linear games provide freedom and choice but take a lot of work and time to make all those choices meaningful. I guess I'd compare Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (non-linear) to Okami (linear), both being dungeon crawling action-adventure games but dungeons in that Zelda have puzzles centered around just one item while Okami starts with simple puzzles that grow in complexity as you gain tools for your toolkit They're both good, but they deliver different experiences.

But as Kanto demonstrated, you can compromise between the two, giving points of linearity and non-linearity. I like to call this objective based gameplay, where you're given a list of tasks but not an order to complete them in and when you finish them all the game progress further a bit.

Others will still cry foul though, as while Kanto's non-linearity is celebrated a lot of people hate it in the Johto games, due to how it messes up the experience curve. After Goldenrod you've got two paths but the trainer levels sit around 24-ish before jumping up to 35 right before the Radio Tower mission, while my poor pokemon can fight every trainer and still be at level 30. And that's hardly the only instance of this, as when you return to Kanto you've got complete freedom but also a huge level spike and few trainers to grind with.

Personally HG/SS is still my favorite in the series, but I acknowledge it's got level-up issues.
Alrighty, time to do some explaining. You see, the title of this thread is called "unpopular opinions" as such, a ton of people are bound to disagree with me. As such, it's normal for me to admit that I love how non linear gen 1 is (from after the S.S Anne to Victory Road) and more. As for the stupidly over leveled enemies, I think that if that's how the developers want to play it, I think that was totally uncool, because there is a harder to break rock before the desert, and a big koopa blocking Yoshi theater, and which by the way, getting past those doesn't happen until victory against Mom Piranha and Gwarhar Lagoon respectively, both of which are after Hoohoo University. I think Beef walls are best for when there is no obstacle to block you from the next area, and so a boss too strong to beat until later on prevents you from going further (heck, even have a time limit like with X bosses in dream team to really ensure it) and stuff. And you aren't dragged into the boss battle so you don't just get a game over just like that.
 

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