Unpopular opinions

Kurona said:
The example that always stood out to me was Aggron. In general these Pokémon that are supposed to huge, monstrous kaiju-esque things like Gyarados, Tyranitar, Aggron etc tend to have a lot of special elemental attacks.
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And then there's Mawile, who's not huge nor really kaiju-esque and has a movepool the size of an actual kaiju.
It happened quite a bit with some Gen III mons for some reason, probably because it was before the physical/special split as well. They were a bit more focused starting with Gen IV.
 
TMan87 said:
And then there's Mawile, who's not huge nor really kaiju-esque and has a movepool the size of an actual kaiju.
It happened quite a bit with some Gen III mons for some reason, probably because it was before the physical/special split as well. They were a bit more focused starting with Gen IV.
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Ehhhh honestly, lot of pre gen 4 mons (and in fact, expecially gen 1 ones) have weird, out of place, gigantic TM learnsets.

I honestly don't try to find any real reasoning to them, I just bill them as "GF didn't really know what they wanted to do with movepools at the time, figured that if it has a mouth it can breath fire"

Movepools haven't really started to be "making sense" until the phisical/special split when all elements started to get more options (see, flamethrower vs fire punch, or waterfall vs hydropump) and tutors appeared to add to the TM list.
 
Worldie said:
Ehhhh honestly, lot of pre gen 4 mons (and in fact, expecially gen 1 ones) have weird, out of place, gigantic TM learnsets.

I honestly don't try to find any real reasoning to them, I just bill them as "GF didn't really know what they wanted to do with movepools at the time, figured that if it has a mouth it can breath fire"

Movepools haven't really started to be "making sense" until the phisical/special split when all elements started to get more options (see, flamethrower vs fire punch, or waterfall vs hydropump) and tutors appeared to add to the TM list.
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Agreed. This is why despite Sinnoh being terribly designed, I can't find myself to hate it since it introduces the Physical / Special split and expands on the move pool of many Pokemon.
 
They also gave Earthquake to every single fully-evolved starter until Gen 5, where they started being more selective with it. I'll admit I actually miss that; it felt just 'right' that they all got access to this powerful move as a status thing of them being fully-evolved starters, but I can certainly see why it wouldn't make sense for Greninja or Serperior to be able to use it. Then again, it's difficult to see Sceptile being any better equipped to use it...
 
Kurona said:
They also gave Earthquake to every single fully-evolved starter until Gen 5, where they started being more selective with it. I'll admit I actually miss that; it felt just 'right' that they all got access to this powerful move as a status thing of them being fully-evolved starters, but I can certainly see why it wouldn't make sense for Greninja or Serperior to be able to use it. Then again, it's difficult to see Sceptile being any better equipped to use it...
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Whether an intentional paring of certain conventions or not, Gen 5 was kinda notable for how distribution of Earthquake, and Ice moves to Water types, was generally reduced among the Unovan Pokémon (something I thought was kinda nice). You bring up Serperior not learning Earthquake, but Ekans has been able to learn it since Gen 1, as well as Fissure. Other odd learners of Earthquake from the Gen 1 days are Poliwhirl and Chansey. If something new to Gen 5 learns Earthquake, it either has a type affinity for it (being Ground or Rock type) or has the strength or mass to cause tremors of that level. Heck, even Ferrothorn doesn't get it, being saddled with the inferior Bulldoze.

As far as Ice moves go, I can't think of an instance outside of Gen 5 where moves like Ice Beam weren't just given to basically all Water Pokémon, with exceptions for clearly restricted learnsets (Magikarp) or a blatant type incompatibility (Volcanion). They also added Frost Breath, a cool move that was only learned by Ice Pokémon. Both decisions have been reversed by this point, with Water Pokémon being given Ice Beam willy-nilly again and Frost Breath being distributed to non Ice types.
 
CPU said:
As far as Ice moves go, I can't think of an instance outside of Gen 5 where moves like Ice Beam weren't just given to basically all Water Pokémon, with exceptions for clearly restricted learnsets (Magikarp) or a blatant type incompatibility (Volcanion). They also added Frost Breath, a cool move that was only learned by Ice Pokémon. Both decisions have been reversed by this point, with Water Pokémon being given Ice Beam willy-nilly again and Frost Breath being distributed to non Ice types.
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I'm not so sure about that. Here's the results of /nds water, !ice beam

magikarp.png
Magikarp (limited movepool)
rotom-wash.png
Rotom-Wash (water-type by technicality)
tympole.png
Tympole
palpitoad.png
Palpitoad
seismitoad.png
Seismitoad
keldeo.png
Keldeo
skrelp.png
Skrelp
volcanion.png
Volcanion (part fire)
wimpod.png
Wimpod (sort of limited movepool?)
pyukumuku.png
Pyukumuku (limited movepool)
sobble.png
Sobble
drizzile.png
Drizzile
chewtle.png
Chewtle
arrokuda.png
Arrokuda
barraskewda.png
Barraskewda
dracovish.png
Dracovish

What makes it even more confusing is that besides the four understandable ones and Wimpod, all of these Pokemon learn at least one Ice-type attack, be it Ice Punch, Icy Wind, Ice Fang, or Ice Shard.

Things get much more confusing when you look at Ice-types that can't learn Ice Beam. There are exactly four:

sandshrew-alola.png
Sandshrew-Alola
sandslash-alola.png
Sandslash-Alola
rotom-frost.png
Rotom-Frost
snom.png
Snom

Snom and Rotom make sense, as the former has a limited movepool, while the latter is only Ice-type by technicality. But why the hell doesn't the Alolan Sandshrew line learn Ice Beam?
 
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DrPumpkinz said:
I'm not so sure about that. Here's the results of /nds water, !ice beam

magikarp.png
Magikarp (limited movepool)
rotom-wash.png
Rotom-Wash (water-type by technicality)
tympole.png
Tympole
palpitoad.png
Palpitoad
seismitoad.png
Seismitoad
keldeo.png
Keldeo
skrelp.png
Skrelp
volcanion.png
Volcanion (part fire)
wimpod.png
Wimpod (sort of limited movepool?)
pyukumuku.png
Pyukumuku (limited movepool)
sobble.png
Sobble
drizzile.png
Drizzile
chewtle.png
Chewtle
arrokuda.png
Arrokuda
barraskewda.png
Barraskewda
dracovish.png
Dracovish

What makes it even more confusing is that besides the four understandable ones and Wimpod, all of these Pokemon learn at least one Ice-type attack, be it Ice Punch, Icy Wind, Ice Fang, or Ice Shard.

Things get much more confusing when you look at Ice-types that can't learn Ice Beam. There are exactly four:

sandshrew-alola.png
Sandshrew-Alola
sandslash-alola.png
Sandslash-Alola
rotom-frost.png
Rotom-Frost
snom.png
Snom

Snom and Rotom make sense, as the former has a limited movepool, while the latter is only Ice-type by technicality. But why the hell doesn't the Alolan Sandshrew line learn Ice Beam?
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Huh, I haven't been keeping up with newer learnsets as much it seems. I was thinking the Skrelp line might not learn it (I like that they still learn Hail, though). Keldeo and the Tympole line were the main ones I had in mind when mentioning the Gen 5 omissions.

Really don't know why Sobble and Drizzile don't learn Ice Beam, that one's baffling.
 
I hate Sirfetch'd. Way worse design that the scrapped beta evolution from Gen II, and (ignoring the sword and shield gimmick it has going on) it doesn't even look that different from regular Farfetch'd, aside from the body color and eyes. The thing I hate the most, though, is how fucked over regular Farfetch'd got. Not only can he STILL not evolve, now any chance of him getting an evolution at all is pretty much zero.

On that note, I also despise the fake new cross-gen evolution system from this Gen. Corsola is screwed as well because of it; they should just have the balls to make them actual new evolutions, or create regular counterparts, or something. I don't care if it doesn't make sense. The way it is now completely invalidates the entire purpose of making cross-gen evolutions at all (imo, it's making weak/bad irrelevant mons stronger and giving them a new, improved design).

These are wordy, so here's my last REALLY unpopular one. I hate how Eevee just evolves with the Ice and Leaf Stones now. No explanation given. Even a half-assed "the stones are gaining power" or some other bullshit would've satisfied me. It may be way less annoying, but it's one of the most glaring inconsistencies I've ever seen in a video game. I would rather have to go look up on Bulbapedia where the Moss and Ice Rocks are and make the 10-minute detour to get there like all the other games than just click the button in the menu because it just makes no sense.
 
Jamis361 said:
These are wordy, so here's my last REALLY unpopular one. I hate how Eevee just evolves with the Ice and Leaf Stones now. No explanation given. Even a half-assed "the stones are gaining power" or some other bullshit would've satisfied me. It may be way less annoying, but it's one of the most glaring inconsistencies I've ever seen in a video game. I would rather have to go look up on Bulbapedia where the Moss and Ice Rocks are and make the 10-minute detour to get there like all the other games than just click the button in the menu because it just makes no sense.
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For the same reason for which apparently noone in Kanto ever got friendly enough with a Eevee, Chansey or Golbat to make them evolve.

"reasons"

(They're not the only ones with similar changes btw, the pokemon that evolved previously with magnetic field like Vikavolt now evolve via Electric Stone)

I do understand the annoyance tbh, but in the long run, not needing to constantly invent a position for stones + magnetic field + cold mountains + whatever else they come up with is better. Plus finally allows to obtain those pokemon before late/postgame and use them in the story if one pleases.
(Why hello there Runegrigius...)
 
Worldie said:
For the same reason for which apparently noone in Kanto ever got friendly enough with a Eevee, Chansey or Golbat to make them evolve.

"reasons"

(They're not the only ones with similar changes btw, the pokemon that evolved previously with magnetic field like Vikavolt now evolve via Electric Stone)

I do understand the annoyance tbh, but in the long run, not needing to constantly invent a position for stones + magnetic field + cold mountains + whatever else they come up with is better. Plus finally allows to obtain those pokemon before late/postgame and use them in the story if one pleases.
(Why hello there Runegrigius...)
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I agree. The cold mountains / touching a rock in forest issue causes Glaceon and Leafeon makes them totally not viable (or not obtainable in HGSS) in games previously.
 
Worldie said:
For the same reason for which apparently noone in Kanto ever got friendly enough with a Eevee, Chansey or Golbat to make them evolve.

"reasons"

(They're not the only ones with similar changes btw, the pokemon that evolved previously with magnetic field like Vikavolt now evolve via Electric Stone)

I do understand the annoyance tbh, but in the long run, not needing to constantly invent a position for stones + magnetic field + cold mountains + whatever else they come up with is better. Plus finally allows to obtain those pokemon before late/postgame and use them in the story if one pleases.
(Why hello there Runegrigius...)
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Assuming of course the needed evolution items are made available before late/post-game. I find it extremely unlikely that Ice Stones in particular will ever be anything but late/post-game even if Eevee were ever to be made available from Route 1.

Still, I'd feel worse about taking out the Icy and Moss Rocks if they were ever used by more than just Eeevee.
 
I wonder what will they do with Nosepass when it comes back, since there is no corresponding stone and it looks like they want to remove the magnetic field.
 
Jamis361 said:
(Also Charjabug evolving by magnetic field for exactly one generation shows me how much of a lack of foresight they had)
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I think it's the opposite: both the changes in USUM (magnetic field & cold area moved way earlier in the game compared to SM) and this makes me think that once they finished SM they realized how much of a strain it puts to have to keep introducing those areas, and decided to back off the mechanic.
 
location evolutions are up there with trade evolutions for the worst options that a pokemon could evolve with. theyre annoying to go thru, can limit region design (especially if the region doesnt have a good replacement) and barely bring any new lore to compensate (what's the difference of receiving electric energy from a magnectic field and a thunderstone? the stones are just concentrated power that imitates real life conditions for some evolutions to be more practical for trainers, making location evolutions just goes agaisnt that. at least the ice stone didnt exist when glaceon was made)
 
Lemingue said:
location evolutions are up there with trade evolutions for the worst options that a pokemon could evolve with. theyre annoying to go thru, can limit region design (especially if the region doesnt have a good replacement) and barely bring any new lore to compensate (what's the difference of receiving electric energy from a magnectic field and a thunderstone? the stones are just concentrated power that imitates real life conditions for some evolutions to be more practical for trainers, making location evolutions just goes agaisnt that. at least the ice stone didnt exist when glaceon was made)
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I think the magnetic field adds new lore. If you look at the Pokémon affected by it: Probopass is a compass, Magnezone is naturally fuelled with magnetic energy, and Vikavolt gains the ability Levitate (almost like having an automatic Magnet Rise effect). There are clear uniquely magnetic features of all Pokémon that aren't replicated by a Thunder Stone's concentrated electrical energy alone.

However with that said, other location evolutions are less convincing. Perhaps Crabrawler makes sense as it's such a departure to go from a coconut crab (tropical) to a "Yeti Crab" which is a mythologisation of a certain type of crab that lives in cold seeps on the ocean floor (crabs can't survive in mountainous environments significantly, to my knowledge). It makes the Yeti allusion clearer and, besides Eevee, Pokémon who evolve with an elemental stone are the type of the stone in their base form and evolution as opposed to just one of them, so a location based evolution is possibly valid for lore-building reasons here too.

Leafeon and Glaceon, however, have no real excuse. There's no difference lore-wise between their Ice- or Grass-Type energy and the original 3 eeveelutions' Fire-, Water and Electric-Type energy. It's strange seeing a mossy and icy rock artificially slotted into every game (the icy rock in Unova was bizarrely handled) and overall it's unconvincing. Yamask-Galar I also haven't seen the reasoning for its evolution yet, but it's so specific that I'm sure there are good lore justifications for it.

Overall I think the idea is cool and would seem more natural if it were more widely done. In particular, I think it would be cool if trade evolutions such as Kadabra, Graveller and Karrablast were put in Victory Road, the Pokémon League or perhaps a post-game area. It still incentivises trading because you can get the evolutions earlier on, but it doesn't bar people from evolving certain Pokémon if they don't have someone to trade with reliably.
 
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