I wanted to make a post here to summarize all of my unpopular opinions about HG/SS. These games are almost universally praised and they don't get anywhere near enough of the criticism they deserve, so I'm going to give them some of it. I have posted most of these unpopular opinions in various posts earlier in this thread, but there are also some new ones that I have never posted here before. I have been thinking about making a post like this for a while, but I had originally decided to not make it since it felt pointless. So why am I doing it now? Because of a discussion I had with
Yung Dramps a while ago. He encouraged me and convinced me to do this, so I want to give my thanks to him for that.
To start with, I disliked the following Pokémon feature in HG/SS. It was horribly executed, added nothing to the gameplay, slowed down the games and couldn't be turned off. It made my Pokémon feel more like slaves than friends or companions. There was nothing I liked about it. I have written a somewhat longer post regarding my thoughts about it
here, decided to link to it instead of copypasting it into this post. Though there is one thing I should expand on that I didn't mention in that post. One more reason as for why I really dislike how the following Pokémon is constantly moving is that it seems to steal my attention and makes it hard for me to focus on other things in the game when my player character is standing still. On the whole, the following Pokémon is one of my least favorite features in the series, it was my very least favorite feature before Gen 7. I'm very happy that it has not been featured in any other main series except LGP/E (which I didn't play, though it seems to have been way better executed there from what I have understood). I hope this feature never returns in any proper Pokémon game in the future.
I'm not sure if this is unpopular, but it is at least an opinion I don't think I have seen posted anywhere in this thread before. I thought the trainer rematch system in HG/SS was really bad. It is actually my biggest issue with HG/SS, I consider it to be a bigger problem than the level curve, the Pokémon distribution or anything else in these games. So perhaps that's another unpopular opinion? The bad rematch system was also the reason as for why it took me five years before I finally got around to completing the Pokédex in HG/SS. I have often talked about it here on the forums before, I prefer to label it "the lack of training spots", though I suppose that is a bit incorrect since training spots do exist in the games, they are just very poorly executed. This is something I don't think the games get enough criticism for. I occasionally see people complain about having problems training in games with great training spots, yet everyone is apparently okay with this awful system in HG/SS? Personally, I couldn't stand it. First you had to receive the numbers from trainers, then you had to call them on specific times in order to get a rematch (and you can't be on the same route as the trainer in question when you call them since it won't work unless you are on a different route) and only after having gone through all that you can walk up to the trainer and talk to them in order to start a battle. I thought it was way too unnecessarily overcomplicated compared to the simpler means of training spots and trainer rematches that exist in other modern games. The Gym Leader rematches suffered from the same issue since they were also tied to this awful system with an added complication as you first had to find the Gym Leader at a specific time and place in order to get their number. I think this is one of the worst rematch systems in the series, I prefer the better systems in the better games, like the PokéNav and Secret Bases in the Hoenn games, the VS. Seeker in FR/LG and D/P/P, the Nimbasa Stadiums and Black Tower/White Treehollow in the Unova games, and the Battle Chateau in X/Y.
I thought the touch screen controls and menus in HG/SS were poorly done and not really worthy of any praise. They were very badly executed. I got enthusiastic at first since I thought it could be great like in other DS games I had played which made great use of the touch screen, but once I tried them in HG/SS, I found them to be really poorly done. They were slow and chunky, they slowed down everything regarding menus and selections. They were also very forced, it was hard to use the menus with the buttons like in other Pokémon games. The way the box system worked in HG/SS was really terrible as well, it did not utilize the touch screen controls well at all. I think the box system in HG/SS is the most inconvenient one in the series since the introduction of the new box system in R/S, the way it worked in HG/SS was beyond awful. I'm glad the Gen 5/6/7 games improved upon the touch screen controls for the menus and the boxes because it became really great in the end, it just had a very rough start.
I have never cared much for Silver as a rival or a character. I think his "character development" is massively overhyped. It is too little, too late, and way too much of it happens off-screen, notably some very interesting things that it would have been great if they actually showed the player, such as Silver trying to return his starter Pokémon to Professor Elm. I never really felt that Silver changed at any point during the game, I thought he was still too much of a jerk even during the post-game. I think he is a considerably less interesting rival than a majority of the other rivals, many who which have actual growth throughout their games. Silver is my second least favorite rival in the series, beaten only by Blue who I think is worse since he is literally just a jerk with no character development at all. I am also not a fan of jerk rivals in general if that wasn't obvious already, I prefer friendly rivals. Bede is the closest the series has gotten to a good jerk rival, but I think he could have been handled better too.
Not sure if this is unpopular, but I think the Johto games weren't all that great in terms of being sequels. While they did make Kanto different in many ways, it was not always for the better. To me, they never really felt like true sequels in the same way that B2/W2 did. I also don't like how they included Red in the games as an NPC. It just feels wrong because he is not really an NPC, he is supposed to be you - the player from the Kanto games. This might have worked if they have had some sort of Memory Link like in B2/W2, but since they didn't, it didn't work. In comparison, I think B2/W2 were much better when it came to being sequels. Apart from everything they had from the base game, they also had Memory Link which allowed you to see some flashback scenes, they also included the name you gave to your player character from B/W, which was amazing. You also never actually got to meet the player from the previous game, you just heard about them, which I prefer over meeting them as a silent NPC like Red. I'm also annoyed at how HG/SS featured Red but not Green/Leaf from FR/LG, I think she should have appeared as well alongside Red. I can kind of forgive G/S/C for failing at being sequels since they were supposed to be the last Pokémon games and they were still an early installment in the series, but HG/SS can't be forgiven because they had an excellent opportunity to improve upon this mistake from the originals, but they failed.
I said this rather recently in another post, but I'll say it again: I think HG/SS gets way too much credit for "keeping everything from Crystal", something they don't really deserve. Aside from the story parts, everything they kept from Crystal were either minor things, features that became standard in the series after Crystal had introduced them, or features that were standard in the series when HG/SS were released. And one important thing from Crystal that they didn't keep was the changes Crystal made to the Pokémon distribution, which is a shame since that is a big and important thing that would have made HG/SS better. And even if HG/SS kept "everything" from Crystal, that does not give them an excuse for having some of the biggest gameplay flaws in the series. In comparison, OR/AS often gets a lot of complaints for not keeping everything from Emerald, but I don't mind. I think OR/AS are good games even if they didn't keep everything from Emerald, they have great gameplay and much better executed content which makes them better games on the whole.
Another thing HG/SS often gets credit for which I don't think they deserve is the claim that improved upon G/S/C, which I don't think they did as they did basically nothing to fix the flaws from the originals. I think FR/LG and OR/AS did way more to improve upon their originals compared to what HG/SS did to improve upon G/S/C. HG/SS only did minor improvements at best, which was nowhere near enough to fix any of their massive gameplay issues.
I'm not super happy about how HG/SS copypasted the Platinum Battle Frontier. I'll admit that I have mixed opinions about this on the whole, but I'm definitely not as happy about it as many other fans seem to be. I like Battle Frontiers, but I think they should only appear once a generation at most. I don't mind single facilities being copypasted like the Maison to OR/AS, but copypasting a whole Frontier feels wrong. HG/SS had an excellent opportunity to do something new and innovative in terms of battle facilities, but they didn't. And even so, they could at least have done something to made the Frontier different from Platinum, like having different Frontier Brains, as well as new and different Stat Trainers to team up with in Multi battles. But they didn't, and that's a big shame. I'll give them props for one thing: the fact that they had the Frontier was good for those who wanted to give it a spin but didn't play Platinum. But that's the only thing I can think about that was relatively positive regarding this.
I wasn't very fond of having 2 regions in one game. It could have worked if it had been properly executed, but now it was a big failure because of the poor execution. Johto can't stand on its own because it relies on Kanto for post-game and final bosses, while Kanto is a shadow of its former self from R/B/Y and FR/LG, it feels more like wasteland than an actual region. There isn't a lot to do in Kanto, there's barely any story to motivate you to go through 8 more gyms, while the regular trainers and wild Pokémon are way too weak to give any sort of challenge or good training. The wild Pokémon in Kanto should definitely have been at higher levels, there's no reason you should face wild Pokémon at level 2 right next to the city which has a Gym Leader with a level 60 Pidgeot. In addition to this, Johto and Kanto often get credit for being "non-linear" or "open world", but I found them to be extremely poorly executed regarding this. They can't compare to actual non-linear or open world games, and I'd personally much rather play a game with a linear region that is executed well instead of a non-linear or more open region with a bad execution.
Adding in to the above, another unpopular opinion I have which is partly related is this: I think HG/SS has a lackluster post-game. They often get credit for having a good post-game or even for having the best post-game in the series, but I really disagree with that. They aren't anywhere near the greatness of games that actually have good post-games like B2/W2, Platinum and US/UM. I also think they are worse than other games like B/W, D/P, OR/AS, Emerald, FR/LG, X/Y and S/M. HG/SS didn't have a lot to do, and the few things they had were poorly executed for the most part. Kanto was just plain bad all around with basically no story as well as weak trainers and wild Pokémon. Trainer rematches were poorly executed as I talked about earlier. Completing the Pokédex wasn't very fun because of the bad Pokémon distribution/availability and the lack of good training spots. I didn't find the minigames very enjoyable, and the Battle Frontier was copypasted from Platinum. The Shiny Leaves took me about 20 minutes to complete and it wasn't very fun since I disliked the following Pokémon. The rest were just minor things that made no difference on the whole. The only things I liked were the large amount of legendaries to catch, and how breeding was mostly easier in HG/SS (the negative being that there was no good place to hatch eggs easily, at least I never found such a place). I think HG/SS have a bad post-game on the whole, and I find it massively overrated. I wouldn't say that it is the worst in the series, but if I were to rank the Pokémon games in terms of post-game, HG/SS would be closer to the bottom than the top.
I found the HM requirements in HG/SS to be very annoying, much worse than in the Sinnoh games or in any other games in the series. They were especially annoying when I tried to explore optional areas, such as
a certain room in Mt. Mortar which required you to surf over a lot of small ponds over and over in order to get all items, or when you needed cut to access certain Apricorn trees. Another example is how you need Rock Climb in order to reach Red, something that is most likely forcing you to give up a team slot or at the very least a move slot on a team member. That feels like a good example of bad game design if you ask me. In comparison, the amount of HMs never annoyed me that much in the Sinnoh games. I also found it a lot more annoying to withdraw my HM slaves in HG/SS compared to other games just because of the awful box system and poorly utilized touch screen controls.
I always thought HG/SS felt very slow in terms of most things related to their gameplay, much slower than Platinum. While they didn't have any of the annoying delays that D/P suffered from, there were many other things that slowed down the games like the following Pokémon, the HM usage as well as the menus and the touch screen usage. HG/SS always felt slow to me, this was very noticeable when I went back to them after having played the newer games from Gen 5 and on. In comparison, Platinum never felt quite as slow when I went back to playing it after playing the newer games. While Gen 4 is fairly slow on the whole, I thought HG/SS were among the slowest games along with D/P, they were not as fast (relatively speaking) as Platinum.
Let's throw in a positive unpopular opinion in the mix! I really like the Dowsing Machine in HG/SS, I think it is by far the best feature in these games and one of the very few features in them that was properly executed since it actually worked very well. I always used it to look for and find hidden items while playing through these games. I think it is the second best Dowsing Machine in the series (the best one is of course the one in Gen 5). It is a shame that the rest of HG/SS weren't this well executed, it could have helped them a lot.
I talked a little about minigames earlier, so here's an unpopular opinion regarding that. I didn't like the Pokéathlon all that much. I think this is unpopular since it is often praised and many consider it to be their favorite minigame, but I disagree. I thought it was very badly done. A minigame that relies on touch screen usage, and then the touch screen doesn't properly react to your commands... that is basically an instant failure. I thought most of the events weren't very fun, and it often felt like the opponents were ganging up on me instead of making it fair with a split focus on the player and the other opponents. And from what I have understood, it is only because of the Pokéathlon that we got the awful following Pokémon feature, so that's another minus. While I don't think the Pokéathlon is the worst minigame in the series, it is definitely among the worse ones.
I didn't find HG/SS to be that good or impressive in terms of graphics. They often get praise for their graphics, but I disagree. When it comes to the main series games for the DS, I think that the Sinnoh games (Platinum especially) and the Gen 5 games are way more graphically impressive than HG/SS. The Johto remakes do have some pretty-looking overworld areas and some good sprites, but on the whole, I think there is a lot more bad than good. In general, I find them bland and overdesigned. Many areas look the same to me, both routes and caves. There are no real differences between areas, while several areas in Sinnoh and Unova look very different from each other. Several sprites are also really bad compared to the Sinnoh games, I also find the design of grass and trees to be really boring, as well as most caves.
On a similar note, I'm not very fond of the music and the soundtrack in HG/SS. There are some good tracks for sure, but on the whole, the music is not quite as great as in most other Pokémon games. This is mostly notable for a lot of the music in Kanto which I think is very bland and boring, some notable examples are the wild Pokémon and trainer battle themes, the general city music and the standard music used for most routes. I am also not a fan of some of the tracks in Johto such as Goldenrod City (which was one of my favorites in G/S/C, the fact that the remakes ruined it is a big shame), Route 29 and New Bark Town. The soundfont (or what you should call it) is another thing I'm not all that fond of, many sounds and instruments sound very sharp and annoying to me. The same thing happens regarding certain tracks in other Pokémon games too, but I recall being extra annoyed by it in HG/SS. I find the music in HG/SS overrated on the whole, and I think it is below average when it comes to Pokémon soundtracks.
Lastly, and this should be obvious by now, but I wasn't very fond of HG/SS on the whole. They are my least favorite Pokémon games. They have so many issues, all of the above plus a lot of others I haven't mentioned here (since they aren't unpopular). I think HG/SS are massively overhyped and overrated games. When it comes to the things I think are the most important in Pokémon games, they did basically everything wrong and almost nothing right. They also failed for me when it comes to the very most important thing in Pokémon (and video games in general): they weren't fun to play. HG/SS had the potential to be epic, but they blew it all on poorly executed features, bad gameplay and lackluster content. In the end, they are just a big shame. If anyone wonders why I liked G/S/C better, it is mainly because I thought they were at least fun for their time, which I can't say about HG/SS. Maybe that's also an unpopular opinion.
I think those are all of my unpopular opinions about HG/SS, I hope I didn't forget anything. I could have said more on most of these subjects, but I wanted to keep things short. Though I didn't really succeed since this became pretty long in the end. I have also been thinking about making another post in the annoyances thread where I go over every single thing I disliked about HG/SS, including everything I didn't post here. I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to making that post though, I have been thinking about making it for several years but it hasn't happened... yet. And it will probably not happen anytime soon either, but I might try to get it done at some point in the future.