Unpopular opinions

[Suspicious Derivative]

Even if you could turn it off? I know a lot of people liked it but I can see your point about all it not really adding much. But this is one of those situations where an "off" switch to a mechanic some people don't like (that GF seems to have a hard time adding) means everyone can have their cake and eat it.

As I partly said in a reply to DrPumpkinz earlier, I would be okay with it returning if it was optional. And as I said there too, I think making things optional is how you do good game design (see: Exp. Share in Gen 6/7). That said, I'd rather have them focus on making other, better features than the following Pokémon. If I am given a choice of a game featuring one of these two: the following Pokémon or good training spots (or something else I really like and consider important), I'll take the second alternative any day.

While I think the mobile feature is neat, you're right that for making rematches it's a tedious extra step where other games it was just one or two steps that required little from the player. I think the PokeNav was the best where just checking it told you if a trainer was ready to rematch or not. The VS Seeker was good if you wanted to "force" a rematch to happen. The mobile phone mechanic could use an overhaul and given other purposes.

But if you're talking about grinding spots I think a location like the Black Tower/White Treehollow is the best.

Tedious, complicated, annoying, unnecessary, overcomplicated... there are many words to describe it. As said, I thought several other ways they have done trainer rematches were better than it. And I agree, for pure "grinding", Black Tower/White Treehollow are probably the best in the series, along with Furisode Girls in the Battle Chateau in X/Y and Blissey Bases in OR/AS.

And let's be honest, when people said it doesn't have everything from Emerald what they actually mean it didn't have the Battle Frontier (and Gym Leader rematches). No one is crying over the loss of Mirage Tower/Desert Underpass, Terra/Marine Cave, and the Magma Hideout in Jagged Pass. We also did get to battle Wallace's Champion team in the Delta Episode, sort of a mirror how we got to battle Steven in the post game of Emerald. But yeah, it's the Battle Frontier everyone is mostly complaining about the "missing content from Emerald". Had the Battle Frontier been in ORAS (or at least something that simulated similar mechanics of it) then no one would be saying anything about Emerald (though would have been nice if the other team was a bit more involved and we got to battle them but that's another discussion entirely).

Yeah, the BF is the most common complaint I have seen about features missing from Emerald. Gym Leader rematches and facing off against both evil teams during the story are the only other "big" things from Emerald that OR/AS are really missing, everything else is just minor if you ask me.

On to something else. I saw a bit of discussion about Gen 6 vs Gen 7 earlier and I want to give my thoughts on it, but very short. I prefer Gen 6 because it has more to offer when it comes to the things I think are the most important in Pokémon, two very notable things it has that Gen 7 is desperately lacking are these: epic training spots and a National Dex. X/Y are my favorite main series games for the 3DS (and my third favorite Pokémon games overall), OR/AS are my second favorites for the 3DS and fourth favorites overall, US/UM are third and fifth respectively and S/M are last for 3DS and tied with S/S as seventh overall. People complain about the story in Gen 6 (X/Y at least) being bad and that the games aren't challening or difficult, but I personally don't care. Story isn't important for me anymore (after Gen 7) and when I'm playing through the main story of a Pokémon game, I'm always trying to have as much fun as possible. I'm not looking for a challenge and I'm usually not asking for it (unless I play B2/W2 on Challenge Mode). Gen 6 did that way better than Gen 7 IMO, Gen 6 might have been easy but it was at least balanced (as long as you played with Exp. Share off) while I found Gen 7 unbalanced with Exp. Share off (never tried playing through a Gen 7 game with the Exp. Share on so I don't know what it's like). I have more to say on this subject but I decided to keep it short here because I'm planning to make a post in the likes thread with everything I like about X/Y (it will hopefully be done soon), I'll go a little more into detail there regarding the things I liked about X/Y. With that said I still like Gen 7 as I think it is good, but I think Gen 6 is better (and Gen 5 is the best lol).

Lastly, a new unpopular opinion that I don't think has ever been posted here before: I have never cared much for the Emerald cloning glitch. I have never tried it myself, and I never will. One reason for that it is that I read a rumor long ago that your game could crash/get corrupted if you used it too much. Looking back now, it was probably false, but I decided to be on the safe side. Another reason is that I found the glitch very overrated back in the days when Emerald was the newest game, everyone went crazy over the glitch and I just didn't care, it felt like people were overreacting massively. A third reason is that I at least used to consider the cloning glitch (and cloning Pokémon in general) to be cheating. I used to be extremely anti-cloning in the past, but in more recent years I have warmed up to it and have even done it myself a few times (never in Emerald though) as well as requested cloning services from other players. I realize this might be a bit hypocritical since I do RNG abuse myself which I know some players consider cheating, but this is how I feel about the Emerald cloning glitch.

 

[CPU]

For me the Emerald cloning glitch was most useful for duplicating items (mainly TMs). Copying my Birth Island Deoxys was a bonus.

 

[PokePoindexter]

I will forever maintain that as long as my favorite Pokemon from the first four generations (hint: the one in my signature) continues to be a headache to try and play through the main story of 99% of games with, I have no sympathy for anyone's sob stories about BW's roster or the inability to use any previous-gen mons.

As for me, I actually like quite a lot of Gen 5 Pokemon. To list a few: Volcarona is my favorite Pokemon of all time, Zoroark and Chandelure aren't far behind, Serperior is one of my favorite Grass starters, Excadrill and Krookodile are two of my favorite Ground-types, Hydreigon is one of my favorite Dragon-types, Galvantula is another of my favorite Bug-types (and Electric-types), Beartic has grown on me fairly recently thanks in part to the buffs it got back in Gen 7, and I'll take Crustle and Jellicent over Parasect and Tentacruel any day. About the only ones I dislike are Emolga and the Gothita line, and I admittedly utterly despise both, but not even they can sour the Gen 5 games or the roster therein for me (otherwise I'd hate every generation, since I can find at least three or four massive stinkers in every roster).

 

[Coronis]

Yeah I mean like every generation, Gen 5 has its great and crap Pokemon (in my personal opinion). Its definitely not my favourite generation design wise (Gen 4) but I honestly don’t think I have a least favourite generation based purely on Pokemon design.

 

[Codraroll]

In my opinion, you can draw a line roughly through the upper middle of the Unova dex. Most of the stuff above the line are Pokémon whose archetypes have already been explored in previous games: the usual starters, rodents, birds, and early-game two-stage Normal-types, of course, but also some specific stuff such as water-type tadpoles, psychic-type dream tapirs, a duo of Fighting types based on martial arts, three-stage Rock and Fighting types who first evolve around level 25 and then later by trading, Ground-type mole Pokémon, cave-dwelling bats, and more. There's a lot of familiarity in the designs in the early Unova dex.

But below the line, Unova really shines with unique, cool and never-before-seen designs. Classics such as the Solosis or Litwick families, Tynamo and its evolutions, the Axew line, basically every Bug-type, Golett, the various legendaries... there were some really amazing Pokémon designed for Gen V as well. Exactly where the divide goes is a point of some contest, but the divide is pretty clear. There are plenty of exceptions, of course - we had nothing quite like the Lillipup line before, and it's very early in the 'dex, while obviously-not-Luvdisc Alomomola is in the latter half, not far from Unovan Teddiursa line Cubchoo and Beartic. But at some point, the Unova dex flips from "mostly derivative" to "mostly unprecedented", I'd say the most natural place to draw the line is at the Scraggy family, but others may disagree.

The first half of the Unova dex appears to be created to fill in the holes left by the regional dex cut, and to put it like that, they put square pegs in the square holes. "We'd like Poliwag to be in this pond, but Poliwag isn't available. Oh well, here's Tympole instead. It's not Poliwag, but otherwise it's pretty much Poliwag." But once all the holes were filled and all the boxes ticked, the designers let themselves loose with amazingly creative designs unlike anything we'd seen before. The end result is fairly good, overall. There are quite a few Unova Pokémon I wouldn't look at twice, but very many I consider among the best designs out there.

Oh, and if we're nominating our least favourite generation based on Pokémon designs, I'll have to go for Gen VII. It has way too many forgettable two-stage evolution lines, and the fraction of Pokémon that don't evolve at all is absurdly high. Its starters are also way too anthropomorphized for my taste. Many of the new designs were literal rehashes of Gen I Pokémon, whose original forms are much more memorable to me, and Ultra Beasts were a nice concept that wasn't really explored very well and which was dropped like a hot potato come Gen VIII. I'm not really remembering any Gen VII designs with the fondness I have for Pokémon of earlier generations, and they don't hold up to the Gen VIII designs either.

 

[CPU]

I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion, given how little Game Freak seems to take criticism/advice, but I wonder if they actually had a change of heart after Gen 6 regarding human designs and integration (mainly regarding Gym Leaders and their ilk).

Gen 6 had important NPCs, but the Gym Leaders largely took a backseat to other characters. IIRC only Korrina and Wulfric really do much outside of their Gyms. Lysandre obviously is remembered, but the Team Flare Admins largely blend together for me (Xerosic is notable for his role in the postgame). Within the Elite Four, only Malva gets screentime outside of the League's halls, and even her importance is thrown aside despite apparently being a member of Team Flare. I probably wouldn't remember Sina and Dexio if not for their inclusion in SM, and I WANT to forget the rivals.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that in Gens 7 and 8, important trainers like Gym Leaders, Trial Captains, and Kahunas generally have involvement in the main plot in a way that makes them memorable and not intrusive to the gameplay. The designs also seem to be getting more and more varied; apparently Rose and Oleana were designed by Haruko Ichikawa, mangaka of Land of the Lustrous. Most (all?) of the Gym Leaders in Gen 8 were designed by another artist who isn't a part of Game Freak, but I can't remember who it is at the moment.
Basically, they seem to want to make their human characters just as memorable as the monsters, which is a good design philosophy (or would be, if they could get the rest of the gameplay tightened up).

Then again, Gym Leaders have had okay involvement/outside exposure in many of the other games, not just Gens 7 and 8. Maybe Gen 6 was just a big misstep for them.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Then again, Gym Leaders have had okay involvement/outside exposure in many of the other games, not just Gens 7 and 8. Maybe Gen 6 was just a big misstep for them.

Yeah, I'm 99% sure at this point Gen 6's really crappy cast was a fluke. In the gens prior the standard roles and even the number of secondary characters were steadily increasing in role and development within the world and plot of their regions, with Gen 5 being the peak of this. Gen 6 as you mentioned was the misstep, but then Gens 7 and 8 turned it right around with (imo) bar none the best casts in Pokemon, filled with tons of characters who are memorable, well-developed and lovable in one way or another. Why Gen 6 bombed so hard with their humans we can debate all day, but I doubt we'll see its mistakes repeated in the near future.

Speaking of human characters, here's a pretty spicy take that I "discovered" while discussing characters with a friend a couple of days ago: I honestly don't like the Gen 4 cast that much. I wouldn't dare call it flat-out bad like XY or GSC, but I don't think it's really aged that well, a lot of their centerpieces were cool for the time but just haven't aged that well. Cyrus is the epitome of this, at the time he was by far the darkest, most dramatic Pokemon villain, but since then we've had dudes like Ghetsis, Lusamine, ORAS Maxie and Guzma, who are darker and/or much more well-rounded as characters and baddies, making him kinda meh in hindsight, even though I still like him he's objectively not that great. I can't bring myself to care about a lot of Gen 4 characters, really: Barry's cute at first but doesn't really grow or develop, the gym leaders are just fine (I do like Crasher Wake and Maylene tho), the E4 are as drab and phoned-in as ever and Cynthia's just... ...eh? for me, I prefer guys like Steven, Kukui, Iris and Leon for sure. Then there's just the missteps, and oh boy were there some bad ones. Charon reaches a level of inconsequentiality and arbitrariness that makes the Ultra Recon Squad blush, and I can't even begin to fathom what the intended purpose of the stat trainers was and why the time you waste with them couldn't have been spent with, I dunno, the gym leaders or Barry or Dawn.

 

[CPU]

Cyrus is interesting for how dead-set he is in his goals, but he could have used more backstory than what we get from his grandparents in Sunyshore.

I don't think about it a lot but yeah, a lot of Gen 4's cast seems a little lacking nowadays. I personally like Barry (plus he had the title of highest-leveled in-game trainer for a brief period until Red reclaimed it with HGSS), but most of the Gym Leaders don't do much for me. Wake is amusing and I like that Maylene canonically travels to visit her other Gym Leader friends (and Gardenia gets some sort of note for her phobia of ghosts). I think most of the others are good concepts but don't get enough involvement to make them favorites for me.

Another thought about Pokémon's trainers; FRLG and HGSS did a lot for fleshing out the character of their Gym Leaders (and E4 to an extent). The Fame Checker is good for Kanto, and the (admittedly frustrating to access) rematches and dates with the Leaders in HGSS give a lot more personality to characters who didn't get the luxury of being a big part of their games' story.

 

[Hematite]

Other unpopular opinion, sort of as a followup to the ongoing discussion of regional variants in the Little Things That Annoy You thread:

I really dislike the practice of giving cross-generational evolutions only to the variant form.
There's no reason that Sirfetch'd couldn't evolve from regular Farfetch'd, and there's no reason that Linoone shouldn't get an evolution to match Obstagoon. What I actually suspect is the motive is "to avoid retconning the Eviolite," but...
Well, a) that's obviously not for balance reasons - Cursola's biggest contribution to the competitive scene is being an excuse for Galarian Corsola to hold Eviolite anyway, and it's way more outclassed than any other evolved Pokémon in the series, and b) they apparently don't even care about the Eviolite being consistent, because Meltan is a canonically evolving Pokémon that isn't compatible with the item, so they could just as easily not retcon the Eviolite anyway.
It also largely defeats what I understood to be the purpose of cross-generational evolutions in the first place - to give something new to an old Pokémon - because it's essentially creating an explicitly superior form that's meant as an extension of the old Pokémon... and then denying that old Pokémon the ability to access it. It feels more like a slap in the face than a long-awaited improvement.

I loved the regional variants in Generation VII because they were clearly intended as equal counterparts - even Exeggutor, which has a perfectly valid in-world excuse to be a straight step up, avoids that and presents itself as an alternative, so people who raised Exeggutor in the past aren't shafted or told "your coconut tree is deprecated - please switch to the new version."
In general, I think the purpose of Alola's regional variants was an in-world one. Just about all of them served some function in expanding on the culture and ecology of Alola, so it felt less like a misguided attempt to "help" older Pokémon and more like a way to express something about the region - something that happened to be better conveyed by juxtaposing it with a Pokémon that already existed than it would have been by making a totally new line.
But that purpose, while it's completely legitimate, is totally incompatible with the purpose of cross-generational evolutions. Let's say you're someone who raised a Murkrow before Generation IV, Honchkrow was something cool and exciting that your very own Murkrow could actually use - and the same goes for all of the Mega Evolutions in Generation VI.
Meanwhile, if you're some kind of devoted Farfetch'd Trainer, and you're attached to your Farfetch'd, and you want your Farfetch'd to be the very best it can be... well, unlike crossgens and Mega Evolutions, nothing changes for your Farfetch'd.
That's just inherently not a role that regional variants can fill - but the difference between Galar and Alola is that Alola knew that. Alolan Muk was never presented as, "hey, you like Muk! Here's something new for all you people who've raised Muk and been rooting for Muk all of these years!" It was a vehicle to flesh out Alola through Muk, not the other way around - for all intents and purposes, it was "a new Pokémon with connections," and the choice to give it a relationship to Kantonian Muk served a clear worldbuilding purpose that added to both lines.
On the other hand, most of Galar's regional variants feel like they just missed that point completely. Remarkably few of them convey any worldbuilding details in their flavor - some of them don't even make it as far as mentioning the Galar region... or their own non-Galarian forms... or what about their environment led them to adapt certain qualities... or even any notable interactions with people or other species of Pokémon. There's no reason why Galarian Ponyta is even related to Ponyta except pandering and fanservice to people who wanted that.
It feels to me like the vast majority of them are just a fundamental misunderstanding of why Alola even introduced regional variants, and the lopsided integration of crossgens only cements that.

Galarian Farfetch'd is the absolute weirdest extreme of this. It's so obviously nothing but a compromise to avoid giving a proper crossgen - like, there's not even a clear reason for it to exist in-world.
Fans have been begging for a Farfetch'd evolution for years, and they finally get one, and it was even revealed by itself as though it was connected to Farfetch'd and not the then-secret Galarian Farfetch'd...
That just feels like a total waste of potential to me (and kind of blatantly deceptive?) - I think everyone would have been happier if Sirfetch'd just evolved from Farfetch'd in the first place, and I say this as someone who doesn't even really like Farfetch'd or Sirfetch'd and has no stake in this whatsoever.
What does Galarian Farfetch'd even add to the Pokémon world? Or the Galar region? The main difference is in the leek it holds (which, okay, fair - that is an actual difference between Galar and other regions, and it's also the basis for a "new" item in Sword and Shield)... and then... "Farfetch'd adapted to holding this kind of leek?" The Pokédex says a bunch of stuff that... is pretty much already true of regular Farfetch'd... and then tacks that on at the end?
In nearly every case, I wouldn't mind so much if both versions of the line got crossgens, or if we had more cases like Runerigus and Perrserker rather than additional stages given to the Galarian version only... but specifically Galarian Farfetch'd just doesn't deserve to exist in the first place.

OKAY, that's all of my Gen VIII rambling for today! Sorry, haha.

Edit: slight rewording

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Galarian Farfetch'd is the absolute weirdest extreme of this. It's so obviously just a compromise to avoid giving a proper crossgen - like, there's not even a clear reason for it to exist in-world.
Fans have been begging for a Farfetch'd evolution for years, and they finally get one, and it was even revealed by itself as though it was connected to Farfetch'd and not the then-secret Galarian Farfetch'd...
That just feels like a total waste of potential to me (and kind of blatantly deceptive?) - I think everyone would have been happier if Sirfetch'd just evolved from Farfetch'd in the first place, and I say this as someone who doesn't even really like Farfetch'd or Sirfetch'd.
What does Galarian Farfetch'd even add to the Pokémon world? Or the Galar region? The main difference is in the leek it holds (which, okay, fair - that is an actual difference between Galar and other regions, and it's also the basis for a "new" item in Sword and Shield)... and then... "Farfetch'd adapted to holding this leek?" The Pokédex says a bunch of stuff that... is pretty much already true of regular Farfetch'd... and then tacks that on at the end?
In nearly every case, I wouldn't mind so much if both versions of the line got crossgens, or if we had more cases like Runerigus and Perrserker rather than additional stages given to the Galarian version only... but specifically Galarian Farfetch'd just doesn't deserve to exist in the first place.

To make matters worse, Galarian Farfetch'd looks less like Sirfetch'd than regular Farfetch'd. Galarfetch'd has a dark coloration and holds its leek over its shoulder, while Farfetch'd and Sirfetch'd have a light coloration and hold their leeks upright. And the point about the leek being different doesn't really matter when 1) the leek increasing in size can be chalked up to evolution energy pouring into the leek, and 2) the leek isn't even consistent between Galarfetch'd and Sirfetch'd; the base of Galarfetch'd's leek has been trimmed, but it suddenly reappears upon evolution. In fact, Farfetch'd has an untrimmed leek, and I find an increase in size way more believable than regeneration of lost parts.

 

[Mova]

But why exactly doesn't Meltan just directly evolve into Melmetal via level-up? I understand grinding in PoGo, but it's grindy as hell and takes a lot of time if you don't spend munny. It's kinda inconsistent in the game's logic.

 

[Jerry the great]

I have no clue if these are unpopular opinions, but I'll say them anyways.

I truly DESPISE Lillie back in the gen 7 games. She made me waste a ton of items on the fourth island, she is such a coward to the point she cannot bear to see Pokemon hurt, she never leaves me alone, she always says "Nebby, get in the bag" which always annoyed me since Nebby can just teleport away or cause some kind of explosion if someone was to steal it, and more! Seriously! I despised her so much, when Ghetsis attacked her in USUM, I actually got EXCITIED!! Until Colress had to ruin the epic moment! Which sucks, because I really would've loved to have her thrashed. I know I may sound harsh, but it's a video game character! It's not like I'm saying this stuff about someone who actually exists!

I truly enjoy trying to evolve Pokemon that are hard to do so with. For instance, Cosmog into the mascot legendaries. Seriously! A lot of people don't like it, and I understand! But I honestly find it so satisfying to have spent such struggles trying to evolve a Pokemon, and finally, after some long hard work, you finally done it! Which makes it feel so rewarding! And what makes it even better? Simple! The Pokemon that are really hard to evolve, tend to evolve into really strong Pokemon! Cosmog is of course an excellent example, but any pseudo legendaries can also be! You know how shiny hunters feel when they find a shiny Pokemon? That's how I feel when I finally evolve a Pokemon really hard to evolve! Well, into the final form anyways, unless a previous stage were to be much harder to get.

Feedback would be much appreciated!

 

[Hematite]

I know this is totally subjective, and I entirely respect your opinion on Lillie even though I don't share it, but some small comments with respect to the actual content of what you just said:

She made me waste a ton of items on the fourth island

Did she maybe do so by... healing you for free? I know it's frustrating to feel like you've wasted your items, but this feels like a strange way to construe that as Lillie being an active hindrance. You would still have had to use those items if she wasn't around, haha.

she is such a coward to the point she cannot bear to see Pokemon hurt

I feel like this is not at all what cowardice is?

she never leaves me alone

This one is definitely valid - while I personally enjoyed the more active involvement of other characters in Sun and Moon, I know this is a very common complaint and I totally understand your frustration nonetheless.

she always says "Nebby, get in the bag" which always annoyed me since Nebby can just teleport away or cause some kind of explosion if someone was to steal it

Factually, we know this isn't true - it's established that Nebby went into a comatose state and was unable to move for a long time after it teleported Lillie from Aether Paradise, and Lillie expressed concern that something similar or worse could happen if it tried to do anything like that again. Also, the first time it exploded... kind of went horribly.
Bear in mind that no one in the story really knows anything about Cosmog; she's just doing her best to take care of it, and it would make very little sense (and be incredibly irresponsible) for her to expect it to take care of itself given what she or anyone else actually understands of it.

I think the biggest thing is this, though:

I despised her so much, when Ghetsis attacked her in USUM, I actually got EXCITIED!! Until Colress had to ruin the epic moment! Which sucks, because I really would've loved to have her thrashed.

Even in the context of just imagining it happening to someone who isn't real, I feel like it's a little concerning that that's something you would want to see, especially as a form of "comeuppance" for things like this. All of the things you listed are Lillie being or trying to be a genuinely good person in ways that only mildly inconvenience you - I don't think that's really an okay response at all? I do appreciate that you would not have that sentiment about someone who existed in real life, but... that's kind of messed up.

I prooobably won't say anything else on this if you respond, because I don't think turning this into an argument is something either of us wants, and if my responding to you this way makes you uncomfortable at all, I can also just delete this post if you'd prefer. But I kinda think you should take a step back and think about some of what you just said?

 

[Jerry the great]

I know this is totally subjective, and I entirely respect your opinion on Lillie even though I don't share it, but some small comments with respect to the actual content of what you just said:

Did she maybe do so by... healing you for free? I know it's frustrating to feel like you've wasted your items, but this feels like a strange way to construe that as Lillie being an active hindrance. You would still have had to use those items if she wasn't around, haha.

I feel like this is not at all what cowardice is?

This one is definitely valid - while I personally enjoyed the more active involvement of other characters in Sun and Moon, I know this is a very common complaint and I totally understand your frustration nonetheless.

Factually, we know this isn't true - it's established that Nebby went into a comatose state and was unable to move for a long time after it teleported Lillie from Aether Paradise, and Lillie expressed concern that something similar or worse could happen if it tried to do anything like that again. Also, the first time it exploded... kind of went horribly.
Bear in mind that no one in the story really knows anything about Cosmog; she's just doing her best to take care of it, and it would make very little sense (and be incredibly irresponsible) for her to expect it to take care of itself given what she or anyone else actually understands of it.

I think the biggest thing is this, though:

Even in the context of just imagining it happening to someone who isn't real, I feel like it's a little concerning that that's something you would want to see, especially as a form of "comeuppance" for things like this. All of the things you listed are Lillie being or trying to be a genuinely good person in ways that only mildly inconvenience you - I don't think that's really an okay response at all? I do appreciate that you would not have that sentiment about someone who existed in real life, but... that's kind of messed up.

I prooobably won't say anything else on this if you respond, because I don't think turning this into an argument is something either of us wants, and if my responding to you this way makes you uncomfortable at all, I can also just delete this post if you'd prefer. But I kinda think you should take a step back and think about some of what you just said?

Naw man! Don't delete your post! I said myself feedback would be appreciated, and I myself also don't want to start an argument. Anyways, since you had quite a bit of things to say as well as some questions, I'll go into further detail. Sorry I never really went more into the details, as maybe then you would've understood as to WHY I feel this way.

About "items wasted" you see, obviously when you play through a game the first time, you don't know what to expect. So, using all of those items, I didn't know there would be Lillie healing you. Force healing me once during such a long place, or after a boss battle, is much appreciated. However, doing it over and over again as I end up using more items, not realizing all of the healing locations, that's where things get... Icky.

For the cowardice point, I must've been thinking too fast. I did not mean to say she is a coward, but rather, it's just annoying.

For the point about Nebby, you see... I had forgotten about I being paralyzed for months. Wish I knew such before I made the claim.

As for the whole Lillie gets beat up by Ghetsis thing, I don't do what most people typically do when excited. When my eyes feasted on that, I didn't scream "Whoooo!" Or jump up and down, but I simply laughed in a happy yet hysteric manner. I understand if that made you feel uncomfortable too. Trust me when I say this, I would not want for this to happen to someone in the real world. I even said it sounds harsh, to me, the guy making the claim! But anyways. I've been in several video game communities. From what I gathered from them, when people hate a certain character, they love to see them get utterly wrecked either in a cutscene, or in a boss battle (and they especially love it if said boss battle against said character is easy so that they can REALLY do some damage). Because of this, I thought you all would be perfectly OK with hearing that. But I suppose not. Not only that, but Ghetsis... Has done loads of bad stuff. He manipulated N, stole Pokemon from everyone else so that only he could use Pokemon so he could do whatever he wanted without opposition (this version did anyways, the actual Ghetsis just tried to), and Lot's more. So after all, it's fitting that he out of everyone was to attack someone (heck, Ghetsis went to full on terrorist in BW2 over a single loss).

 

[DreamPrince]

Other unpopular opinion, sort of as a followup to the ongoing discussion of regional variants in the Little Things That Annoy You thread:

I really dislike the practice of giving cross-generational evolutions only to the variant form.
There's no reason that Sirfetch'd couldn't evolve from regular Farfetch'd, and there's no reason that Linoone shouldn't get an evolution to match Obstagoon. What I actually suspect is the motive is "to avoid retconning the Eviolite," but...
Well, a) that's obviously not for balance reasons - Cursola's biggest contribution to the competitive scene is being an excuse for Galarian Corsola to hold Eviolite anyway, and it's way more outclassed than any other evolved Pokémon in the series, and b) they apparently don't even care about the Eviolite being consistent, because Meltan is a canonically evolving Pokémon that isn't compatible with the item, so they could just as easily not retcon the Eviolite anyway.
It also largely defeats what I understood to be the purpose of cross-generational evolutions in the first place - to give something new to an old Pokémon - because it's essentially creating an explicitly superior form that's meant as an extension of the old Pokémon... and then denying that old Pokémon the ability to access it. It feels more like a slap in the face than a long-awaited improvement.

I loved the regional variants in Generation VII because they were clearly intended as equal counterparts - even Exeggutor, which has a perfectly valid in-world excuse to be a straight step up, avoids that and presents itself as an alternative, so people who raised Exeggutor in the past aren't shafted or told "your coconut tree is deprecated - please switch to the new version."
In general, I think the purpose of Alola's regional variants was an in-world one. Just about all of them served some function in expanding on the culture and ecology of Alola, so it felt less like a misguided attempt to "help" older Pokémon and more like a way to express something about the region - something that happened to be better conveyed by juxtaposing it with a Pokémon that already existed than it would have been by making a totally new line.
But that purpose, while it's completely legitimate, is totally incompatible with the purpose of cross-generational evolutions. Let's say you're someone who raised a Murkrow before Generation IV, Honchkrow was something cool and exciting that your very own Murkrow could actually use - and the same goes for all of the Mega Evolutions in Generation VI.
Meanwhile, if you're some kind of devoted Farfetch'd Trainer, and you're attached to your Farfetch'd, and you want your Farfetch'd to be the very best it can be... well, unlike crossgens and Mega Evolutions, nothing changes for your Farfetch'd.
That's just inherently not a role that regional variants can fill - but the difference between Galar and Alola is that Alola knew that. Alolan Muk was never presented as, "hey, you like Muk! Here's something new for all you people who've raised Muk and been rooting for Muk all of these years!" It was a vehicle to flesh out Alola through Muk, not the other way around - for all intents and purposes, it was "a new Pokémon with connections," and the choice to give it a relationship to Kantonian Muk served a clear worldbuilding purpose that added to both lines.
On the other hand, most of Galar's regional variants feel like they just missed that point completely. Remarkably few of them convey any worldbuilding details in their flavor - some of them don't even make it as far as mentioning the Galar region... or their own non-Galarian forms... or what about their environment led them to adapt certain qualities... or even any notable interactions with people or other species of Pokémon. There's no reason why Galarian Ponyta is even related to Ponyta except pandering and fanservice to people who wanted that.
It feels to me like the vast majority of them are just a fundamental misunderstanding of why Alola even introduced regional variants, and the lopsided integration of crossgens only cements that.

Galarian Farfetch'd is the absolute weirdest extreme of this. It's so obviously nothing but a compromise to avoid giving a proper crossgen - like, there's not even a clear reason for it to exist in-world.
Fans have been begging for a Farfetch'd evolution for years, and they finally get one, and it was even revealed by itself as though it was connected to Farfetch'd and not the then-secret Galarian Farfetch'd...
That just feels like a total waste of potential to me (and kind of blatantly deceptive?) - I think everyone would have been happier if Sirfetch'd just evolved from Farfetch'd in the first place, and I say this as someone who doesn't even really like Farfetch'd or Sirfetch'd and has no stake in this whatsoever.
What does Galarian Farfetch'd even add to the Pokémon world? Or the Galar region? The main difference is in the leek it holds (which, okay, fair - that is an actual difference between Galar and other regions, and it's also the basis for a "new" item in Sword and Shield)... and then... "Farfetch'd adapted to holding this kind of leek?" The Pokédex says a bunch of stuff that... is pretty much already true of regular Farfetch'd... and then tacks that on at the end?
In nearly every case, I wouldn't mind so much if both versions of the line got crossgens, or if we had more cases like Runerigus and Perrserker rather than additional stages given to the Galarian version only... but specifically Galarian Farfetch'd just doesn't deserve to exist in the first place.

OKAY, that's all of my Gen VIII rambling for today! Sorry, haha.

Edit: slight rewording

We had a discussion on Discord, and a theory why they stopped doing cross generational Pokémon might be the reception of the Gen 4 ones. They were apparently negatively recieved by the Japanese Audience, and GF is one of those companies that primarily focuses on their region primarily for feedback. Gliscor was an apparent example. It might also do with the fact that Gen 5 was Unova only, with no ties to old Pokémon, and Gen 6 introduced Megas, which were kind of like an evolution. They probably gave it to the regional variants to avoid that criticism, “ Its an evolved form of Farfetch’d but it’s not evolve form of Farfetch’d “ It praises those who wanted an evolution, while also keeping those who did not want an evolution at bay.

 

[CoolMan6001]

This may go very wishlisty, but I really believe regional variants is a mechanic that can be very useful for something GF would never do, but:

This mechanic allows future-gen mons to appear in a remake. (Just as a regiona variant) What I mean by this is that DP remakes coulde decide that Unova mons should appear, so they just make those Unova mons into Shinohnian forms to feature them. (Justified by that not being a mechanic at the time)

This is a potential that leaves me feeling really great about this mechanic, and it's already proven how neat it has been working out. It is a really cool thought that this is a possibility with this mechanic, and a good opportunity to take that I would hope didn't get turned down. Regional Varriants for the win!

 

[OrangeGuru]

This may go very wishlisty, but I really believe regional variants is a mechanic that can be very useful for something GF would never do, but:

This mechanic allows future-gen mons to appear in a remake. (Just as a regiona variant) What I mean by this is that DP remakes coulde decide that Unova mons should appear, so they just make those Unova mons into Shinohnian forms to feature them. (Justified by that not being a mechanic at the time)

This is a potential that leaves me feeling really great about this mechanic, and it's already proven how neat it has been working out. It is a really cool thought that this is a possibility with this mechanic, and a good opportunity to take that I would hope didn't get turned down. Regional Varriants for the win!

The only issue with your example is that GF has never used regional variants to bring new pokemon "back in time" so to speak to an older generation; it's always been bringing something like Gen 1 pokemon "ahead" to Gen 7. Bringing Unova pokemon into Sinnoh would raise the question of "well, why didn't Sinnohian Whimsicott exist back in DPPt?" from a lore perspective. maybe this could be explained away by making remakes in the future more like BW2 where time has passed to allow for the discovery and introduction of regional forms, but that would definitely be a hurdle.

 

[Worldie]

The only issue with your example is that GF has never used regional variants to bring new pokemon "back in time" so to speak to an older generation; it's always been bringing something like Gen 1 pokemon "ahead" to Gen 7. Bringing Unova pokemon into Sinnoh would raise the question of "well, why didn't Sinnohian Whimsicott exist back in DPPt?" from a lore perspective. maybe this could be explained away by making remakes in the future more like BW2 where time has passed to allow for the discovery and introduction of regional forms, but that would definitely be a hurdle.

Consider that with the existance of ORAS and USUM, GameFreaks essentially officialized the concept of Multiverse.
If they really wanted, they can just pull the multiverse card off and say that in "omegaDPP" universe, there's a sinnohnian Whimsicott family line.

Also, unfortunately there's already a case of similar "inconsistencies", for example with some "post gen evolutions", where it's unrealistic to think that in Kanto noone every got friendly enough with say, their Eevee, Chansey or Golbat that they didn't evolve.
Another example is Magnemites and Magnezones that also were always used in electric centrals (shown in really every gen featuring one) which somehow never evolved in Kanto, Jotho or Hoenn (yet they are able to evolve regularly in ORAS Hoenn)

 

[DreamPrince]

Consider that with the existance of ORAS and USUM, GameFreaks essentially officialized the concept of Multiverse.
If they really wanted, they can just pull the multiverse card off and say that in "omegaDPP" universe, there's a sinnohnian Whimsicott family line.

Also, unfortunately there's already a case of similar "inconsistencies", for example with some "post gen evolutions", where it's unrealistic to think that in Kanto noone every got friendly enough with say, their Eevee, Chansey or Golbat that they didn't evolve.
Another example is Magnemites and Magnezones that also were always used in electric centrals (shown in really every gen featuring one) which somehow never evolved in Kanto, Jotho or Hoenn (yet they are able to evolve regularly in ORAS Hoenn)

Not to mention that GF doesn’t care about timelines in general, confirmed during a SwSh interview, them saying that a timeline is too ‘messy’ to deal with, so they try not to pay attention to it.

 

[Yung Dramps]

So I've been replaying Pokemon Sun, finished Melemele and am almost done with Akala. And with my memory fully refreshed and three other playthroughs prior (SWSH, Platinum and ORAS), I can safely ask...

...When do the supposedly obnoxious, unbearable cutscenes and tutorials begin? Seriously, did I miss something? Did I buy a bootleg copy with the ultra bad stuff cut out due to shitty programming? Literally the entire time I was going through Melemele I was thinking "The cutscenes and handholding should start to get agonizing anytime now, right? How about now? Now maybe?" and yet that threshold just never came. For sure it would be nice if you could skip the catching tutorial or something, but that's how every game prior to SWSH operated. And as for constantly being stopped to talk I didn't see a hugely above average amount of that, certainly not like my Platinum playthrough where I literally only was able to walk one step from the starting position of my character in my room before Barry swooped in to say something.

I wanna argue more vehemently, but I'm genuinely just baffled. Someone mind explaining what exactly about SM's intro and first stretch through Melemele was so heinous that it turned people off from even replaying it?

 

[Pikachu315111]

I wanna argue more vehemently, but I'm genuinely just baffled. Someone mind explaining what exactly about SM's intro and first stretch through Melemele was so heinous that it turned people off from even replaying it?

I'm going to guess for those who want to play Pokemon like the free range experience Gen I & II was (aka having little to no story and for most story beats you have to purposely initiate it), they probably feel bothered you are more then occasionally stopped, told story, and pointed to the next direction you were likely already heading to. I'd imagine Gen V would have gotten the same complaints from those people if they played Gen V (though due to burnout I know a lot of players skipped out Gen V).

Also there's the Rotom Dex which they probably felt was constantly on their case cause it does like to chatter on.

 

[earl]

So I've been replaying Pokemon Sun, finished Melemele and am almost done with Akala. And with my memory fully refreshed and three other playthroughs prior (SWSH, Platinum and ORAS), I can safely ask...

...When do the supposedly obnoxious, unbearable cutscenes and tutorials begin? Seriously, did I miss something? Did I buy a bootleg copy with the ultra bad stuff cut out due to shitty programming? Literally the entire time I was going through Melemele I was thinking "The cutscenes and handholding should start to get agonizing anytime now, right? How about now? Now maybe?" and yet that threshold just never came. For sure it would be nice if you could skip the catching tutorial or something, but that's how every game prior to SWSH operated. And as for constantly being stopped to talk I didn't see a hugely above average amount of that, certainly not like my Platinum playthrough where I literally only was able to walk one step from the starting position of my character in my room before Barry swooped in to say something.

I wanna argue more vehemently, but I'm genuinely just baffled. Someone mind explaining what exactly about SM's intro and first stretch through Melemele was so heinous that it turned people off from even replaying it?

It takes like an hour to even get your starter, the amount of exposition in the beginning was agonizing to play through if my memory serves well. But then again, you seem quite partial to the SuMo story so I’m sure it was more tolerable

 

[Celever]

So I've been replaying Pokemon Sun, finished Melemele and am almost done with Akala. And with my memory fully refreshed and three other playthroughs prior (SWSH, Platinum and ORAS), I can safely ask...

...When do the supposedly obnoxious, unbearable cutscenes and tutorials begin? Seriously, did I miss something? Did I buy a bootleg copy with the ultra bad stuff cut out due to shitty programming? Literally the entire time I was going through Melemele I was thinking "The cutscenes and handholding should start to get agonizing anytime now, right? How about now? Now maybe?" and yet that threshold just never came. For sure it would be nice if you could skip the catching tutorial or something, but that's how every game prior to SWSH operated. And as for constantly being stopped to talk I didn't see a hugely above average amount of that, certainly not like my Platinum playthrough where I literally only was able to walk one step from the starting position of my character in my room before Barry swooped in to say something.

I wanna argue more vehemently, but I'm genuinely just baffled. Someone mind explaining what exactly about SM's intro and first stretch through Melemele was so heinous that it turned people off from even replaying it?

I think it's a mischaracterised argument (not by you, by the people making the argument themselves) and it's a wider discussion about the character of Lillie, and one specific hour of gameplay right at the beginning.

Almost nothing that Lillie does matters. She stops the flow of gameplay to tell you about how she doesn't really know how to buy clothes, or that Nebby is situated at the end of Melemele Meadow to force the player to explore the area in full. It's very lazy game design in the worst way -- players accept laziness when done with humour like the dancing guys that formed a roadblock in Gen V. However, everything that Lillie does is attempted to be conveyed with urgency or importance, and that makes players feel like they need to be paying attention meanwhile the unimportance of everything she does then makes players feel like that attention was wasted. She also just had the misfortune of being everywhere the player went at the start of the game, from the Trainers' School to the boat ride to Akala Island, and sometimes players just get bored of seeing the same character over and over again.

The issue is that this doesn't come with any payoff. I don't have any issue with Lillie's role in the story and she's certainly central to the plot, but she also undergoes minimal to no character growth or development over the course of the game, and that's a requirement for characters who keep intruding upon the player experience. She does undergo character growth but it all happens at once, after she confronts Lusamine, as opposed to happening gradually during the multiple interactions with the player. All of the interactions prior to that confrontation only serve to establish the fact that she's weak and demure in just about every way known to man, but 20 one dimensional shapes are all still one dimensional, and that's the same with her character until her personality flip. With that kind of character development, it makes just as much sense to have her drop in on the player once an island to establish her meekness as it does to have her in every location the player visits, so it leaves the impression that all of those interactions were a waste of time.

Gladion undergoes much better, gradual character development and the pacing of his character is much better. That's why whenever anyone brings up the "obnoxious, unbearable cutscenes" they cite the cutscenes involving Lillie as their examples. And it's a shame that they try to extrapolate the flaws of one character into a more grand flaw of the game as a whole, because Lillie is by far the worst written character who drags down an otherwise pretty impressively written game -- for Pokémon, at least.

However, besides Lillie specifically, there's a specific string of events right when the player reaches Hau'oli City which feels very stagnant. After you waste a load of time at the Trainers' School (the first time the Trainers' School has been compulsory in the series), you: walk a bit, a lady interrupts you to tell you how to say hello, walk a bit, Hau gets a Rotom-Dex upgrade with you, walk outside the shop, Lillie stops you to to take a selfie and tell you she's going shopping, walk a bit, a man forces you to take a picture with Rotom-Dex, walk a bit, Lillie tells you she doesn't know how to buy clothes, walk a bit, Ilima stops you to talk to you about stickers, walk a bit, Team Skull stops you to fight you, you think you finally have freedom and then Ilima stops you to fight you, walk a bit, Hala wrestles a Tauros, and only then, finally, can you go to the next route. This is, with mashing the A button as much as possible and skipping all the dialogue, half an hour of "gameplay" at the bare minimum. On a first playthrough where the player believes something important may happen and so doesn't skip the dialogue, it's around an hour of "gameplay" spent walking along a single road talking to people, with 2 compulsory battles as the only relief. 2 battles in an hour. The fact that this is right at the start of the game sets a really sour note that many players carried with them through the rest of the game, making them overly critical of the amount of cutscenes even though after this point they're not really overused. Some people also count the Trainers' School in this awful part of the game because there's no Wild Pokémon or exploration, just a few compulsory battles with the only relief inbetween them being even more unimportant dialogue. However, I give the Trainers' School the benefit of the doubt because it would be fine as a location in its own right, and it's only counted as a part of this string because it happens to directly precede it.

I also understand the distaste that leonard (from big bang theory) referenced with the period of the game preceding even this one also being too slow. I agree that it's too slow but equally, it's not quite so bad in my opinion. I didn't hate it at the time like I hated Hau'oli City, but in hindsight I agree that it's far too slow because SwSh has a very similar opening sequence that's streamlined while simultaneously being more attention-grabbing. The first part of the game always introduces the rival(s) and regional Professor, but Gen VII and VIII are even more comparative because they also both involve your rival guiding you through a route before you can get your starter. SM just took way more time with it because everything is laid out weirdly -- instead of the Professor living past where you receive your starter, you have to go up the hill to get your starter (before this there's also a pretty long cutscene), and then once you get your starter the literal first thing you do is backtrack past your house in order to get to the Professor's lab. It takes too long and the first cutscene involving Lillie should definitely have occurred after the player received their starter, involving some battling. But all in all I don't think it's too egregious, perhaps because it's overshadowed by the egregiousness of Hau'oli City, though.

 

[Antihaxxer]

I like all the cutscenes from SM USUM, it makes me feel I'm playing a story, and not a fighting Pokemon game.
The more storyline, the better

And I know It's unpopular !

 

[SR765]

This is probably a very unpopular opinion but out of all the Pokemon games I played which are BW, Y, OM, Moon, Platinum, Let's Go, and Sword. BW is my favorite not just because it introduced me to Pokemon in the first place but it's just a lot of fun to play. Sure it's flawed such as how it can be a bit grindy sometimes and the level design isn't the best but I like most of the Pokemon, the story was good especially for a Pokemon game, I love the sprites, and imo has the best music in the series. I guess nostalgia is probably why I like BW so much but even playing it now it's still a really fun and I still love listening to the soundtrack.

Also I like Duraludon more then Dragapult, sure Dragapult is a great pokemon for competitive play but I don't like its design compared to other dragon types and Duraludon while yes has weird design to me it's a very derpy design and I like derpy Pokemon. Also I really like its G-max form.