Unpopular opinions

[Pikachu315111]

Hyper Beam not recharging after KOing a Pokemon in RBY was a sick mechanic and should come back in some form, maybe nerfed slightly to curb the power increase through items and such. It encouraged knowing KO ranges in a way that's completely unlike any other move archetype in the series. The dynamics it introduced were super unique and gave a reward to skill-based gameplay. Switching in Pokemon to absorb the moves and force recharges was also a cool way to claw momentum back. I wouldn't call it centralising, but the way game states were manipulated was seriously an awesome thing. Imagine Rock Wrecker, Roar of Time and even the starter versions finally seeing use after so long. Hell, Tauros could replicate its old days with Giga Impact in lower tiers.

Maybe bring back that thing where recoil moves didn't damage you when KOing something too, that was only in Stadium but also really cool.

Definitely think all of this would become crazy with the general powercreep, depleted bulk and addition of items though. But if toned down, all of this stuff could be super interesting.

I think just letting the user completely skip the recharge next turn is a bit OP, but I do think they could maybe allow for a lesser version of the effect: If user knocks out the target, next turn user can use a Status Move that either targets themselves, an ally, or user's side of the field. If any other kind of Move is selected the player will be told this Pokemon needs to recharge this turn.

I think this combines the best of both ideas. When you select a Hyper Beam or one of its variants, you accept that for all this raw power you won't be able to do anything next turn. However, this is very turn-based logic and technically we're not supposed to be thinking that's how battles would be done IRL, so to make battles feel more fluid (and reward the player for a "precise" use of Hyper Beam) they could say that while the the opponent was selecting their next Pokemon the Hyper Beam user caught its breath enough for it to use a healing move, stat buffering move, doing something to help its ally, etc.. It's not ready to attack just yet but with the opposing trainer distracted for a moment it's not going to be counterattacked immediately.

However I don't think we need to really change recoil moves since knocking out the opponent with lower HP means the user receives less damage thus they're already awarded.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Speaking of stuff left behind in Gen 1, remember when you could just start a new game from the menu, allowing you to experiment with certain things without overwriting your existing save and start over without needing to memorize a button combination to wipe it? Can we have that back?

 

[Pikachu315111]

Speaking of stuff left behind in Gen 1, remember when you could just start a new game from the menu, allowing you to experiment with certain things without overwriting your existing save and start over without needing to memorize a button combination to wipe it? Can we have that back?

Or, you know, just let us have multiple save files.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Or, you know, just let us have multiple save files.

To be fair, Sword and Shield allows us the closest thing we have had so far to having multiple saves in Pokemon. Since save files in that game are tied to the Switch account playing it, it's possible to just create a new account on a Switch and start a fresh playthrough on the new account without destroying your original account's save file.

In fact, I actually created an alt account on my Switch simply so that I could have a fresh playthrough of Shield to play through without completely destroying my first playthrough's data (since that's still on my main Switch account).

Not a perfect idea per se, but it's fairly close. I do agree with your overall sentiment though, I always disliked how most Pokemon games only allowed just one save file per cart (which is why I sometimes end up with both versions of a pair for some games like BW1).

 

[Sugarbear]

I would actually like to see Intelligent Systems (the makers of Fire Emblem) make a mainline Pokemon game. I'd let Gamefreak design the Pokemon themselves, and the music, but IS can handle the gameplay and story.

 

[earl]

I would actually like to see Intelligent Systems (the makers of Fire Emblem) make a mainline Pokemon game. I'd let Gamefreak design the Pokemon themselves, and the music, but IS can handle the gameplay and story.

They’re also the developers of modern paper mario, though, and that’s arguably a beehive even more dangerous than game freak

 

[Tmi489]

bit late but going back to the regional evos topic

I wonder why they decided to make them new evolutions instead of just Galarian forms of Persian and Cofagrigus.

Most alolan formes have a BST shift of 10 or less (Sandslash-A loses 20 SpA for 10 Def/Spe). Meanwhile, Perrserker/Rune both have major stat changes that change how they play (Persian is a fast attacker, Perrserker slow and powerful. Cof/Rune have swapped attacking stats). Galarian formes are a bit more extreme, but still are only a 30 bst shift at maximum (mixed attackers).

Like how do you make Alolan Meowth obtainable in other regions without making it akward?

LGPE had foreign people trade you the regular form for the alolan forme
As answered, SWSH had the diglett sidequest, again from a foreign person
Importation definitely is a thing too, so an "Alolan" habitat or something akin to how yungoos/mongooses invaded a new area

They’re also the developers of modern paper mario, though, and that’s arguably a beehive even more dangerous than game freak

modern paper mario has to compete with M&L as mario rpgs, so i think IS was experimenting post TTYD but nothing really stuck

 

[Merritt]

I would actually like to see Intelligent Systems (the makers of Fire Emblem) make a mainline Pokemon game. I'd let Gamefreak design the Pokemon themselves, and the music, but IS can handle the gameplay and story.

This is well suited to the unpopular opinions thread.

(IS has done some good things with character writing in Fire Emblem and has partially returned to form with their story but gameplay in Fire Emblem has been pretty heavily criticized of late, and story is coming not too far off the heels of Fates and its problems with story and the characters in said story. Fire Emblem music has been consistently really strong, but then again main Nintendo properties as a whole mostly do good music.)

 

[Ironmage]

While I think there's a good reason to want to see a mainline pokemon game made by someone other than GF, I'll admit I'm not sure what the big draw of Intelligent Systems is in this case. Putting aside that my main issue with Three Houses (it's harder to mix-and-match skills to create whatever ovecomplicated stupid thing I thought of this time) would be just as much a problem with Pokemon, I think of IS more for their strategy games, with Paper Mario being a thing off on the side that they don't exercise a lot of creative control in (i.e. PM is a game they happened to develop, their main games are stuff like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars). This means that it seems weird to recommend them for a game where the core gameplay is constrained to be outside of what I consider their main focus. I would have assumed the obvious alternate choice would have been a JRPG-focused studio like Monolith.

 

[Pikachu315111]

They’re also the developers of modern paper mario, though, and that’s arguably a beehive even more dangerous than game freak

I don't think its fair to use modern Paper Mario as a representation of their work as Nintendo has really been screwing with them about it. Incase you don't know, people love Paper Mario for the first two games in the series: Paper Mario and PM: The Thousand-Year Door. Both fun RPGs set in the world of Mario, notable for the "partner system" as Mario's partners in those games are interesting characters who are members of Mario enemy species and each provide their own skills both in battle and out in the overworld. And both have a rather deeper story than you usually see in a Mario game.

I can just picture how much Miyamoto hates the series because for some reason he doesn't want there to be a story to Mario. And since then, likely from efforts from Miyamoto to sabotage the series, Nintendo has told Intelligence System they are no longer allowed to create new characters out of classic Mario enemies (you know, a major part of the charm of the Paper Mario series) and forced them to "innovate" each and every game which is why all recent Paper Mario games are super gimmicky because that what Nintendo forced them to doing. I bet if Nintendo would step back and let Intelligence System do what they want we'd get another Paper Mario life the first two, they've probably been bombarded by enough fan requests to know that what fans want (not that Nintendo cares, their concern is keeping Miyamoto happy).

But that all said, if you want to judge them on their recent works with Fire Emblem then go right ahead. But Paper Mario is a sad story of malicious executive meddling.

EDIT: While no one is likely reading this, after talking with Yung Dramps and looking through a whole batch of interviews modern Paper Mario is likely Tanabe's "fault" (wouldn't blame all of Intelligent Systems though, just Tanabe; also "fauly" is a strong word as it's more Tanabe's conflicting vision). Here's pretty much the explanation, Nintendo nor Miyamoto is holding IS and Tanabe to the "rules" (which are more just general suggestion not to add superfluous changes just ones they feel is needed) but Tanabe is kind of taking them as strict rules. Also Tanabe took over Paper Mario from the original director, Ryota Kawade because, to him, the Paper Mario series was done with Super Paper Mario (Mario saved the Mushroom Kingdom (N64), than the world (TTYD), and than the universe (Super)). Ryota stepped down so he could work on the Fire Emblem team and Tanabe then took over Paper Mario though honestly it might as well be a different series according to Tanabe's vision (which he wants to focus on sort of many a parody/funny version of Mario... which wasn't really what Paper Mario was about), so I guess in a way you can say we still never got a proper 4th Paper Mario.

modern paper mario has to compete with M&L as mario rpgs, so i think IS was experimenting post TTYD but nothing really stuck

Well not anymore, the makers of the Mario RPGs, AlphaDream, went bankrupt last year and I'm going to guess Nintendo probably has no interest in continuing the series themselves.

I would have assumed the obvious alternate choice would have been a JRPG-focused studio like Monolith.

I'd be good with Monolith.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Nintendo has told Intelligence System they are no longer allowed to create new characters out of classic Mario enemies (you know, a major part of the charm of the Paper Mario series)

This obviously isn't a Paper Mario thread and I don't wanna go down this rabbit hole too deep but for what its worth I am absolutely convinced that the remark in the now-infamous interview about them not being allowed to create original characters is either some extremely weird miscommunication whether due to faulty translation or clumsy wording on the interviewees' part or just a bold-faced lie. I haven't played Origami King myself but I've seen gameplay and reviews of it and there's just too many things about it that do not match up to this supposed issue in the slightest.

Discrepancies with this logic (Contains Origami King spoilers)

-The fact King Olly and Olivia exist
-The entire origamification thing with most of Bowser's army and Princess Peach that is deliberately played for creepiness
-Professor Toad, a Toad companion with a cool explorer garb
-There are NPC Mario characters with different looks! Take these dudes from Shogun Studios, one of the main areas of the game
-While not appearance-related it's worth noting that some pretty crazy shit is done with the characters old and new who appear. See Bowser Jr. getting hacked into pieces, the aforementioned creepy origami thing and Bobby, a new Bob-omb companion suicide bombing himself to save Olivia in a tragic scene. No revival or anything, he dies and stays dead, only re-appearing as an easter egg ghost if you go back to Shogun Studios.

So yeah, I don't buy it one bit and don't think it's anything worth stressing over, although if this is in fact a deliberate lie it's worth questioning potential motivations behind it. Didn't know about Miyamoto supposedly forcing the team into doing new things every game, got a source on that? Don't recall seeing that mentioned in said infamous interview.

As for the topic at hand, I'd be interested to see Spike Chunsoft tackle a mainline game. They've worked on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon as well as other RPG/anime-like games such as the Danganronpa series. it would certainly be a better fit than all the shitty fighting games clearly outside of their field of expertise people keep making them do for some reason cough cough jump force cough

 

[DreamPrince]

I would actually like to see Intelligent Systems (the makers of Fire Emblem) make a mainline Pokemon game. I'd let Gamefreak design the Pokemon themselves, and the music, but IS can handle the gameplay and story.

I could definitely see IS handling the battling and extracurriculars and contests and secret bases since a lot of gameplay elements from Fire Emblem and Pokémon can overlap if you look really hard. When it comes to World/Map Design, I would like to see Monolith Soft handle it. There the company who made Xenoblade series, as well as providing support for BOTW and having finished Xenoblade Chronicles on the Switch, it would be exciting to see Pokémon version of Xenoblade’s huge open world’s environments. Both franchises have great Soundtracks, so I’m fine either way.

This is well suited to the unpopular opinions thread.

(IS has done some good things with character writing in Fire Emblem and has partially returned to form with their story but gameplay in Fire Emblem has been pretty heavily criticized of late, and story is coming not too far off the heels of Fates and its problems with story and the characters in said story. Fire Emblem music has been consistently really strong, but then again main Nintendo properties as a whole mostly do good music.)

I personally really like Fates despite its poor story, as well as most of the characters despite not being nearly as strong as 3 Houses.

Gameplay wise, it’s fantastic.Versatile class options, different ways to have different stat growth for children, you’re own personal base, to name a few. The best way to explain it to a Pokémon Fans is that Fates is like XY: Bad story characters, great gameplay and replayibility. If story is not a big deal for you, Fates is a Wonderful game.

Back on topic, I personally think Monolith soft would be a more ideal creator of a Pokémon, since prior to more recent titles, the games have been about exploration as well as battling. Look at Sinnoh. Areas like Old Cheatau, secret side of Wayward Cave, and even an extremely minor cave like Oreburgh Cave, has a secret side to it. This is something that is everywhere in Xenoblade, and I’d be excited to see something like that in a Pokémon game if it ever came down to that.

 

[Sonikku A]

Chunsoft unfortunately hit a rut for Mystery Dungeon thanks to Wiiware, and the complaints for GTI
Then you have attempts of nostalgia (references in Super, RTDX in general), but the former felt like a rehash of GTI for Story only worse, and the latter was meant to be a Gen 7 game that was staved over until later possibly due to MD being niche till Twitter popularity (files suggest this), and even without that knowledge its still a meh remake reusing Super/GTIs poor models and anims
The you're the human aspect also is starting to become generic sadly

 

[Pikachu315111]

The you're the human aspect also is starting to become generic sadly

Have they ever done a story where the main character purposely turned themselves into a Pokemon or has it always been a surprise mystery? The "human becoming a Pokemon" idea sounds like a story idea that has plenty of potential, interpretations, and layers to it.

 

[Sonikku A]

Have they ever done a story where the main character purposely turned themselves into a Pokemon or has it always been a surprise mystery? The "human becoming a Pokemon" idea sounds like a story idea that has plenty of potential, interpretations, and layers to it.

Outside Wiiware having absolutely none, nope
Technically the first game you purposely choose to become a mon, but you loose your memories so it's still the same

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I wonder of they made Alolan forms with Let's Go in mind? Introducing Dark, Steel, and Fairy types, having a few more Ghost and Dragon types, and having more Rock types that aren't Ground in the Gen 1 pool makes much more sense if they were planning to return to Gen 1.

Interesting thought. I'm not sure though. My impression of Let's Go is that they were made as a follow-up to Go and its massive popularity. Go was released in 2016, a few months before S/M which means that they must have been more or less finalized in development at that point. I don't think anyone had expected Go to become as big as it became, and I don't think they had planned Let's Go before the success of Go. So I'm not sure. That said, chances are they had planned a Kanto re-remake of some sort already back thent. I remember seeing fan demand for a Kanto re-remake as early as 2014, and remakes these days mostly seem to happen to fan demand, so it was bound to happen at some point sooner or later once the demand got high enough. Then when they got around to it, the re-remake just happened to be Let's Go. I don't really know if that's how it is, but that's a possible scenario at least.

Most alolan formes have a BST shift of 10 or less (Sandslash-A loses 20 SpA for 10 Def/Spe). Meanwhile, Perrserker/Rune both have major stat changes that change how they play (Persian is a fast attacker, Perrserker slow and powerful. Cof/Rune have swapped attacking stats). Galarian formes are a bit more extreme, but still are only a 30 bst shift at maximum (mixed attackers).

Another interesting point, but if that's the case, then I consider that to be an issue. As I have said earlier, one of my issues with regional variants is how they have very similar stat spreads to the original forms, and that is something I think future regional variants could improve upon. If they now can't make regional variants with major differences in stat spreads, then that's something I consider to be a problem. But on the other hand, if this means we get regional evolutions instead, then I'm okay with them as "replacements", so to say.

Also, thanks Pikachu315111 for mentioning that both Perrserker and Runerigus have a viking theme to them, that was something I hadn't thought about for Runerigus even if it should have been obvious from the beginning.

Regarding the topic of another studio creating a main series Pokémon game, I'd be okay with that. If anything, it could be interesting to see how it turns out. It could become better or worse, but it would at least be different which I think would be cool. Regarding which studio, I'd be okay with Monolith Soft developing a Pokémon game as I am a fan of the Xenoblade series (if that wasn't obvious already), I have played XC1 and 2 and those are great games. I have only played X very little once when visiting a friend though, so I don't know much about it. I'm less sure about IS, but that's only because I haven't played many games from them. Only one Advance Wars game and 2 Fire Emblem games, one which is Three Houses which I started playing just last week. I have not played any Paper Mario games. I have several ideas for what I would like to see in a future Pokémon game developed by another studio (or in general), but I fear that would be going too deep into wishlisting so I'll leave it with this.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I have several ideas for what I would like to see in a future Pokémon game developed by another studio (or in general)

I think we all do, some of us more than others (I will not confirm or deny having multiple Notepad and Word docs filled with my ideas...).

 

[jordanthejq12]

On the subject of Let's Go, I like the concept and would love to see it further explored as a side series, especially as PoGo itself gradually encompasses more of the Dex.

 

[Codraroll]

Is that really a factor which matters though?

If replicating and replacing the original starter triangle is what we're aiming for, then yes.

I do agree with your overall sentiment though, I always disliked how most Pokemon games only allowed just one save file per cart (which is why I sometimes end up with both versions of a pair for some games like BW1).

And that's very closely related to why they stuck to one save per cart for so long.

 

[Pikachu315111]

If replicating and replacing the original starter triangle is what we're aiming for, then yes.

But may I point out that in Gen I was Bulbasaur was Grass/Poison, thus making it quadruple resistant to Grass. If a Type Triangle was concern with the Type resisting itself, and thus the Gen I Starters would be used as a representation of this idea, wouldn't Bulbasaur be pure Grass? But it's not, because GF's concern for the Starters Type triangle is the relation between the two Types and not the relation the individual Type has with itself. One Type was strong against the other which is also resisted, and it was then weak to the other Type that also resisted it. And to be honest this is only because they could then have the Rival choose the Starter that was strong against yours (or later games having a/the Rival choosing the Starter weaker than yours), the point of doing this was to set up the Rival dichotomy, at least for the first few battles where your Starters were likely going to be the strongest.

 

[Magcargo]

Honestly, the save file issue is why I consider the Sword and Shield to be more replayable than past gens if you aren't using emulators. It also helps that the game lets you build a full team within the first 30 minutes of gameplay letting you start a new save pretty easily w/o waiting stretches of the the game for your next member.

 

[Siggu]

But may I point out that in Gen I was Bulbasaur was Grass/Poison, thus making it quadruple resistant to Grass. If a Type Triangle was concern with the Type resisting itself, and thus the Gen I Starters would be used as a representation of this idea, wouldn't Bulbasaur be pure Grass? But it's not, because GF's concern for the Starters Type triangle is the relation between the two Types and not the relation the individual Type has with itself. One Type was strong against the other which is also resisted, and it was then weak to the other Type that also resisted it. And to be honest this is only because they could then have the Rival choose the Starter that was strong against yours (or later games having a/the Rival choosing the Starter weaker than yours), the point of doing this was to set up the Rival dichotomy, at least for the first few battles where your Starters were likely going to be the strongest.

Or how in Gen IV Torterra didn't resist Grass due to its secondary type. Or Rowlet in Gen VII providing yet another Grass starter with a double resistance to Grass.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Gen 4 in general really sort of threw the whole FWG triangle away with their starters' final forms and their second typings. Of course, it still applies to their base and middle forms, but with their final forms the type triangle really doesn't apply much at all. Torterra also doesn't resist Water. Empoleon doesn't resist Fire. Torterra's second STAB hits Infernape super effectively. Infernape's second STAB hits Empoleon super effectively. Empoleon also isn't weak to Grass (but it is weak to Ground, Torterra's second STAB).

I don't think there's been a case like Gen 4's starter trio since, but in this particular instance it seems they were more concerned with making the starters with cool typings and designs (which worked well) than keeping in line with the type triangle, because their second typings just throw it out the window entirely.

 

[Sugarbear]

For Gen 9 I would like to see the starters go Grass / Fire, Fire / Water and Water / Grass. I’d give them Flash Fire, Storm Drain, and Sap Sipper as slot 2 abilities.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Or how in Gen IV Torterra didn't resist Grass due to its secondary type. Or Rowlet in Gen VII providing yet another Grass starter with a double resistance to Grass.

Well not really that important to the point I was making. Codraroll was suggesting since from the start the Types resisting themselves was a requirement for it to be a true Type Triangle. However, if that was the case, all the Gen I Starters than would be either purely their Type or combined with a Type that doesn't mess with the match-ups to exemplify this. But they're not, Bulbasaur's Grass/Poison makes them super resistant to Grass. What they do for later Gen Starters (heck, even what they do for later evolutions after the Starter's basic stage) doesn't really matter as the Type Triangle was meant to more easily help show the Type Match-Ups to new players and set up the Rival as someone to overcome as they'll always picks the Starter stronger to yours (remember, we're talking about Gen I here Gen I) and for the first few battles your Starters will likely be your strongest Pokemon.

For Gen 9 I would like to see the starters go Grass / Fire, Fire / Water and Water / Grass. I’d give them Flash Fire, Storm Drain, and Sap Sipper as slot 2 abilities.

Eh, at that point you're kind of asking for the Starters to feel homogenized. I want the Starters to be different and if they want to mix things up would rather they do something like using different Types, make them two-stages or not evolve/have a form change.