Unpopular opinions

[Pikachu315111]

Adventures Archie was big brain enough so he took control of the media before they were seen as crazy environmentalists like Magma. Also, Magma were scavengers there, which it feels kinda off considering how more sophisticated Maxie is.

I was more referring to what Tama Hiroka said about the teams' origins in her retro review of Diamond & Pearl. Apparently around the time of Diamond & Pearl there was an economic situation going on where Japan's population was about to/has exceeded their food production but they had no more land to farm. The Japanese government decided to drain the last lake they hadn't already drained, however they met strong opposition from environmentalists and people who made a living on the lake. In the end the government won out and the lake was drained and the effects of that is still being felt today in Japan (and not in a good way).

So with that in mind it would sound like Team Magma would have control over the media while Aqua was the scrappy rebellious group. I'd imagine Aqua's supporters would be the grassroots community who felt they've been ignored or oppressed by the government.

Also, he had Walrein. Several Walrein. In the anime, several grunts used Walrein. Why didn't RSE nor ORAS do that? Definitely a better roster than what they have (although at least AS gave them Grimer/Muk).

If I was to redo their teams (going to do a full team of 6):

Archie: Sharpedo, Walrein, Ludicolo, Starmie, Wailord, Kingdra
Maxie: Camerupt, Houndoom, Shiftry, Claydol, Relicanth, Flygon

Feels this makes the most sense. Yeah, Archie is all Water-type, but it's a vast ocean of Water-type diversity (Ludicolo is a stretch but I did it for dichotomy with Maxie's Shiftry). Meanwhile Maxie's Pokemon has a wider Type coverage as life on land had adapted in many different ways and land itself comes in different forms.

 

[pokemon4eva]

I know, I watched her Ruby and Sapphire review, pretty insightful video. The Archie from the manga must have been genre savvy enough to know what

I was more referring to what Tama Hiroka said about the teams' origins in her retro review of Diamond & Pearl. Apparently around the time of Diamond & Pearl there was an economic situation going on where Japan's population was about to/has exceeded their food production but they had no more land to farm. The Japanese government decided to drain the last lake they hadn't already drained, however they met strong opposition from environmentalists and people who made a living on the lake. In the end the government won out and the lake was drained and the effects of that is still being felt today in Japan (and not in a good way).

So with that in mind it would sound like Team Magma would have control over the media while Aqua was the scrappy rebellious group. I'd imagine Aqua's supporters would be the grassroots community who felt they've been ignored or oppressed by the government.



If I was to redo their teams (going to do a full team of 6):

Archie: Sharpedo, Walrein, Ludicolo, Starmie, Wailord, Kingdra
Maxie: Camerupt, Houndoom, Shiftry, Claydol, Relicanth, Flygon

Feels this makes the most sense. Yeah, Archie is all Water-type, but it's a vast ocean of Water-type diversity (Ludicolo is a stretch but I did it for dichotomy with Maxie's Shiftry). Meanwhile Maxie's Pokemon has a wider Type coverage as life on land had adapted in many different ways and land itself comes in different forms.

I watched her Ruby and Sapphire vid so I know what you were talking about. This manga Archie seemed genre savvy enough to know what will happen so he took control of the news, and it worked.

Also, I just remembered this old piece of art.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

While I wouldn't agree that GSC or HGSS are the worst games in the series, I agree with your points.

I see people putting up HGSS as the best game of the franchise and I'm like:

HGSS is pretty much a Gen 4 coat of paint on the same dumb issues GSC had. Toggleable Running Shoes? Good graphics and presentation? Following Mons? All cool stuff. They don't fix the level curve, Johto mons being out of focus, Kanto being an empty husk, and Johto being a squished region with a route split that just isn't sustainable.

In fact, because of the TM availability and the faster pace of the game compared to how slow the Gen 4 engine is, I play GSC over HGSS pretty much all the time. The mons available just feel weak compared to a lot of other games like Platinum, BW2, XY, and SwSh.

HGSS, as a remake, is too timid to actually address the original's flaws. That is just not a good trait in a remake. At least the level curve had to be properly addressed.

I guess much of my frustration does come from this sort of universal sentiment that GSC/HGSS were the peak of the franchise.

That is my beef. The new fixtures are stylish but the old problems remain. It is makeup on a blemish. How do you not fix that horrible level curve or Pokemon rosters? Remakes are there to fix errors not gloss over them.

I understand why people love the games (16 gyms, new types, two regions (albeit shortened), new Pokemon) but I just can't ignore how badly the new factors were handled. Yeah, the games introduced a lot but those add-ons weren't used correctly. Why is the point of new types/Pokemon if they are hidden away or annoying to obtain?

 

[Pikachu315111]

This manga Archie seemed genre savvy enough to know what will happen so he took control of the news, and it worked.

I don't think that's it at all. I'm curious if the manga caught on the theme because, since GF dumbed it down so much, the theme was lost on pretty much everyone. Aqua getting media control in the manga was a flip of the coin, one of the teams would have done it and it landed in Aqua's favor. Heck this wasn't even a factor in the games, both teams were just doing what they wanted to do. Though several gens later they would have Team Flare control the news media. Speaking of which.

Eh, Magma is a land-based team. While that certainly means Ground, Fire isn't out of the question. Heck, Groudon's Ability benefits Fire-types the most, and when it Primal Reverses it becomes a Ground/Fire with a more powerful version of its Ability that really benefits Fire-types (and notably Kyogre's Ability and Primal Ability both hinder Fire-types rather then Ground-types).

Also Team Flare wasn't even Fire-theme. The grunts used Poison- & Dark-types. Some Admins used Houndoom but some also used Manectric and kept on using Poison- and Dark-types. The Scientists were just a random handful of Pokemon, Mable only one to use a Houndoom and Xerosic had a Volcarona he didn't use but had Emma use as Essentia (and left with her). Malva is a Fire-type specialist though you don't find out she was working for Team Flare until post game. Finally Lysandre has Pyroar which probably normally be his ace but since they introduced Mega Evos they wanted him to have one so gave him a Mega Gyarados. Overall "Flare" is just an aesthetic theme chosen cause it sounds like "Flair" (cause they seem themselves as a fashionable team) and "fleur-de-lis" (a symbol that was used to represent the royal family).

 

[Samtendo09]

[...] The grunts used Poison- & Dark-types. [...]

You mean basically a supermajority of grunts of any team? Ever since Team Rocket of Gen 1 and 2, a lot of grunts use either a Poison-type (most often a Zubat or Golbat), a Dark-type, the regional rodent, or in the case of Team Aqua and Magma, a Carvanha or Numel respectively, with a very few deviations in-between. The Hypno line was also uncommon but still oft-present in comparison whenever that line was available.

That really reeks a lack of originality between the teams, and it especially hurts the Team Flare grunts, admins, and even the underwhelming scientists as they got nothing to really stand out from past teams in terms of what Pokémon they use.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Houndour was the perfect signature Pokemon for Team Flare and they blew it.

It's still a Dark-type, but Dark/Fire fits the team to a T.

 

[Ironmage]

Houndour was the perfect signature Pokemon for Team Flare and they blew it.

It's still a Dark-type, but Dark/Fire fits the team to a T.

I admit to being genuinely surprised when Lysandre's mega wasn't houndoom. Of course, the fact that I wasn't expecting him to be stupid enough to willingly make his gyarados a dark-type against someone who just obtained Xerneas right in front of him may have had something to do with it.

 

[Pikachu315111]

That really reeks a lack of originality between the teams, and it especially hurts the Team Flare grunts, admins, and even the underwhelming scientists as they got nothing to really stand out from past teams in terms of what Pokémon they use.

For Team Rocket I guess it makes sense for them to use Poison-types as they're supposed to be thugs and easy way to cripple someone is by poisoning them. Though they do throw in other com mons so they're not completely mowed through by Ground & Psychic-types (makes me wonder if they made Bulbasaur part Poison-type is so that it would be neutral to Poison thus be on equal ground with Charmander & Squirtle against the Rocket grunts). Also with Giovanni being a Ground-type specialist having your villain team use a Type you're strong against is good to keep your minions in line. It only gets disappointing with Team Rocket with the Admins, you'd think they would at least have better Pokemon (they had a Game Corner handing them out, would actually have been a neat reference for them to use Pokemon that were given away thinking about it).

As we discussed it was a major disappointment with Team Aqua & Magma. Yes, Aqua grunts did use Carvahna and Magma grunts used Numel but there were so many other Water, Ground, and Fire-types (or other Pokemon that relied living in water or on land) they could have used.

Galactic, Plasma, & Flare they could have done better. No reason they should have stuck with Poison and Dark mostly. For Galactic maybe aim for more space'alien-themed Pokemon, like they used Bronzor and the Wurmple family but could have done more. Plasma could have actually base the grunts on what Pokemon was available on the surrounding routes, pretty much apply N's gimmick to the grunts. Finally Flare, if they wanted to establish a theme for them though one that wasn't fire, maybe focused on Pokemon colors; the Grunts use Red/Brown colored Pokemon, the Admins & Xerosic use White, the Scientist Ladies use the colors of their glasses, and Lysandre uses Red/Brown & Black.

Team Skull I'm willing to forgive as they're supposed to be pathetic so use com mons you can easily catch on routes.

Aether Foundation had fantastic coverage, they actually felt like they could challenge you (... if they had more than two Pokemon each...)!

Ultra Recon Squad makes sense but still was disappointing, considering what you learned what they were doing when they battled you with Furfrou you might have thought they'd challenge you with a batch of Pokemon in different Poke Balls, but nope once they had Poipole that was it for them.

Team Yell I'm also willing to overlook as their leader is a Dark-type specialist.

Macro Cosmos actually was a nice relief as they were Steel-type focused because Rose was a Steel-Type specialist, though if you had a Pokemon that was SE against Steel that probably didn't really matter (Oleana probably was the most difficult as she used Pokemon of different Types at least).

I admit to being genuinely surprised when Lysandre's mega wasn't houndoom. Of course, the fact that I wasn't expecting him to be stupid enough to willingly make his gyarados a dark-type against someone who just obtained Xerneas right in front of him may have had something to do with it.

They wanted Lysandre to have a male Pyroar so giving him a Fire-type Mega on top of that probably would have felt redundant.

Also Lysandre's team in general sucks against Xerneas. It honestly felt made to try to sell players on the Fairy-type...

 

[Yung Dramps]

Concerning Crown Tundra content

I'm actually kinda glad they didn't make Regieleki and Regidrago's movepools too good. Did they go overboard with the lack of coverage? Probably. On the other hand this means there shouldn't be that ridiculous of a viability discrepancy between them and the OGs: They get the better movepool, the new ones get the more optimized stats, abilities and moves. I'm sure they'll do fine either way, perhaps not OU but still should carve a niche somewhere in the mid-tiers not unlike Registeel

 

[Buzzer_Error]

Given that the CT datamine thread is having some kind of day, here's what appears to be an unpopular opinion: I like and am broadly satisfied with the Crown Tundra

 

[Rarycaris]

Given that the CT datamine thread is having some kind of day, here's what appears to be an unpopular opinion: I like and am broadly satisfied with the Crown Tundra

Likewise. Half of Unova's legendaries also had limited movepools, and that never stopped them being good. Not letting the Tapus dominate another generation of VGC was a good idea, and they're still decent as terrain setters. Dynamax Adventures are a lot of fun so far, too.

Only thing I'm disappointed in is Ice Rider's stats, but it can self-set Trick Room or use Agility and has 130BP STAB with no drawbacks coming off 165 base attack, so I think it will still see some use. They're clearly trying to strike a balance between legends with good stat blocks but limited movepools and legends with awkward stat blocks but great movepools, and I'm fine with that. Besides, we're getting like 10 new legendaries -- did people seriously expect them to all be good in OU?

 

[jordanthejq12]

Here's one w/r/t a Gen I programming error. The Champion battle was apparently programmed to ignore your Battle Scene setting and turn move animations on either way...which, honestly, I think made perfect sense. It's the final battle. Of course it should actually feel like it, and move animations are part of that.

 

[pokemon4eva]

I don't have much time to play at the moment but Crown Tundra is looking very good. I love the concept of Calyrex "fusions" and how much it differs from Kyurem and Necrozma. Those two possess their host (Reshiram or Zekrom, Solgaleo and Lunala) and take complete control over it.

Calyrex and Spectrier/Glastrier, on the other hand, work together As One (lame pun I know) and it reflects very well. Displaying both abilities at the same time, their battle theme being both themes combined, and this is the big one: they actually combine both of their movepools which helps them a lot. Calyrex appreciates the stat boost, while the steed appreciate the moves gained (more coverage for Spectrier, Speed control for Glastrier). It's pretty well done imo while being so simple as riding a horse.

 

[SpiritGuy]

I... love this shiny. That's it.


EDIT:

Oh... no sorry I really dislike it.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

Meh, I actually like Salamence for being just a standard Dragon instead of the kid-friendly "how does it have all that Attack?" Dragonite and "the Dad Bod that isn't even a Dragon-type" Charizard.

Besides, the whole lore about it wanting wings so bad that it evolves to get them is great. Especially since Shelgon looks like a cocoon, so it straight up stole the early bugs tech lol.

Not to mention how its mega takes the wing thing to its logically hilarious conclusion of it being mostly just wings.

 

[Siggu]

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

I've personally started seeing Salamence as more cute than cool once I realized that its ambiguous "height" can be interpreted as it looking much smaller than it probably is. Like, the lowest possible "height" (snout-to-tail length) would make it a tegu with wings.

 

[Bakugames]

the cut of pokémon is a good thing in theory, its just that swsh were lackluster, run of the mill games that didnt justify it in any sense.

but i feel like the fanbase doesnt realize that for most of the things that they want improved (gamewise) to happen, a dex cut would be one of the more sensible things to do for a few generations. Whenether it be balancing pokemon, new animations, better graphics etc, you cant really do that effectivelly while having to account for almost 900 critters at the same time. and im sorry, but neither the argument of "just use the money!" or "give it some more years" can cover the insane amount of work that'd be.

I honestly do not understand how other monster game fanbases are completly fine with new games not having all monsters, when they have way less monsters overall (except digimon with their 1.4k dudes!) which means their games roster will be smaller than what a pokemon game would, but the idea of 100 pokemon not making to the games is a disgrace or something.

again, the dex cut had no reason to exist in swsh, im pretty sure they could fit all mons just fine, but if we want actual improvements, instead of the "drip feed improvements every gen at a snails pace" model we have right now, we have to give up the idea of all pokemon making in the games.

edit: turtonator is good also u guys r just mean >:(

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

the cut of pokémon is a good thing in theory, its just that swsh were lackluster, run of the mill games that didnt justify it in any sense.

but i feel like the fanbase doesnt realize that for most of the things that they want improved (gamewise) to happen, a dex cut would be one of the more sensible things to do for a few generations. Whenether it be balancing pokemon, new animations, better graphics etc, you cant really do that effectivelly while having to account for almost 900 critters at the same time. and im sorry, but neither the argument of "just use the money!" or "give it some more years" can cover the insane amount of work that'd be.

I honestly do not understand how other monster game fanbases are completly fine with new games not having all monsters, when they have way less monsters overall (except digimon with their 1.4k dudes!) which means their games roster will be smaller than what a pokemon game would, but the idea of 100 pokemon not making to the games is a disgrace or something.

again, the dex cut had no reason to exist in swsh, im pretty sure they could fit all mons just fine, but if we want actual improvements, instead of the "drip feed improvements every gen at a snails pace" model we have right now, we have to give up the idea of all pokemon making in the games.

edit: turtonator is good also u guys r just mean >:(

Oh baby, Dexit talk, let's goooooo!!!

For real tho, while I can accept that Dexit was going to be necessary at some point, it sure as hell ain't now with them porting mon animations straight outta the 3DS.

And to make things worse. This is now a permanent policy.

It's a mess, but I don't wanna beat this old dead horse or whatever the saying is again.

 

[Worldie]

And to make things worse. This is now a permanent policy.

I wouldn't be so sure about this one.

In the end "dexit" happened because for <reasons> GF wasn't able to port the get the new Camp and Dynamax animations done in time (absolutely nothing to do with models).
They threw a bunch of disorganized lies once they saw how bad the reception of the fact not all Pokemon were going to be available right away, but fact is, they had the models futureproofed ages ago and what they really needed time to make were the new animations (which to be fair, are pretty solid, just a shame they're really rarely seen).

However, slowly but surely every Pokemon is getting added to the game, so it isn't exactly unrealistic that future Switch games will just be featuring all of them.

 

[hypno28]

It's almost like they would have lots of time to focus on making the region and actual game better if they didn't waste so much on absurd gimmicks that by definition make them worse.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I wouldn't be so sure about this one.

In the end "dexit" happened because for <reasons> GF wasn't able to port the get the new Camp and Dynamax animations done in time (absolutely nothing to do with models).
They threw a bunch of disorganized lies once they saw how bad the reception of the fact not all Pokemon were going to be available right away, but fact is, they had the models futureproofed ages ago and what they really needed time to make were the new animations (which to be fair, are pretty solid, just a shame they're really rarely seen).

However, slowly but surely every Pokemon is getting added to the game, so it isn't exactly unrealistic that future Switch games will just be featuring all of them.

Iirc, they specifically said it was going to be a recurring thing from now on.

And it makes perfect sense. Locking mons behind DLC passes add a ton of value to them.

But yeah, the obvious problem is that GF said not everyone would make it back because they were working on more expressive animations for each mon.

We now know this was 100% BS.

Though tbh, the main issue with the mon animations are the idle animations. Actual camera work and idle animations that aren't soulless garbage would let the good animations shine better, and there are a lot of them.

 

[Worldie]

And it makes perfect sense. Locking mons behind DLC passes add a ton of value to them.

They're not locked behind the DLC and we could stop spreading this lie.
Moreso once gen 8.5 or 9 happen and you're not even going to need the old Bank sub to pass them over.
Gen 8 even added the "Battle ready mark", meaning that after you caught the legendary once, in any game, it's going to be able to be used in any future game assuming the mechanic is maintained.

If they wanted to "make money off the returning mons", they wouldn't have given the pokedex upgrade for free to everyone, nor made a mechanic that basically removes the need to buy multiple titles in future.

Iirc, they specifically said it was going to be a recurring thing from now on.

They said it amongst all the other disorganized stuff that was being told, which also included that SwSh would never have got the missing ones.

The reality is that when Masuda tried to sneak the "Only 400 available" at the press event, the already lacking PR system of GameFreaks panicked seeing the horrible reaction they caused, and started giving a million different incoherent replies.
Including the most "hilarious" one, that they were being cut "for balance reasons", which kinda crumbled in the light of both the pokemon picked in the "400", including lord and savior 97% competitive usage Incineroar (higher than even Xerneas), and the simple fact gen 8 is featuring some of the biggest powercreep in the series to begin with.

 

[Samtendo09]

Quoting my post from "Pokemon that disappointed you despite looking good initially"... for context, it was about the bloated items stuff, unfixed things like Nidorina and Nidoqueen's breeding problem, lots of bad mons remained bad for too long, the power creep, etc.

Haven't they already removed Mega Evolution and Z-Moves in Gen 8? The Mega Stones code of several Pokémon were there but not fully programmed, likely just item leftovers.

But keeping everything intact also means Pokémon who were bad stays bad, or overwhelmingly powerful Legendary Pokémon like Zacian to be untouched. This can be a bad sign for balance in the future, potentially resulting in even more crazier or asinine battle gimmicks or even more ridiculous power creep within Legendaries or even normal Pokémon. It would be awful for Gen 9 now that it would want to keep all of the underwhelming and overpowered stuff as is.

Look, I understand it is impossible to make a perfectly balanced Pokémon game, but it shouldn't kill anyone to give some crapmons at a time (per Generation) some much-needed buff and keeping the most powerful ones in check instead of constantly showering new battle gimmicks that end up being at the hand of the more popular ones. Z-Moves at least allows for variety, but the one-per-team does make it feels limited and lame.

Believe it or not, that's a problem Pokémon fangames have to contend with, as despite a lot more liberty than GF ever had, I see too many fangames that never bothered with fixing at least several problems for sake of legacy, even those who go for the B/W route (only new Pokémon, no returning official Pokémon). That's a bit out of subject but let it be known that even the most popular fangames aren't immune to the common problems the official Pokémon games have to deal with.

The last paragraph could be an unpopular opinion of mine since I saw nobody ever said something like that before...

Adding to that is that some fangames run the problem of not fixing the problems people tend to have in common, such as more than two weak single-staged Pokémon without a helpful Ability or overtly gimmicky ones, constantly put Ice-type as late game, early route Pokémon that barely deviates from the official Pokémon, Pika Clones that feels like made for sake of tradition, too many Dragon-type fan Pseudo-Legends to count, etc...

In other words, the Fakémon Dexes in general doesn't really feel as creative as many fans claimed. Too many traditional archetypes were done already done so often in a single Dex to the point it feels... mechanically unoriginal at worst. If I ever go back to making a Dex of new Pokémon, I try to avoid common pit traps of the common archetypes, or even go crazy and avoid the type used for the early route archetypes, for example.

 

[earl]

Establishing Dexit as a policy going forward is the right move. Dexit happens again? Well they said it was gonna happen. Dexit doesn’t happen and the natdex is back? Pleasant surprise.