Unpopular opinions

[Yung Dramps]

I don't wanna be overdramatic and like "omg LGPE is the worst thing ever guys!!!" but part of me genuinely feels replacing Blue with Trace in those games is lowkey sacrilegious. I don't think it's an understatement to say Champion Blue is not just the most well-known Champion fight in Pokemon but probably one of the most iconic final bosses in all of gaming and to see him replaced with such a lukewarm, bland, mediocre husk while still having the OG theme is on the same level of, say, a FF6 remake replacing Kefka with a different, far less memorable character while keeping Dancing Mad

 

[jordanthejq12]

I think GameFreak's pretty clearly signaled that the age of the jerk rival is over. Good riddance, I personally say, but I would agree that keeping Blue around at least for legacy's sake would have been preferable.

(If they make a Johto Let's Go, though...what are they gonna do with Silver?)

 

[p0ip0le]

i mean gladion and bede fit pretty neatly into the "jerk rival" box but gladion has other motives besides being a dick all the time and bede has some childhood bullshit that's touched on like one time and never addressed again

theres only so many times you can do "jerk rival" before it gets old, but you can make that same argument for "friendly rival", so

 

[Kanburi]

I think GameFreak's pretty clearly signaled that the age of the jerk rival is over. Good riddance, I personally say, but I would agree that keeping Blue around at least for legacy's sake would have been preferable.

Pretty sad IMO, I hate the new rivals.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I think GameFreak's pretty clearly signaled that the age of the jerk rival is over. Good riddance, I personally say, but I would agree that keeping Blue around at least for legacy's sake would have been preferable.

(If they make a Johto Let's Go, though...what are they gonna do with Silver?)

Ehhh, I wouldn't say that the jerk rival is done for. Sword and Shield did this quite a bit although it did put its own spins on the jerk rival. Bede is a jerk rival who has an inflated sense of importance because Chairman Rose endorsed him, and he even manages to best Hop in a battle which also gives Hop an interesting turn in character, while Bede himself makes an ironic turn in that he's disqualified and then taken in by Opal to be her successor, which changes him quite a bit.

I'd also argue if you factor in Isle of Armor that Klara and Avery most definitely count as jerk rivals during that campaign. They are downright mean to you, threaten to hurt you, and even cheat during the third trial. They're not Gym Challengers but they do count as jerk rivals for the IoA experience, and there's quite a bit of backstory to them and how they got to the IoA in the first place, and unlike other jerks these two are students who came to the Dojo but only put in the bare minimum amount of effort into their training until you come into the picture.

It's not the most common archetype ever but SwSh has shown that they're not averse to still doing it.

 

[Antihaxxer]

Yes SwSh has shown that they're not averse to still doing it, but they've done it very well with a lot of backstorys and changes in behaviour !

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Ehhh, I wouldn't say that the jerk rival is done for. Sword and Shield did this quite a bit although it did put its own spins on the jerk rival. Bede is a jerk rival who has an inflated sense of importance because Chairman Rose endorsed him, and he even manages to best Hop in a battle which also gives Hop an interesting turn in character, while Bede himself makes an ironic turn in that he's disqualified and then taken in by Opal to be her successor, which changes him quite a bit.

I'd also argue if you factor in Isle of Armor that Klara and Avery most definitely count as jerk rivals during that campaign. They are downright mean to you, threaten to hurt you, and even cheat during the third trial. They're not Gym Challengers but they do count as jerk rivals for the IoA experience, and there's quite a bit of backstory to them and how they got to the IoA in the first place, and unlike other jerks these two are students who came to the Dojo but only put in the bare minimum amount of effort into their training until you come into the picture.

It's not the most common archetype ever but SwSh has shown that they're not averse to still doing it.

Big difference in how it's handled, though. Klara, Avery, and Bede are "I'm better than you, and I'm going to do anything to prove it, including cheating!" It's more bratty than outright jerkiness. Gladion is mean but his association with Team Skull gives him a reason to be, and obviously you eventually learn he's on a mission. Those three eventually become, if not friends, grudging acquaintances with the player.

Whereas Silver's attitude is very much "you are a pathetic wimp barely worth my time, and I outright despise you". He's not part of Team Rocket - in fact he makes clear pretty early on he hates them - and he's not on any particular mission you're aware of (at least in the original games) so it comes off as him being an asshole for the sake of it. He never acknowledges the player as a friend (again, in the original GSC - one could argue that the tag battle against Lance and Clair somewhat softens his relationship with the player).

 

[IceBeam23]

>tfw people keep bringing up DLC when Game Freak already said it's not happening.

I just wanted to say that i love reading through these 5 years old replies. That one is especially ironic.
People were also talking about a dark type gym and someone predicted EXACTLY what Piers would be like !

I liked the DLCs, i agree that IoA didn't have enough content but Crown Tundra delivered and was MUCH better. And i REALLY prefer DLC over "hey wanna play the same game but it has one more legendary, a BIT more story, post-game stuff and uuuuh more pokemon available maybe ?". I much rather not spend 10 hours on a story i've already beaten once to get to the new stuff. Plus it's cheaper.

I also read through the "colosseum and XD restrictions aren't fun" argument and that shifted to a difficulty discussion : I agree so much with the fact that Pokemon shouldn't be difficult.
I feel like what a lot of people don't get, is that the easiness of the games creates a "make your own difficulty" kind of thing, and that's one of the greatest strengths of the series to me. If the game is not hard, you can afford a lot to make it harder while keeping it fun and not tedious. Which is why you still see playthroughs of HGSS or Platinum in 2020, nuzlockes and challenge runs are a good way to get back to an older game !
You can also do monotypes, professor oak challenges, randomizers, only one pokemon even... There's a ton of options.

This is also why, as i've already said, i don't like ROMhacks that make the game harder by adding restrictions, it just feels like it has no place in normal pokemon (of course in competitive it's way better). The last hack i played scaled trainers to your highest level pokemon, added stronger teams to important battles and that was pretty fair : i even beat it without using items in battle for fun, not because i was forced to do it but because i COULD.
That's why i couldn't get into a lot of people's favorite hack : Radical Red. It's not because it was too hard (most of the bosses were beaten on the first try), it's because there was so much restrictions that the strategy aspects kinda disappears and the bosses become a stat/team check. Have that much EVs or you lose, have that pokemon or that type or you lose.
I will give it a 2nd try when i'm finished with school for today though, i wish i could like it since it has a lot of work put into it.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I feel like what a lot of people don't get, is that the easiness of the games creates a "make your own difficulty" kind of thing,

Funny, because Masuda and Ohmori mentioned this word by word in an interview...

Right before answering the Exp. Share does not have a toggle in SwSh.


Yeah, nah, gimme actual difficulty options.

 

[IceBeam23]

Funny, because Masuda and Ohmori mentioned this word by word in an interview...

Wait what, i had no idea !

Right before answering the Exp. Share does not have a toggle in SwSh.


Yeah, nah, gimme actual difficulty

Bruh. Well that sucks yeah, but i still thought SwSh had some wiggle room on difficulty. I never grinded, played set and never dynamaxed and some battles still gave me some problems (Leon had a massive level spike, he had like 10 more levels than me and i don't even know how i beat him). I had to use items in battle to avoid having to grind.

Can i just say i also despise how they did "difficulty options" in B2W2 ? You unlock easy mode AFTER BEATING THE GAME and Hard Mode was only unlocked in Black 2, you needed a stupid key for it in White 2. I liked that they changed movesets up and the AI a bit, but increasing levels is a bit dumb, it just makes you grind more and doesn't really add anything.

 

[Siggu]

Can i just say i also despise how they did "difficulty options" in B2W2 ? You unlock easy mode AFTER BEATING THE GAME and Hard Mode was only unlocked in Black 2, you needed a stupid key for it in White 2. I liked that they changed movesets up and the AI a bit, but increasing levels is a bit dumb, it just makes you grind more and doesn't really add anything.

Besides the whole "unlock after beating the game" thing that is pretty much universally disliked, I agree in that the "Hard Mode" was poorly implemented. It's barely more than "grind 2 or 3 more levels" difficulty.

For something like that, I'd rather rotate 16 Pokémon and end up facing trainers underleveled like I did in Sword and Shield. It's pretty much the same thing except I'm not even pretending it's harder (because it wasn't my intention, it just happened to be the case).

 

[Magnus0]

Challenge mode did a lot more than just add level spikes. It changed up gym leaders' team, it changed the movepools of their Pokemon and it gave some of them held items like berries. I think all of these things are much more interesting than level-spikes.

Now, I agree that the extra levels were kind of unnecessary on top of everything else, but to suggest that challenge mode didn't add anything except for level-spikes is just wrong. I think the challenge mode how it was implemented in B2/W2 would have been fine if you didn't have to beat the game first.

 

[Bakugames]

For a more chill and silly unpopular opinion (i guess lol): i think megas are ugly :^[

 

[DreamPrince]

For a more chill and silly unpopular opinion (i guess lol): i think megas are ugly :^[

Which ones?

 

[Bakugames]

Which ones?

Honestly? Most of them. They either feel overdesigned or just kinda ugly? The only ones i dont mind as much are audino, ampharos and aerodactly (tho i dont like the last two in general, but its completly irrelevant to their megas)

The gen 7 dex entries dont help. Whenever i read how "this pokemon is actually suffering death and plage" or something I dont feel bad, it just makes me cringe a bit

 

[Yung Dramps]

Mega Kangaskhan is probably the only genuinely clever Mega design. The others don't look bad at all per se (I love Mega Lopunny and Charizard Y for instance) but they're not really mindblowing in terms of what they add to the OG mons

 

[pokemon4eva]

Whereas Silver's attitude is very much "you are a pathetic wimp barely worth my time, and I outright despise you". He's not part of Team Rocket - in fact he makes clear pretty early on he hates them - and he's not on any particular mission you're aware of (at least in the original games) so it comes off as him being an asshole for the sake of it. He never acknowledges the player as a friend (again, in the original GSC - one could argue that the tag battle against Lance and Clair somewhat softens his relationship with the player).

I remember this hackrom Liquid Crystal in which Silver, instead of understanding what what he is missing is care for his mons, he thinks he needs more power and becomes the new Team Rocket leader in a massively hypocritical move, in order to hunt for legendaries. We still ruin his plans and to the jail he goes.

I like redeeming arcs like the one Silver got in HGSS, but falling into delusion and full on villainy was also an interesting take.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I remember this hackrom Liquid Crystal in which Silver, instead of understanding what what he is missing is care for his mons, he thinks he needs more power and becomes the new Team Rocket leader in a massively hypocritical move, in order to hunt for legendaries. We still ruin his plans and to the jail he goes.

I like redeeming arcs like the one Silver got in HGSS, but falling into delusion and full on villainy was also an interesting take.

Eh... sort of? I mean I can see how that would work but I find that a bit of a leap for his character. Silver's arc is one where him becoming "good" (in his own way) is far more interesting than a backslide into him joining Team Rocket and being imprisoned. I did actually play a bit of Liquid Crystal but never got that far into it because I found the early changes rather ludicrous, might try and delve back into that game.

The Adventures manga does Silver best imo, he's one of my favourite characters in it.

 

[pokemon4eva]

Eh... sort of? I mean I can see how that would work but I find that a bit of a leap for his character. Silver's arc is one where him becoming "good" (in his own way) is far more interesting than a backslide into him joining Team Rocket and being imprisoned. I did actually play a bit of Liquid Crystal but never got that far into it because I found the early changes rather ludicrous, might try and delve back into that game.

The Adventures manga does Silver best imo, he's one of my favourite characters in it.

Silver turning into the new evil leader of TR made me remember of 2 things that toy with this idea:
- His final battle in Stadium 2, where he somehow adquired Ho oh, Lugia and Mewtwo. Fitting, considering this quote in og GS:
"…… …… …… …Oh, it's you. You wanted to get stronger, so you came for the legendary Pokémon that's supposed to be here. That's your story, right? Well, that's not going to happen. Because I'm going to get it! I'm going to be the world's greatest trainer, so a legendary Pokémon would be perfect for me. …Well, anyway. I'm getting tired of having a wimp like you always showing up."
Of course he later switched his mindset for good, but I like to think that battle in Stadium 2 as maybe a "bad future" scenario.

- In Adventures it was Giovanni's goal that Silver succeds him as the new leader. When Silver founds out about his heritage he was shocked and completely denies it but by HGSS he has accepted that he is his father but he won't be evil like him. Best Silver interpretation imo.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Well that sucks yeah, but i still thought SwSh had some wiggle room on difficulty.

The only wiggle room you get is on how hard you wanna break the game.

Raids give you Lv. 15~20 mons with a TR that most times double as optimal STAB as soon as you get to the Wild Area with your Lv. 9 starter.

This game has a myriad of ways to be snapped in half, raids being one of the easiest ones, but with the Crown Tundra, you can also pull up to Team Yell with a full team of Lv 70 Legendaries.

It's incredible how easy this game is. It's the easiest one in the franchise by a landslide regardless of what jank you use.

 

[PokePoindexter]

"Difficulty"... whenever I hear that phrase applied to Pokemon games, it almost always seems to mean jacking up the levels of opposing trainers' teams or just using fully-evolved mons that are all the same type. That ain't skill, folks. That's just patience to spend extra time level grinding. And it also helps explain why I don't care for about 90% of ROM hacks out there.

One way I think you could implement real difficulty would be to challenge someone's ability to battle under various conditions (e.g. weather, terrain, even things like Trick Room or Inverse Battles), as well as taking advantage of said conditions. Raihan was a start, but I think we could do even better than that. Here are a few examples:

• A battle in permanent Rain Dance versus someone using a Lapras, Dhelmise, Manectric and Barraskewda. Lapras can use Hydration to prevent status conditions from wearing it down, Dhelmise's Fire-type weakness would be neutralized, Manectric could fire off perfect-accuracy Thunders, and Barraskewda... take a guess. What would make this fight difficult would be that you actually need to know a thing or two about battling in various weather conditions and wouldn't be able to cheese it just by leveling up a single Electric- or Grass-type mon. You could certainly change the weather and weaken that strategy somewhat, but the team could still put up a fight even without the rain.
• A battle in permanent Trick Room versus a team of Gastrodon, Escavalier, Dragalge, and Snorlax. All 4 of these are slower than your average Pokemon and can use TR in addition to their solid bulk, lack of shared weaknesses (Dragalge being the only one to even have more than one weakness at all), and respectable offensive stats. A game with this sort of battle would probably have to have some additional way to untwist the dimensions, although using Trick Room when said dimensions are twisted does just that already.

Two other ways to increase the real difficulty would be to 1) increase held item usage in opposing Pokemon, and 2) have opposing Pokemon have movesets that put their best stats to good use. Remember how Steven's Aggron used to use moves like Solar Beam and Thunderbolt, or how Skyla's Swoobat tried to use Acrobatics and Heart Stamp off a base Attack stat of 57? That's how to NOT do the latter.

So that's a few examples of ways Pokemon games could be more difficult than they currently are. I could say more, but that's all I have the patience to type out for now.

 

[Codraroll]

Ehhh, I wouldn't say that the jerk rival is done for. Sword and Shield did this quite a bit although it did put its own spins on the jerk rival.

In a way, it sure did. I came to despise Hop a lot more than I ever did Silver, because Silver at least left me alone for most of the adventure, and when he appeared he didn't prattle on for ages about stuff I had no care for whatsoever.

Whenever Silver appears, you go "Oh, that guy again! I look forward to giving him another good beating". When you see Hop in the distance, you go "Oh crud, not that guy again. Screw that guy!"

 

[Kanburi]

In a way, it sure did. I came to despise Hop a lot more than I ever did Silver, because Silver at least left me alone for most of the adventure, and when he appeared he didn't prattle on for ages about stuff I had no care for whatsoever.

Whenever Silver appears, you go "Oh, that guy again! I look forward to giving him another good beating". When you see Hop in the distance, you go "Oh crud, not that guy again. Screw that guy!"

Hau and Hop tbh. The absolute worst rivals of the games I've played (1st, 6th, 7th, 8th gens)

But the thing that really annoys me about the two of them is that they want to be your rival, but pick the starter that's weak to yours, then act surprise when you know about type matchups. I mean, if they think they're worthy of being my rival, at least have the IQ to pick the other starter. If I were Leon, I'd never endorse Hop after seeing him pick the disadvantageous starter.

 

[Worldie]

Hau and Hop tbh. The absolute worst rivals of the games I've played (1st, 6th, 7th, 8th gens)

But the thing that really annoys me about the two of them is that they want to be your rival, but pick the starter that's weak to yours, then act surprise when you know about type matchups. I mean, if they think they're worthy of being my rival, at least have the IQ to pick the other starter. If I were Leon, I'd never endorse Hop after seeing him pick the disadvantageous starter.

Eh, I disagree.
Both Hau and Hop have a comparable "plot point"
- Both live in the shadow of a strong trainer that's a relative of them (a Kahuna / the Champion)
- Both are overconfident in their abilities as trainers due to having lived at close contact with Pokemon thus convinced that simply befriending them is sufficent to be good at battling
- Both end up having their belief crushed, Hop expecially after being crushed by Bede who completely destroys his self confidence
- Both have to face personal growth of stop living in the shadow of their relative and accept that becoming a good trainer requires effort and confidence

Essentially, they are low ladder players who think they're good because they were facerolling schoolkids with their youtube meme team and suddently end up facing competent players and get stomped.
I don't see the issue with them picking the weak starter and being surprised that you beat them multiple times. In fact, I think it's very fitting.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Everybody rags on Hau for picking the weak starter but nobody talks about how he later uses an Eeveelution (Vaporeon, Flareon or Leafeon) that covers that weakness

In addition, while it's a lot more of a stretch, Hop's selection of the weak starter can be seen as a 4d chess play to later have a better shot of beating Leon since he uses the starter strong VS yours, i.e. the starter weak to Hop's