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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
Difficulty Adjustments:
There is one option of difficulty adjustments I don't recall seeing anyone mention: Level Limit like they do in the Battle Facilities. When you first challenge "boss" trainers (Rival, Gym Leader, Villain Team Admin, Villain Team Leader, Elite Four, Champion, other notable trainers), if your Pokemon is higher level than them, your level is lowered to their lowest leveled Pokemon's Level. If you lose, it'll then let the level limit raise to their highest Pokemon's Level, and if you were to lose after that the Level Limit will increase by 1 Level until you finally win.
And if they put in a Difficulty Setting they can adjust this idea, like on Easy you start at their highest level Pokemon's Level while on Hard you always stay at their lowest level Pokemon's Level.
To be fair, a move now tells you whether they're super effective, resisted, or immune now so you don't need to know the Type Chart like you used to (it's not perfect of course, doesn't take account Abiliites, but it's better than nothing).
Though they really should have a pull-up Type Chart like they did in FRLG.
Questionable Changes:
Fire doesn't resist Ice
Ice immune to Dragon
Fighting resist Steel
Poison resist Water
Poison weak to Bug
Bug resist Water, itself, Ghost & Dragon
Rock not weak to Grass & Steel
Steel doesn't resist Normal & Rock
Steel weak to Electric
Alright Changes:
Fighting weak to Poison
Bug weak to Poison
Bug resist Dark
Rock resist Electric
Ghost doesn't resist Bug
Dragon weak to Steel
Though I think this kind of leans over into wishlisting, so all else I'm going to say is that, while I see some of your reasoning, some I agree with, some I don't, and some changes I just don't get.
What do you mean? Like two Types that share immunity with one another (like Normal & Ghost)? Would be more interesting, especially since we don't have a "Double Weakness"; though we do have a double Resistance with Fighting & Bug.
All well and good, but there does have to be some reasoning behind why that Type has that relation. Granted, the current Type Chart isn't clear in that regard, but I can BS a reason for those match-ups. But with your chart I don't get why Bug is suddenly resistant to so many Types (only one I can see if Dark, MAYBE Bug, but the others like Ghost & Dragon?).
There is one option of difficulty adjustments I don't recall seeing anyone mention: Level Limit like they do in the Battle Facilities. When you first challenge "boss" trainers (Rival, Gym Leader, Villain Team Admin, Villain Team Leader, Elite Four, Champion, other notable trainers), if your Pokemon is higher level than them, your level is lowered to their lowest leveled Pokemon's Level. If you lose, it'll then let the level limit raise to their highest Pokemon's Level, and if you were to lose after that the Level Limit will increase by 1 Level until you finally win.
And if they put in a Difficulty Setting they can adjust this idea, like on Easy you start at their highest level Pokemon's Level while on Hard you always stay at their lowest level Pokemon's Level.
To be fair, a move now tells you whether they're super effective, resisted, or immune now so you don't need to know the Type Chart like you used to (it's not perfect of course, doesn't take account Abiliites, but it's better than nothing).
Though they really should have a pull-up Type Chart like they did in FRLG.
Questionable Changes:
Fire doesn't resist Ice
Ice immune to Dragon
Fighting resist Steel
Poison resist Water
Poison weak to Bug
Bug resist Water, itself, Ghost & Dragon
Rock not weak to Grass & Steel
Steel doesn't resist Normal & Rock
Steel weak to Electric
Alright Changes:
Fighting weak to Poison
Bug weak to Poison
Bug resist Dark
Rock resist Electric
Ghost doesn't resist Bug
Dragon weak to Steel
Though I think this kind of leans over into wishlisting, so all else I'm going to say is that, while I see some of your reasoning, some I agree with, some I don't, and some changes I just don't get.
What do you mean? Like two Types that share immunity with one another (like Normal & Ghost)? Would be more interesting, especially since we don't have a "Double Weakness"; though we do have a double Resistance with Fighting & Bug.
All well and good, but there does have to be some reasoning behind why that Type has that relation. Granted, the current Type Chart isn't clear in that regard, but I can BS a reason for those match-ups. But with your chart I don't get why Bug is suddenly resistant to so many Types (only one I can see if Dark, MAYBE Bug, but the others like Ghost & Dragon?).
There's one thing that puts a bit of a wrench in this concept: Moves. If the level cap for a particular Gym is 25, for example, and I'm able to overgrind to 30 to get Flamethrower, you can lower my level all you want, I still have Flamethrower.
The obvious way around this--cutting off XP entirely--is less vulnerable to this, although you can still EV train.
Yes basically, like uuuh electric and water are now immune to each other, and grass and dragon are weak to each other. Random picks ofc but you get the point lol
I can try and explain some of the choices, though idk if theyre the best explanations but:
I think if you drop snow or ice on fire it'll die, especially snow. Though thats kinda the issue of the whole water fire and ice trio resisting and being weak to each other, you can craft an argument for any sort of order.
A resistance would make more sense, and the explanation only works if you only plan on making reptilian dragon types, but most reptiles die in cold temperatures and not a lot are build to survive cold weather.
Some types of metal, like mineral water, are very good conductors.
>Why is bug suddenly resisting things
The real reason is strictly for buffs
But anotherI just realized now would be Japan's love for bug superheroes. And we all know how much plot armor super heroes have
>Why doesn't normal be resisted to steel
Buff, cuz lack of SE anything and then that hurts. Also Steel stole Rock's thunder, so nye nyeh :P
>Why rock-
Buff. Also steel tools weather easily after drilling rock, so
Similarly, Ice is simultaneously weak to rock and SE against it due to both weathering each other extremely well
>Water and Poison?
I treat poison like oil, which repels. Admittedly it should be two ways logically, but I didn't want to hurt Poison's viability
>Why is Ice immune to Dragon
*glances at Gen 5*
And I don't like Fairy type, so
Admittedly like you said, this really only applies to reptiles. But considering Gen 1-3 is only thatminus Altaria, but it's flying already , eh
Fire not resisting Ice isn't new. Gen 1 did that
Electric and steel is like what the others said
-How will this affect Emerald/Comp
Well Skarmory is horribly ruined by this (Quad weak electric), and it may generate another Gen where Normal and Ice rule. I'm honestly doing this on a whim, so outside that, I really don't know
But if it's more balanced, hey not bad...
The real reason is strictly for buffs
But another
>Why doesn't normal be resisted to steel
Buff, cuz lack of SE anything and then that hurts. Also Steel stole Rock's thunder, so nye nyeh :P
>Why rock-
Buff. Also steel tools weather easily after drilling rock, so
Similarly, Ice is simultaneously weak to rock and SE against it due to both weathering each other extremely well
>Water and Poison?
I treat poison like oil, which repels. Admittedly it should be two ways logically, but I didn't want to hurt Poison's viability
>Why is Ice immune to Dragon
*glances at Gen 5*
And I don't like Fairy type, so
Admittedly like you said, this really only applies to reptiles. But considering Gen 1-3 is only that
Fire not resisting Ice isn't new. Gen 1 did that
Electric and steel is like what the others said
-How will this affect Emerald/Comp
Well Skarmory is horribly ruined by this (Quad weak electric), and it may generate another Gen where Normal and Ice rule. I'm honestly doing this on a whim, so outside that, I really don't know
But if it's more balanced, hey not bad...
A lot of rom hacks seem to stick to single battles as well, which can make it more difficult to create a boss that is challenging, but in a fair way. Double battles offer more of a chance to create interesting strategies that the player needs to overcome and that the player has the tools available to overcome. This criticism in not just directed towards hacks though, the main series constantly ignores double battles unless it its you teaming up with your rivals/friends/leaders or the rarer required battles like in Raihan's Gym.
There's a lot more to keep in mind in double battles, making brute forcing the opponent more difficult. A Follow Me + Swords Dance/Nasty Plot combo can be deadly to someone who is just mashing A on the Super Effective move, as suddenly the opponent is at +2 and you have only hit the supporting Pokémon. It's a problem that can be overcome, either with your own redirection or using a spread move, but it makes the player think rather than just attack. If all else fails, you can still grind and brute force your way through, but it makes it more of a puzzle that can be completed even if you are under leveled in the games.
There's a lot more to keep in mind in double battles, making brute forcing the opponent more difficult. A Follow Me + Swords Dance/Nasty Plot combo can be deadly to someone who is just mashing A on the Super Effective move, as suddenly the opponent is at +2 and you have only hit the supporting Pokémon. It's a problem that can be overcome, either with your own redirection or using a spread move, but it makes the player think rather than just attack. If all else fails, you can still grind and brute force your way through, but it makes it more of a puzzle that can be completed even if you are under leveled in the games.
I think that would be okay. The reason for doing this Level Limit is more for players who want a more difficult challenge. It helps with the concern of overleveling, with Moves you can easily decide just not to have a certain Move but, right now, if a Pokemon is overleveled there's nothing you can do not not makes things more challenging aside from not using it. And for players who are having difficulty, well if they want to level up for a stronger move if they think that would help them then that's their choice.
But this isn't just plopping snow/ice on a flame, this is a cold energy attack being used against a fire elemental creature. Cold, ice, or snow, the Fire-types high internal temperature and possible superheating the air around it would weaken the effectiveness of Ice-type moves by making them weaker/less cold.
Still doesn't make sense. Why would an ice elemental creature have any resistances to dragon energy? A cold-blooded creature being weak to cold, makes sense. But dragon energy is just raw power with none of the biological handicap.
I know, but all I see if just electrical moves travelling along the metallic surface easier but not really doing any more damage aside from that. Steel doesn't resist because it can't stop the electricity, but the electricity moves too fast through it for it to cause any burning effects.
Which is why Fighting resists Dark... Bug can also resist Dark in this case but that's really all this explanation would justify.
Yeah, but that doesn't ignore the fast a Normal-type is still attacking something super hard (harder than rock) without elemental energy back-up.
You need more than it just being for balance, it has to make some sense why that Type's energy is affecting an elemental creature in that way.
Also Steel still harder than Rock, even when dull. Also a living Steel elemental probably has ways to mend itself.
I think Magnus0 idea of just Poison being SE against Water makes more sense in that case. Adding water would dilute Poison, having the opposite effect. At the very least Poison can pollute Water.
???
But you can still easily use the same logic to argue that fire should be super effective to water, as a fire elemental could easily superheat the air to the point of boiling water, and an ice elemental can lower the temperature to freeze water, while an ice elemental can drop the temperature quickly which inhibit the combustion process
Water Against Fire: Doesn't undo the Fire-type is being doused with water which is what hurting the Fire-type.
Water Against Ice: The water is constantly moving so doesn't have time to freeze for the short time its exposed to the cold air.
Fire Against Ice: Cold air doesn't affect fire as fire is providing its own heat.
Ice being NVE against Water has always seemed to me to be a statement of Water's high specific heat.
Pretty sure I've stated this before but I really liked SM/USUM's strategy of making boss trainers harder by giving them EVs/Natures. But then you have Guzma and his Modest Pinsir (proooobably a mistake from the devs)
Pretty sure I've stated this before but I really liked SM/USUM's strategy of making boss trainers harder by giving them EVs/Natures. But then you have Guzma and his Modest Pinsir (proooobably a mistake from the devs)
Here's a pretty unpopular, but very meta opinion about Pokemon I've been thinking about for the past month.
I'd like for Pokemon to have a serious competitior to it, that isn't a total flash in the pan.
I've seen people in the Pokemon community bash Yokai Watch, Temtem, Monster Hunter Stories, Robopon (acutally Robopon is terrible and deserves it lmao), etc, all out of a silly, fan boyish desire for Pokemon to be "the best".
I've always been interested in Pokemon competitors, I don't think this franchise is impossible to beat at its own game so to speak. However, at least with my experience with several of them, they have unfortunately fallen short in several ways, so I have yet to see a Pokemon-like game I'd seriously recommend over Pokemon in certain aspects.
* Yokai Watch acutally doesn't play too much like Pokemon outside of monster collections, having a more action focus, which is pretty cool! However, the way you collect monsters is even worse than Shin Megami Tensei (basically, give Yokai food and pray to god it joins you), and Yokai Watch's attempt at a competitive scene failed because getting good Yokai is somehow worse than Pokemon! And of course, Level-5 put out so many Yokai Watch games out in a short span of time that the franchise burned to the ground. Seriously, they released their "3rd versions" in the same year the base games came out!
* Temtem got SO close, it was clearly made by fans of the franchise. The campagin is much more difficult than Pokemon, there's a focus on doubles, and they even removed hax from the game! And yet, getting a good Temtem is an awful experience (though this may be migitated because the competitive ladders I think now just max out IVs), and despite it being very similar looking to Pokemon, its actualy a very difficult game to learn competitively with argubly worse balance than Pokemon.
Temtem really showed me that trying to beat "Pokemon" at its own game is very difficult, even for fans of the franchise!
Like, the closest I can get to saying "wow this Pokemon competitor is REALLY damn good" (though I admit I haven't played Monster Hunter Stories despite hearing good things about it), is the Shin Megami Tensei series. I dearly love Shin Megami Tensei because it scartches the monster collecting part of Pokemon a bit... but calling it a Pokemon competitor is a bit of a stretch, because not only does the series actually PREDATE Pokemon, but it totally ignores the trading and competitive aspects because that's not what Shin Mgemi Tensei cares about.
TL;DR: If Pokemon had a serious competitor franchise, I think that'd benefit both, and maybe force Nintendo, TPCI, and Gamefreak to invest more in the franchise. Alas, I don't think anyone has really cracked the code to doing it yet, and I think that's a shame!
I'd like for Pokemon to have a serious competitior to it, that isn't a total flash in the pan.
I've seen people in the Pokemon community bash Yokai Watch, Temtem, Monster Hunter Stories, Robopon (acutally Robopon is terrible and deserves it lmao), etc, all out of a silly, fan boyish desire for Pokemon to be "the best".
I've always been interested in Pokemon competitors, I don't think this franchise is impossible to beat at its own game so to speak. However, at least with my experience with several of them, they have unfortunately fallen short in several ways, so I have yet to see a Pokemon-like game I'd seriously recommend over Pokemon in certain aspects.
* Yokai Watch acutally doesn't play too much like Pokemon outside of monster collections, having a more action focus, which is pretty cool! However, the way you collect monsters is even worse than Shin Megami Tensei (basically, give Yokai food and pray to god it joins you), and Yokai Watch's attempt at a competitive scene failed because getting good Yokai is somehow worse than Pokemon! And of course, Level-5 put out so many Yokai Watch games out in a short span of time that the franchise burned to the ground. Seriously, they released their "3rd versions" in the same year the base games came out!
* Temtem got SO close, it was clearly made by fans of the franchise. The campagin is much more difficult than Pokemon, there's a focus on doubles, and they even removed hax from the game! And yet, getting a good Temtem is an awful experience (though this may be migitated because the competitive ladders I think now just max out IVs), and despite it being very similar looking to Pokemon, its actualy a very difficult game to learn competitively with argubly worse balance than Pokemon.
Temtem really showed me that trying to beat "Pokemon" at its own game is very difficult, even for fans of the franchise!
Like, the closest I can get to saying "wow this Pokemon competitor is REALLY damn good" (though I admit I haven't played Monster Hunter Stories despite hearing good things about it), is the Shin Megami Tensei series. I dearly love Shin Megami Tensei because it scartches the monster collecting part of Pokemon a bit... but calling it a Pokemon competitor is a bit of a stretch, because not only does the series actually PREDATE Pokemon, but it totally ignores the trading and competitive aspects because that's not what Shin Mgemi Tensei cares about.
TL;DR: If Pokemon had a serious competitor franchise, I think that'd benefit both, and maybe force Nintendo, TPCI, and Gamefreak to invest more in the franchise. Alas, I don't think anyone has really cracked the code to doing it yet, and I think that's a shame!
I actually think that was the problem with Temtem, because its identity was pretty much only "Pokémon competitor" instead of something on its own right.
I still have some moderately high expectations on TemTem and the influence it can have on Pokemon's franchise.
The fact it exists and didn't flop on its own is pretty big, and it's now also coming to next gen consoles (personally considering to grab it on my PS5 when it launches there). The more it grows and gains success, the more likely it is that someone at Nintendo / TPCI / GF's office notices it and looks at what's making it popular and potentially takes note of it.
It wouldn't even be *weird*: games of same genre copy each other all the time.
I mean, the problem is that if you genuinely want to design a game that can compete with pokemon your best bet is probably to spend all your budget on a time machine. I can't think of another video game series with more cross-generational appeal.
Barely peaking past 1000 players for the last few months is not what I'd call a success for an MMO. Like there are games of that genre that were shut down despite having far better numbers then that.
By this point I think Temtem is well beyond the point of no return for being anything even resembling a competitor to Pokemon, regardless of how many systems they port it to.
Most mongame fans(many of whom backed many non-Temtem kickstarters and even some that backed temtem itself) have pretty much already written off the game by this point. The only time I see it being brought up on most mongame discords is people pointing and lamenting(backers) or laughing(non-backers) at how mediocre it is despite being the most pokemon-like of the recently released mongames and having its crowdfunding largely fueled by the sword/shield hatedom.
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I wouldn't remotely consider it a MMO.
It's a indie project, that has a (quite optional) multiplayer aspect, and doesn't feature a subscription nor a full AAA price.
I am not exactly expecting it to have World of Warcraft level playerbase, and having 1000~ active players on average is decent enough for me to not define it a flop.
I'm considering it an MMO because that is what the creators themselves consider it to be(or at the very least advertised it to be, using the term directly)
Also I have been editing my prior post to add more details. As someone who is part of many mongame discords, I learned I am far from alone in the flop view, especially considering that 1000 is significantly less than it had the first few months of existence.
The simple, cold, hard truth is that in order for anything to compete seriously with Pokemon, before considering anything else, they'd have to sit down and figure out how to even match the behemoth that is actual physical Pokemon design as well as their emphasis on bonding with your monsters. I dunno about you but to me Temtem and its ilk have largely failed at creature design, with their monsters tending to look so unappealing and generic. There are exceptions here and there, but the bar for quality is far lower than Pokemon. The irony is that from what we've been able to gleam from interviews official Pokemon designers seem to have a pretty loose approach to their craft with nothing in the way of artstyle restrictions, at least nothing major: Just making cool/cute monsters is the endgoal, whereas the other guys seem to follow stylistic bottlenecks in one form or another
Do you mean art wise?
Cuz I hate Sugimori's lifeless post Gen 3 digital art
Though this one is clearly the best
I completely agree, I'd say it's almost underestimated how much Pokémon's designs contribute to its success within the genre. The series has some of the best monster designs in the entire industry, and not only there's some immense varity with them, but there's also an unparalleled quantity with how many of them exist in each game (let alone the entire series). On top of that, the games have always nailed the aspect of raising them, getting them to level up and learn new moves and improve their stats and evolve and... what I'm saying is, no matter how how bad the games are with several integral things, they still absolutely nail the core aspects of monster catching games, and set a pretty high bar for competitors to meet
That is really one of the biggest problems, if I wanted to play a better Pokemon game, I would replay one of my favorite Pokémon games rather than take a chance at something different. A direct competitor at this point can't just make improvements to Pokemon's gameplay loop, it needs to offer something distinct to really draw me into the game. If I wanted to play pokemon but with double battles, why would I not just pop in Colosseum / XD? If a competitors gameplay loop boils down to the same thing that Pokemon gives me, there is no reason for me to switch.
The pokemon designs and style is such a massive component to the series' continued success that any competitor even trying needs to put great designs front and center in development / marketing. Pokemon are instantly recognizable and usually have great designs, and from the moment new pokemon are revealed they quickly gain fans. Even the human character designs garners fans in a way no other series really does. The characters from Sword and Shield got a fanbase essentially from instant that they were revealed. In order to compete with Pokemon, the designs and aesthetics really needs to be front and center in development. Any gameplay changes that a competitor offers won't matter if the games visually fall flat.
Any competitor needs to really change the gameplay loop and create amazing designs for the monsters/characters to really change the status quo, otherwise games like TemTem will end up being at most a flash in the pan.