Unpopular opinions

[aegon the unlikely]

Johto failed as a sequel

i wouldn't go that far, given that johto and its success is what convinced game freak to keep going with pokemon games.

i'd argue johto succeeded in spite of not marketing its own pokemon better. it's even more amazing in hindsight that gsc didn't try to use the good ol' kanto mascots like pikachu, charizard, and maybe clefairy more either, given how kanto reliant it surprisingly was otherwise.

Yeah, that's kinda the point of having a discussion thread.

Edit: Also, please try to write with proper capitalization. Following the general rules of language is actually one of Smogon's forum rules, as that makes posts a lot less tiresome to read.

ah, i didn't realize it was that, thought it was merely a sounding board for our opinions.

sorry, my caps lock is broken.

 

[Celever]

sorry, my caps lock is broken.

Then you can make a letter capital by holding shift while you press it. It's actually much faster and I do it myself!

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Then you can make a letter capital by holding shift while you press it. It's actually much faster and I do it myself!

Yeah, that's true lol. Never did that before, will have to get used to it.

 

[Codraroll]

Which is why I liked how Black and White made older generation Pokémon completely absent before the post-game.

That it causes less variety during the main story? Yeah, so what? It's the debut game of a new generation so they deserve as much attention as possible.

Personally, I'm partial to how RSE did it. New Pokémon only, until after the first Gym. This serves to showcase a dozen-odd new evolution families to players at the start of the game, making things feel new and fresh while also letting players build all-new-Pokémon teams early on, but also doesn't make the old Pokémon conspicuously absent from the game. Plus, it forces the designers to create "complementary" early-game Pokémon that aren't either the tired old archetypes of birds, bugs, and rodents, or made-to-be-discarded crapmons like Wooloo or Nickit in SwSh.

Yeah, that's true lol. Never did that before, will have to get used to it.

When you get used to using Shift, you'll be happy your Caps Lock key is broken. For every one time I intentionally hit that key, I hit it around a hundred times by accident. Caps Lock is a useless, annoying key, and it's stupidly large and located right next to the A key you use all the time. I've been seriously looking into getting a keyboard with the Caps Lock key behind a panel on the backside.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Personally, I'm partial to how RSE did it. New Pokémon only, until after the first Gym. This serves to showcase a dozen-odd new evolution families to players at the start of the game, making things feel new and fresh while also letting players build all-new-Pokémon teams early on, but also doesn't make the old Pokémon conspicuously absent from the game. Plus, it forces the designers to create "complementary" early-game Pokémon that aren't either the tired old archetypes of birds, bugs, and rodents, or made-to-be-discarded crapmons like Wooloo or Nickit in SwSh.

I agree, though I think RSE too could've kept a few more of the old faves around. For instance, Pidgey in Route 101...

 

[Codraroll]

I agree, though I think RSE too could've kept a few more of the old faves around. For instance, Pidgey in Route 101...

Not on Route 101, that would defeat the whole purpose. By all means, it could be in the game, but not before the first Gym, as that part of the game would be reserved for showcasing the new Pokémon. Unless Pidgey was there specifically to perform the role of regional bird, of course, then I'd be all for it if no regional alternative existed. Since Gen IV, we've had five sets of birds that all explicitly seek to emulate Pidgey by playing exactly the same role in-game (plus two that do so in a slightly different manner), and I think that's enough. They should reuse one of those eight birds rather than making a ninth, near-identical one.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Since Gen IV, we've had five sets of birds that all explicitly seek to emulate Pidgey by playing exactly the same role in-game

5 sets of birds that do nothing but get dunked on by the one route away Spearow?
How sad...

But yeah, Hoenn's mon distribution was pretty awesome when you think about it.

 

[Bakugames]

Personally, I'm partial to how RSE did it. New Pokémon only, until after the first Gym.

We really forgetting my homeboy marill.........

 

[Siggu]

Personally, I'm partial to how RSE did it. New Pokémon only, until after the first Gym. This serves to showcase a dozen-odd new evolution families to players at the start of the game, making things feel new and fresh while also letting players build all-new-Pokémon teams early on, but also doesn't make the old Pokémon conspicuously absent from the game. Plus, it forces the designers to create "complementary" early-game Pokémon that aren't either the tired old archetypes of birds, bugs, and rodents, or made-to-be-discarded crapmons like Wooloo or Nickit in SwSh.

Wouldn't that exact same problem you mention happen with that "only new Pokémon before the first gym" approach?

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Wouldn't that exact same problem you mention happen with that "only new Pokémon before the first gym" approach?

It did happen. SwSh only got new mons up to the Wild Area's first visit.

And Nickit just... doesn't work. Straight up.

 

[Imperial Magala]

It did happen. SwSh only got new mons up to the Wild Area's first visit.

Lotad, Seedot, Hoothoot, and Magikarp are obtainable on Route 2

 

[Bakugames]

Lotad, Seedot, Hoothoot, and Magikarp are obtainable on Route 2

You also have caterpie, grubbin and purrloin

 

[Pikachu315111]

It did happen. SwSh only got new mons up to the Wild Area's first visit.

And Nickit just... doesn't work. Straight up.

Nickit doesn't work? I wonder why, let's see it's Bulbapedia page...

Okay, I see the problem. Some Einstein made the Nickit family a Special focused Pokemon (40/28/28/47/52/50). Problem with that: early game is usually Physically focused. Many early route mons are decent Physical attackers and have Physical moves cause logically those are the first things a creature would learn to do. Which is also another problem Nickit has, as it's level-up movepool is bad:

Level 1: Quick Attack & Tail Whip
Level 4: Beat Up
Level 8: Hone Claws
Level 12: Snarl
Level 16: Assurance
(Evolve at Level 18)

So, in the Physical-focused early game, you have a frail Special Attacker that doesn't learn it's first Special Attack until Level 12 and only has Quick Attack and Beat Up to work with until then. Who thought this was a good idea?

 

[Celever]

Nickit doesn't work? I wonder why, let's see it's Bulbapedia page...

Okay, I see the problem. Some Einstein made the Nickit family a Special focused Pokemon (40/28/28/47/52/50). Problem with that: early game is usually Physically focused. Many early route mons are decent Physical attackers and have Physical moves cause logically those are the first things a creature would learn to do. Which is also another problem Nickit has, as it's level-up movepool is bad:

Level 1: Quick Attack & Tail Whip
Level 4: Beat Up
Level 8: Hone Claws
Level 12: Snarl
Level 16: Assurance
(Evolve at Level 18)

So, in the Physical-focused early game, you have a frail Special Attacker that doesn't learn it's first Special Attack until Level 12 and only has Quick Attack and Beat Up to work with until then. Who thought this was a good idea?

To be honest the Nickit line’s issue is just its base stats. Going solely off of stats and its initial movepool, Thievul is one of the worst Pokémon ever made. In competitive it’s remained very slightly viable through Unburden shenanigans and the strength of terrain teams (so seeds work out) but it still languishes in the lowest tiers. If not for Burning Jealousy, which was of course added in the DLC, Thievul wouldn’t even be used in ZU. And Unburden is pretty unusable in-game since it relies on consumable items that can’t be easily replaced.

There’s weak Pokémon and then there’s Thievul. I have no idea what they were trying to do here because it’s so bad that it ends up being a genuine slog to use in-game. One of my biggest pet peeves with SwSh is Thievul, because its design is one of my favourites from Gen 8 and I still dropped it from my in-game team because it was such a liability.

 

[pokemon4eva]

Nickit doesn't work? I wonder why, let's see it's Bulbapedia page...

Okay, I see the problem. Some Einstein made the Nickit family a Special focused Pokemon (40/28/28/47/52/50). Problem with that: early game is usually Physically focused. Many early route mons are decent Physical attackers and have Physical moves cause logically those are the first things a creature would learn to do. Which is also another problem Nickit has, as it's level-up movepool is bad:

Level 1: Quick Attack & Tail Whip
Level 4: Beat Up
Level 8: Hone Claws
Level 12: Snarl
Level 16: Assurance
(Evolve at Level 18)

So, in the Physical-focused early game, you have a frail Special Attacker that doesn't learn it's first Special Attack until Level 12 and only has Quick Attack and Beat Up to work with until then. Who thought this was a good idea?

I suppose they relying on that 'unable to turn off' exp share for it to get Snarl with little problem. It also gets Nasty Plot fairly early so that's a plus. Aside from Foul Play, I really don't see many useful tools for Thievul, unless you farm for good TRs.

dpp suck and gsc > hgss. i honestly think hgss is just blatant fanservice and not the right kind. hgss doesn't fix a lot of the issues with johto - the terrible level curve being the main one - and even arguably creates new problems like kanto now outleveling you instead of being underlevel like in the original games while doing nothing to fix the super-low levels of wild pokemon there. hgss aren't bad, don't get me wrong, they just ain't great.

I don't get the fanservice part. I mean there's fanservice I also find very bad and blatant (e.g.: Let's Go being severely stuck in the past) but I don't think hgss qualifies.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

And Unburden is pretty unusable in-game since it relies on consumable items that can’t be easily replaced.

Not really, healing berries are actually potential clutch material when it comes to Gym battles. It's just not as reliable on demand like in Comp.

 

[Codraroll]

Wouldn't that exact same problem you mention happen with that "only new Pokémon before the first gym" approach?

I guess it would result in a ninth bird, yes. That's a downside.

But on the upside, it means the developers couldn't be content with introducing just the bird, bug and rodent plus a couple of crapmons and then pad out the encounters with Pokémon from the earlier games. Sun and Moon in particular fall hard into this trap. On Route 1 your Alolan options are limited to just Yungoos, Pikipek, and Grubbin, plus Rattata-A if you're willing to count that as a new Pokémon. Contrast all the old-gen Pokémon you meet there: Caterpie (and Metapod), Ledyba, Spinarak, Pichu (and Pikachu by SOS call), Bonsly (and Sudowoodo by SOS call), Happiny, Munchlax (and Snorlax by SOS call), Slowpoke, and Wingull (that's 13 in case you didn't count). USUM adds Buneary and Inkay to the route too. Moving on to the Trainer's School, you can find the Galarian forms of Meowth and Grimer, plus Magnemite. Zorua too in USUM. In Hau'oli City, the Pokémon added to the selection are Abra, Mime Jr./Mr. Mime (USUM), and Furfrou (USUM). Onto Route 2: Drowzee, Smeargle, Spearow, Growlithe, Makuhita, Machop (Trade), Ekans (USUM), Dunsparce (USUM), and Hawlucha (USUM, Trade). Meanwhile only Cutiefly and Crabrawler are added as Alolan Pokémon (and you're not guaranteed to find the latter, as it's only found in berry piles). You might want to stop by Hau'oli Cemetery too, where the selection is: Zubat, Gastly, Misdreavus, Drifloon, and Murkrow (USUM). That's all the locations up until the first Trial.

Two towns and two routes into the game, and you've only encountered five Gen VII Pokémon, three of which are the boring ol' bird, bug, and rodent. Plus three Kanto Pokémon dipped in paint, if you count those as new. Meanwhile, you've seen up to 35 old-gen Pokémon. Mind you, this is the hellish slogscape of Gen VII, so you've taken a fair while to get here as well. Granted, this does set the tone for the rest of Alola. The new Gen VII Pokémon are nowhere to be seen, and the old-gen Pokémon offer much greater versatility anyway. The only remaining new Gen VII Pokémon to be found on all of Melemele are Oricorio and Rockruff (the latter only after you get Tauros). Kalos is actually even worse, with only Scatterbug, Fletchling, Bunnelby, and Litleo being Gen VI options before the first Gym.

To be fair to SwSh for once, I think they struck a quite nice balance here. On Route 1 and 2 you find Blipbug, Rookidee, Skwovet, Wooloo, Nickit, Chewtle, and Yamper, plus Arrokuda if you're willing to fish for a while. There's Galarian Zigzagoon too, but it's rare. The Gen VIII 'mons outnumber the earlier-game 'mons (which are Caterpie, Hoothoot, Grubbin, Lotad/Seedot, Purrloin, and Magikarp) in the very beginning, and only about half of them are archetypes (coincidentally, so is half the old-gen Pokémon). The Pokémon found on the first two routes aren't top shelf picks from old generations either, so it's not like you'd be much better off with them over the native Galarian Pokémon. And then the Wild Area opens up and you're getting access to potentially hundreds of Pokémon before the first Gym. Still, I think they would have benefited from having a couple more native Pokémon to offer at this earliest point of the game, especially in the Wild Area. Looking through the encounter lists for the Wild Area, as far as I can tell, when you first get to the area you can't find a single new Gen VIII Pokémon apart from ones you already saw on the first two Routes, possibly except in Raids. Galar should have had a few more natives to entice you to search the Wild Area when you first get there.

For the old-school linear games, let's appreciate RSE for a bit here. The first Route is rather boring, but the regional bug and rodent have Poochyena for company to break up the monotony. On Route 102, Lotad and Seedot make their appearance (three-stage evolutions! Nice!), alongside Ralts (even better!) and Surskit if you're really willing to search for it (1% encounter, woo!). Route 103 and 104 give you Wingull and Taillow too. Plus Marill, for whatever reason, although only in Emerald. Petalburg Woods lets you pick up Shroomish and possibly Slakoth if you're patient (and you better be if you plan to use Slakoth in the first place ...). Before the first Gym you can also explore Route 116 for a chance to find Nincada, Whismur, Skitty, and, in Emerald, Abra. That's 14 new evolution families (and two old ones in Emerald) before the first Gym. Yes, there are regional bugs, birds, and rodents among them (arguably two regional birds, even), but also ten other families - Lotad and Seedot being version exclusives.

The set-up used in Hoenn requires a large roster of new Pokémon, to give you plenty of options early. It's another benefit of having a large generational Pokédex, you get to have room for that sort of thing. Of course, Unova managed to somehow bungle this up with the exact same premise (exhaustive list of Pokémon available before the first Gym: Starter, Patrat, Lillipup, Audino, Purrloin, Pidove, Elemental Monkey) despite its ginormous dex size, so it's not foolproof.

Gotta give Gen I a quick mention too. It lets you have access to Rattata, Pidgey, Nidoran-M, Nidoran-F, Mankey, Spearow, and Caterpie/Weedle before the first Gym. For the very beginning of the franchise, it's not half bad. The bugs, birds, and rodents overwhelm the first routes, but that little detour into Route 22 is so rewarding. An extra rival battle and four new Pokémon await those who take their time to explore rather than rushing forward. Come to think of it, I don't think the early Routes have rewarded exploration to that degree ever since. GSC had that southern bit of Route 46, I guess that counts, but still it's strange that the concept was abandoned so early.

Anyway, TL;DR - a greater selection of new Pokémon at the start of the game makes the whole experience better and more varied. Resorting only to the archetypes + old Pokémon makes things feel stale really fast. It says a bit that Cutiefly on Route 2 is the first Gen 7 Pokémon you're likely to meet that isn't a regional starter, bird, bug, or rodent.

 

[DreamPrince]

Lillie: heals your team throughout a long af dungeon with strong trainers
"omg pokemon stop babying me with this walking pokecenter"
Marnie: cheers you which....somehow sharply raises your stats against a weak ass grunt
"marnieeeee i love you best rival ever"
View attachment 306139

I thought people loved Lillie? At least SM Lillie? I personally liked Lillie, though she’s definitely not as good as N. My #1 issue with Lillie is that she relies too much on the player to deal with her family- come on- you certainly would not wanna deal with an UB obsessed Lusamine right? It just makes her feel too passive of a character, it contrast to N, who learns that Pokémon and people should be together by battling with the player, that’s why I like N more than Lillie.

Agree that Marnie is the most forgettable character ever and why she has a fan following I don’t get. After her first appearance at the Budew Inn, I honestly forgot she even existed until Pier’s gym battle. Sure she has good music, but that alone doesn’t make her good character- if that’s the case, all of Team Flare are great characters because their music.

And while we’re on the topic of SM’s story, I have an unpopular opinion: I don’t think the Tapus and UBs were handled that well. For SM, only Tapu Koko has any relevance in the story, while the other three don’t make any physical appearences at all. Lele and Bulu are mentioned by word only, and Fini is briefly seen in a water form before vanishing just as Hapu is finishing her ceremony. They apparently were fighting the UBs, but their only shown in spots of light. The fights also take place off screen and are never mentioned again. I kind of wish the UBs had a more of a role in the main story, but at least Nihilego was handled very well. The side quest was fun, since we got to learn about Looker, Annabel, Nanu, and the UBs in much more depth than last time.

Then USM came, the attention of Lusamine shifted to Necrozma, and the UBs still invade. The problem is that there is no reason for the UBs exist since they have no relevance to any of the plot. The scenes featuring Nihilego and the UBs fighting the Kahunas don’t need to exist since the UBs don’t matter anymore. Looker and Annabel are also robbed of their side story, and just exist as filler in Alola instead. Oh yeah, and they did not fix any of the issues with the Tapus.

Regarding favorite generations and nostalgia, I think I have posted my thoughts on this before but I’ll post them again since the topic came up once more. This whole thing about someone's first generation also being their favorite doesn’t apply to me because I started with Gen 1, but my favorite is Gen 5. While I have many positive memories from Gen 1, I don’t care much for it anymore and I actually find it overrated nowadays. The extreme focus it has gotten in many other generations (notably Gen 2 and 7, but also 6 and 8 as well as 3 and 4 to various extents) has also made my feelings towards it more sour. In comparison, Gen 5 is my favorite because it is the generation I had the most fun playing. It is not my favorite because of nostalgia because I don’t find it old enough to feel nostalgic for… yet. It is getting closer, though. It will be 10 years since the English release of B/W in just two months... where did all these years go? Time flies.

Anyway the real reason I’m posting here is because I came up with a some new unpopular opinions, so here they are.

I have never understood the hype for Goomy or Snom. While those are fine Pokémon, I don’t think there’s anything really special or unique about them.
First, we have Goomy. Gen 6 introduced many great Pokémon, but while the fandom at large seemed to fall in love with Goomy, I have personally never cared much for it. In fact, I like the majority of the other Gen 6 Pokémon better than the Goomy line. I’m not a huge fan of slimy things, so that’s probably the main reason. I have also never found Goodra to have any unique or special niche in battle, something I feel that all other pseudo-legendaries have. I have used Goodra twice on two different teams, and while I liked it a bit better afterwards, it is still my least favorite pseudo-legendary without any doubt.
Then there’s Snom. Apparently, this is one of the most popular Pokémon from Gen 8? I don’t get it. While I think it is fine, there are many similar small Bug Pokémon which I like about equally or better than it. For me, the best thing about Snom is that it evolves into the much more awesome Frosmoth which is an awesome Pokémon with a cool design.

One discussion that seems to pop up rather often is whether the 2D sprites or 3D models are better for Pokémon. My possibly unpopular opinion here is that I liked both the sprites and the models. I think the sprites were really good, especially in Gen 5. Gen 4 & 3 had several good ones too, and I think even Gen 1 & 2 had some sprites that were pretty good. But I like the 3D models too. I think they mostly did a great job with them in the 3DS games, but I like them even better in Gen 8, the Switch allows them to really shine. While there are both sprites and models that could have been even better, I still like both in the end.

I don’t think D/P are the worst Pokémon games. I won’t deny that they have issues, but I think they had a large number of positives too. New and awesome Pokémon, good training spots, a great post-game, the P/S split, better movepools for most Pokémon, and I think Sinnoh is a really great region, my second favorite after Unova. On the whole, I think I’d rank D/P somewhere in the middle if I were to rank the main series Pokémon games. I would place them right below S/M, which is interesting since I feel that those two pairs are very similar to each other in many ways. If anything, the big problem for D/P is not necessarily that they are bad, but rather that they are obsolete. There’s no reason to play them now when Platinum exists. But even so, I still think they were good for their time, I had tons of fun with them back in 2007-08. With that said, my least favorite Pokémon games are still a certain pair from Gen 4… but it isn’t D/P.

Not sure if this is unpopular, but this is something I wanted to say anyway. I think I have partly said it before, but I might as well say it again. As stated earlier in this post, Gen 5 is my favorite. B/W & B2/W2 are my favorite Pokémon games. But… I don’t want it to stay that way. Ever since the end of Gen 5, I have wanted a new generation and new games to take their place and become my new favorite Pokémon games. But that has yet to happen. I think the ones that got the closest so far were X/Y which are awesome games, but they didn’t quite reach the top. I really want the series to move forward instead of backward, which is what I feel that it has been doing in recent years, starting with Gen 6 and then sadly continuing from there with almost every new game release. In the past, I wanted both Gen 6 & 7 to become my new favorites, but it didn't happen, and by Gen 8, I had sort of given up on the whole idea.

I guess the above is also partly tied to why remakes are my least favorite type of Pokémon games. If there were to be new remakes of an older game pair (for example, D/P remakes for Gen 8) and those would turn out better than the main games of the generation, then I think that would be a bad sign for Pokémon on the whole. Because if the best game of a generation is a remake, what does that say about the quality of the new generation? To me, it would say that the quality of the new games are not very good and that an older generation is better, as the remakes have shown by being better than the new games. Fortunately, this has yet to happen as I do not personally think that any of the remakes we have gotten so far have been the best games of their respective generation.

Well, has someone who loves Goomy and has Goodra has his favorite Gen 6 Pokémon, let me try to explain why. I think it’s really cute because it’s so helpless and it’s beady eyes really makes it look like it needs a friend. Speaking of Goodra, I happen to find it really cute and the Pokedex entry states that if loves pools and cries all by itself. It just feels very different from the likes of Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Salamence because they are described as fierce and dangerous, but Goodra is the complete opposite in that it will hug you. When I played XY for the first time, I did not know what the pseudo-Legendary of XY was until I completed the game. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was Goodra, a very cute Dragon type. I also happen to really like Mollusks in general, and that includes Mollusk-Pokemon like Slugma line, Shellos, and of course, the Goomy line. I really find the Goomy line really cool that sense that they combine Dragon and a slug together-Not only does it feel different from Gastrodon and Magcargo, but it also captures the draconic sense while also giving the slug form from its sliminess. I think the transition from Slug to Snail to Dragon was done really well. Your not the first person to dislike Goodra though, my brother ( who is a former Pokemon fan ) says it looks dumb, though we have very different tastes when it comes to Pokemon.

I'd also argue that RS are also obsolete because of Emerald. Can't really see a reason to play them over Emerald. I guess the same logic should apply to Crystal, but I haven't played Gen 2 that much, so I can't say.

I personally enjoyed ORAS more than XY. I found the revised story ( The Villains stealing the correct orb, and Brendan/May using the final evolved starter were welcome additions. ) and post game a lot better. You have: The Mega Stone hunt, Delta Episode, Mirage Islands, contests, Maison, and the Legendary Hunt. XY had the Mega Stone hunt, Post-game episode, and Maison, but that still rather small compared to ORAS.

I still dropped it from my in-game team because it was such a liability

I actually used it on my team for Shield. It wasn't terrible, but it could have been better.

the terrible level curve being the main one - and even arguably creates new problems like kanto now outleveling you instead of being underlevel like in the original games while doing nothing to fix the super-low levels of wild pokemon there. hgss aren't bad, don't get me wrong, they just ain't great.

That's the most common criticism of that game. Its not unpopular opinion. They did actually fix a lot though: Pokegear allowing more numbers, better levels for the Gym leaders, and more Johto Pokemon in the post game. They definitely did fix a lot from the originals.

And some of my other unpopular opinions: I think Rayquaza Is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I think its an amazing Pokemon, and its one of the best wallbreakers in history, but I always found its lore in the sense that it unique for becalming Kyogre and Groudon, while strong, isn't as amazing as the Sinnoh Dragons, which control time, space, and antimatter respectively and can literally destroy the universe at given any moment. The only reason it got a totally busted Mega Evolution was as fan service since Rayquaza placed 1st in Japanese Poll and Top 10 in the Google Poll.

Speaking of the Sinnoh Dragons, Palkia is my favorite of the three and I don't get why people dislike its design. It arm plates and wings are a reference to fish, which are found in the ocean, while its head resembles a goblin shark. They are references to pearls being found underwater. Its design is very complex that's all. And before you say it, and this is definitely an unpopular opinion, but I never noticed that Palkia had a " Phallic " appearance until reading the BW Uber analysis. I never noticed it until the author noticed it.

 

[Celever]

Not really, healing berries are actually potential clutch material when it comes to Gym battles. It's just not as reliable on demand like in Comp.

One of my other huge pet peeves with Gen VII and VIII is the berry mechanic, actually. Losing half your berries every time you shake a tree is really annoying, especially if the Crabrawler / Skwovet happens to take the berry you care about (in this case healing berries) and leaves the berries you didn't want anyway. Not to mention sometimes trees just don't give you the berries you want and they're all useless.

There was nothing wrong with the previous berry mechanic. I have no idea why they changed it to an inferior system, especially with all of the other legitimately great quality of life changes for getting the most out of your team. It's such a bizarre regression in game design.

 

[Eonatator]

And some of my other unpopular opinions: I think Rayquaza Is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I think its an amazing Pokemon, and its one of the best wallbreakers in history, but I always found its lore in the sense that it unique for becalming Kyogre and Groudon, while strong, isn't as amazing as the Sinnoh Dragons, which control time, space, and antimatter respectively and can literally destroy the universe at given any moment. The only reason it got a totally busted Mega Evolution was as fan service since Rayquaza placed 1st in Japanese Poll and Top 10 in the Google Poll.

I'm a huge Rayquaza fan, I'd say it's in my top three favourite Pokemon, so I may be a little biased here, but I the think part of the point behind its lore is the aura of mystique that surrounds it. It's this giant flying serpent that lives in the ozone layer that's literally never seen and rarely, if ever (if it is, someone can correct me) mentioned in the story. Unlike the Sinnoh dragons, no-one really knows what Rayquaza is or even knows of its existence for that matter. So, I think that's part of the reason why its lore was left relatively bland and not massively fleshed out. Yes, it could be argued that mystique and intrigue surrounds literally every legendary and mythical, but the region of Sinnoh is designed around the themes of myths, legends and tradition, so of course the legendaries in those games are going to have an expansive back story. And yeah, even in comparison to other legendaries, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Arceus to an extent have pretty outrageous back stories and powers. I agree they really went all out in that regard. Maybe a little too over the top for my liking but each to their own. I do still like a bit of ambiguity about my legends and for them not to be too over the top. I don't really like Mega-Ray for this reason. But again, I digress, opinions. The themes stated above are made pretty apparent Sinnoh by the statue in Eterna city and the cave paintings in Celestic. People in Sinnoh seem to be more aware that the 'main' legendaries of their region exist and have some inkling as to what they are. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your opinion per say, but this is just my two cents on why the lore surrounding the above legendaries is the way it is and I acknowledge that I may not have fully grasped the point you were trying to make.

EDIT: I also realise that Dialga and Palkia apparently living in space (and time? Not sure how that works but Giratina lives in a parallel world so?) theoretically means people are even less likely to have seen them than Rayquaza, but the fact that statues exist of them would suggest otherwise and that they've made themselves known at some point.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

The set-up used in Hoenn requires a large roster of new Pokémon, to give you plenty of options early. It's another benefit of having a large generational Pokédex, you get to have room for that sort of thing. Of course, Unova managed to somehow bungle this up with the exact same premise (exhaustive list of Pokémon available before the first Gym: Starter, Patrat, Lillipup, Audino, Purrloin, Pidove, Elemental Monkey) despite its ginormous dex size, so it's not foolproof.

Unova limiting the selection before Gym #1 in BW is deliberate; it's to railroad the player into using their elemental monkey against the Striaton gym leaders. Pidove (which isn't available until Route 3) would give an advantage over Cilan, Roggenrola would give an advantage against Chili, and Blitzle would give an advantage against Cress.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Unova limiting the selection before Gym #1 in BW is deliberate; it's to railroad the player into using their elemental monkey against the Striaton gym leaders. Pidove (which isn't available until Route 3) would give an advantage over Cilan, Roggenrola would give an advantage against Chili, and Blitzle would give an advantage against Cress.

huh, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Unova limiting the selection before Gym #1 in BW is deliberate; it's to railroad the player into using their elemental monkey against the Striaton gym leaders. Pidove (which isn't available until Route 3) would give an advantage over Cilan, Roggenrola would give an advantage against Chili, and Blitzle would give an advantage against Cress.

The first two Unova Gyms in BW were meant to be tutorials.

Striaton Gym, as discussed, purposely puts the player at a disadvantage. Most likely a player would be relying on their Starter heavily early game which are purposely made stronger than the early route mons. Until the Gym you didn't deal with any Type Match-ups (it wouldn't be until Gen VI the Starters started with a STAB move) and all you did was selecting the strongest move you had. But then comes Striaton Gym where, uh oh, you're told your Starter's STAB will not only not do that much damage against the Gym Leader's Pokemon but also your Starter will be weak to the Gym Leader's! You're told maybe something in the Dreamyard can help you, and even after doing the story event there, you won't find a Pokemon who could have a Type Advantage unless you talk with the random girl NPC (she's not hard to find, but you're not prompted to talk with her; I guess in the way this also teaches the player to talk with NPCs as they sometimes give you helpful stuff). It's railroad-y sure but the other option would have used the Rival which would have felt a bit predictable, at least this way gets the player to a story event & makes the first Gym more memorable.

Nacrene Gym further the Type Match-up lesson. Sure, Lenora is a Normal-type Gym Leader so she has nothing super effective against you, but you don't have anything super effective against her and her Pokemon hit hard and have some devastating strategies that can easily knock out your Pokemon if you aren't expecting it. However you're then told if you go to the Route after the city there are a few Fighting-types there you can catch. This introduces the idea to new players that sometimes you may need to go out of your way to get a Pokemon that has a Type advantage over the Gym.

They're not bad ways to introduce the Type Match-up concept to new players and certainly makes the Striaton Triplets and Lenora memorable as a "that one boss... unless you do what the game says to beat them more easily". However since then they've just had the Rivals be the ones to teach you the Type Match-ups.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

The first two Unova Gyms in BW were meant to be tutorials.

Striaton Gym, as discussed, purposely puts the player at a disadvantage. Most likely a player would be relying on their Starter heavily early game which are purposely made stronger than the early route mons. Until the Gym you didn't deal with any Type Match-ups (it wouldn't be until Gen VI the Starters started with a STAB move) and all you did was selecting the strongest move you had. But then comes Striaton Gym where, uh oh, you're told your Starter's STAB will not only not do that much damage against the Gym Leader's Pokemon but also your Starter will be weak to the Gym Leader's! You're told maybe something in the Dreamyard can help you, and even after doing the story event there, you won't find a Pokemon who could have a Type Advantage unless you talk with the random girl NPC (she's not hard to find, but you're not prompted to talk with her; I guess in the way this also teaches the player to talk with NPCs as they sometimes give you helpful stuff). It's railroad-y sure but the other option would have used the Rival which would have felt a bit predictable, at least this way gets the player to a story event & makes the first Gym more memorable.

Nacrene Gym further the Type Match-up lesson. Sure, Lenora is a Normal-type Gym Leader so she has nothing super effective against you, but you don't have anything super effective against her and her Pokemon hit hard and have some devastating strategies that can easily knock out your Pokemon if you aren't expecting it. However you're then told if you go to the Route after the city there are a few Fighting-types there you can catch. This introduces the idea to new players that sometimes you may need to go out of your way to get a Pokemon that has a Type advantage over the Gym.

They're not bad ways to introduce the Type Match-up concept to new players and certainly makes the Striaton Triplets and Lenora memorable as a "that one boss... unless you do what the game says to beat them more easily". However since then they've just had the Rivals be the ones to teach you the Type Match-ups.

There's just one huge problem with that design.

The railroading murders any replayability.

You wanna replay BW1? You will have to either catch a puppy, grab the free win monkey, or pick up some deadweight.

There's no variety. The more you replay BW1, the more annoying this gets. You can muscle past Lenora on neutral matchups without grabbing a Timburr or a Sawk/Throh, but you will need a 2nd teammate for the Triplets, and despite the fact that your pool of available mons expand greatly just after the one required HM use in the entire game (to the point that ironically, you can catch a counter for the Triplets every time, you're still forced to build your team accounting to that one tutorial.

It's really annoying and frustrating to know that yes, I do have to use Lillipup every single time I'm not using the monkey because they're not even that impressive, to begin with.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Well, has someone who loves Goomy and has Goodra has his favorite Gen 6 Pokémon, let me try to explain why. I think it’s really cute because it’s so helpless and it’s beady eyes really makes it look like it needs a friend. Speaking of Goodra, I happen to find it really cute and the Pokedex entry states that if loves pools and cries all by itself. It just feels very different from the likes of Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Salamence because they are described as fierce and dangerous, but Goodra is the complete opposite in that it will hug you. When I played XY for the first time, I did not know what the pseudo-Legendary of XY was until I completed the game. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was Goodra, a very cute Dragon type. I also happen to really like Mollusks in general, and that includes Mollusk-Pokemon like Slugma line, Shellos, and of course, the Goomy line. I really find the Goomy line really cool that sense that they combine Dragon and a slug together-Not only does it feel different from Gastrodon and Magcargo, but it also captures the draconic sense while also giving the slug form from its sliminess. I think the transition from Slug to Snail to Dragon was done really well. Your not the first person to dislike Goodra though, my brother ( who is a former Pokemon fan ) says it looks dumb, though we have very different tastes when it comes to Pokemon.

Those are some good reasons, I understand why you like the Goomy line. I guess I just don't agree. I generally prefer pseudo-legendaries that are fierce, powerful and dangerous like Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Kommo-o and Dragapult. But what about Dragonite then? I like it too because I think it executed the concept of a "friendly" pseudo-legendary much better than Goodra. I like it way better than Goodra in terms of both design and battle performance. And as for the Goomy line, I am personally not a huge fan of mollusks in general either, but I do like the Shellos line.

I'd also argue that RS are also obsolete because of Emerald. Can't really see a reason to play them over Emerald. I guess the same logic should apply to Crystal, but I haven't played Gen 2 that much, so I can't say.

Fair enough, and I agree, although I'd say it is more OR/AS than Emerald that made R/S obsolete for me. And my unpopular opinion is that I also find Emerald almost completely obsolete because of OR/AS as well. If it wasn't for the Battle Frontier, it would be completely obsolete, and even so, the Frontier alone is not really enough for me. I really hope saying this won't start the never-ending discussion of Emerald VS. OR/AS because I am very tired of it and I will probably not respond if anyone decides to reply to what I am saying here.

Regarding Gen 2, I think I would say the same about G/S being obsolete because of Crystal, though I'm not sure if I would be able to play Crystal either nowadays because of of how old it is.

I personally enjoyed ORAS more than XY. I found the revised story ( The Villains stealing the correct orb, and Brendan/May using the final evolved starter were welcome additions. ) and post game a lot better. You have: The Mega Stone hunt, Delta Episode, Mirage Islands, contests, Maison, and the Legendary Hunt. XY had the Mega Stone hunt, Post-game episode, and Maison, but that still rather small compared to ORAS.

It is the other way around for me. I liked X/Y better, the reasons are that they really gave me a feeling of newness which OR/AS failed at (since they were remakes of older games I had previously played), X/Y also had a larger regional dex with way better Pokémon variation, and the majority of the features in OR/AS were things that were re-used from either X/Y or R/S/E, which made them feel less new to me. That said, I still like OR/AS a lot as well and I agree with you about them having a better main story and post-game. But even so, I don't like them quite as much as X/Y.

Speaking of the Sinnoh Dragons, Palkia is my favorite of the three and I don't get why people dislike its design. It arm plates and wings are a reference to fish, which are found in the ocean, while its head resembles a goblin shark. They are references to pearls being found underwater. Its design is very complex that's all. And before you say it, and this is definitely an unpopular opinion, but I never noticed that Palkia had a " Phallic " appearance until reading the BW Uber analysis. I never noticed it until the author noticed it.

I agree. Palkia is my favorite from the Sinnoh dragons as well. I have always liked it better than Dialga, ever since the early Gen 4 days. I think Palkia is awesome in terms of design, Dialga is quite cool too but is my least favorite of the Sinnoh dragons, and I find it a bit overrated as well. Palkia was also one of the big reasons I got Pearl before Diamond, and I have had more success with Palkia in battles than what I have had with with Dialga. Granted, that might be because I have used Palkia more than Dialga. I also like its typing over Dialga's, Palkia is also a bit faster which I highly appreciate, and Spacial Rend is a great signature move, way more useful than Roar of Time.

I also wanted to give my opinion on Nickit/Thievul since it came up. I used a Thievul on my in-game team in Sword, Nickit was one of the first new Pokémon I saw in the games and I instantly decided to go with it on my team after seeing it since I love foxes. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing and it ended up becoming one of the three members of my in-game team that I dropped (the other two were Alcremie and Dubwool). Though it was partly my own fault, I should have taught it some better moves through TM/TR. Notably Dark Pulse, as it now was I relied on Snarl for its main special STAB, which was very bad. But also something more for better coverage, such as Grass Knot. Full details for my set and more of my thoughts about the fox can be found here if anyone wants to read more about it. In the end, I agree that Nickit/Thievul was a bit disappointing, which is a shame since they are such cool Pokémon.