Unpopular opinions

Unrelated and unhinged rambling: Tropius needs an update, it sticks out as one of the pokemon most held back by its time from a concept standpoint.

Let's look at its defining trait according to various pokedexes:




Tropius has no variation as to what its growing, and it doesn't directly connect to any berry seen ingame (nanab berries are pink, for reference). Gen 3 did have a method for determining what fruit/berries a given pokemon likes, but still couldn't implement noticeable variants due to lacking a solid foundation for form changes (it had Spinda and Deoxys, but they were unique and not very generalizable). We're now at the point where everything is available for an interesting set of variants for Tropius or an evolution (and have potentially been since gen 4), and it would be far from the only mon nowadays with a set of different forms for a thematic gimmick. It means Tropius is now a mon that you can tell it's old without checking anything. It doesn't help that it hasn't been in the base dex for any non-Hoenn region where it might receive that update.

Also, it probably needs Harvest moved out of it's HA slot, but that's a separate issue.
Refer to the Arbok pattern issue
It's a shame. I like both mons
 
Sinnoh Mythicals:
Honestly, I'm kind of fine with how they handled the Sinnoh Mythicals and it feels like it makes sense why they're impossible to get:

Manaphy: First off, Manaphy isn't native to Sinnoh; it's not native anywhere. It's all in the Species name: The Seafaring Pokemon. Either it doesn't have a den or its den is on the bottom of the ocean. Eitherway, however Manaphy breed they do so in the middle of the ocean and sometimes an Egg gets lost and washes ashore somewhere. Thus why you can't get it in-game.
Of course, the argument Yung Dramps presented is with the distribution method. And indeed, it sucks it's one per cartridge instead one per save file (and/or also make it so it cannot send a Manaphy to the same game file). I can sort of see their thinking, wanting to emulate an Event experience, but there's some ethics behind this which makes the whole thing icky and probably shouldn't have been done.

Phione: I guess the reason for Phione is to maybe explain how there's a Manaphy Egg when Legendaries don't normally breed. Now they could have just said Manaphy are picky about when they breed cause we've seen other Legendary's Eggs and/or offspring (or its mentioned) yet they aren't able to make lesser version of themselves; but I guess since you actually obtain Manaphy's Egg they felt this instance was different. Alright, fine, so, turns out Manaphy are the only Legendary to breed, BUT since they require specific conditions to develop into a Manaphy it results the Egg into being a Phione. Though you could just casually breed a Legendary/Mythical? HA! Shame on you, here's a Water-type Glalie for your efforts to play (or rather mate) God.
Honestly it's not a bad idea, but maybe not executed in the best way cause there's really nothing about Manaphy's theming which would make you think it could breed aside you normally get one via hatching a special Egg.

Darkrai: Why was it split from Cresselia? Because it's purposely hiding itself away from people cause it can't stop giving those around it nightmares, it doesn't want to be near others and doesn't want to be found. "How is that different from any other Legendary"? While other Legendaries like being secluded, they're not exactly opposed to be approached by someone "worthy" either because something is needed of them or the "worthy" wants to challenge them. Cresselia wings are able to give good dreams in addition to curing those out of Darkrai's nightmares, sure it lives on an island in seclusion but knows its power may be needed so does not opposed being visited by "worthy". Not so with Darkrai, "worthy" or not Darkrai wishes to be left alone. Why did Darkrai put Eldritch's son in a neverending nightmare? Who knows, lore seems to indicate Darkrai keep secluded because they don't actually want others to suffer yet such a life is lonely so once in a while a Darkrai may pull a victim into a neverending nightmare just to have a "friend" (though sadly the results look to be fatal if the ghost girl's story in B2W2's Strange House is anything to go by). This of course leads to Sinnoh's Darkrai event where, seemingly intrigued by the player who Cresselia considered worthy and broke his victim from the nightmare, breaks its seclusion and sets it up to meet the player. It's not the player going to find Darkrai, it's Darkrai finding the player.

Shaymin: Yeah, Seabreak Path is kind of silly and more GF showing off what they could do with the new tech as DreamPrince said, but in Shaymin's defense it at least got a unique location to itself unlike modern day Mythicals.

Arceus: I mean, it's Pokemon GOD. You're same argument for why its presence is absent is also the explanation for why you don't encounter it. When was the last time you casually came across an avatar of God? Sure, you come across its children and other Legendaries that are nearly god-like, but Arceus is the very top, the Alpha, beyond you or me. You're going to be asked to be a bit more than just explore if you want to meet it, something that's beyond a normal player's control; an Event.

Though as I've said in the past, I'm all for them De-Mythifying Mythicals after their debut generation (or at least the majority of them, like Darkrai and Shaymin do really have no reason to remain Mythical).

Tropius has no variation as to what its growing, and it doesn't directly connect to any berry seen ingame (nanab berries are pink, for reference). Gen 3 did have a method for determining what fruit/berries a given pokemon likes, but still couldn't implement noticeable variants due to lacking a solid foundation for form changes (it had Spinda and Deoxys, but they were unique and not very generalizable). We're now at the point where everything is available for an interesting set of variants for Tropius or an evolution (and have potentially been since gen 4), and it would be far from the only mon nowadays with a set of different forms for a thematic gimmick. It means Tropius is now a mon that you can tell it's old without checking anything. It doesn't help that it hasn't been in the base dex for any non-Hoenn region where it might receive that update.

Well Tropius is far from the only Pokemon that has some fruit theme which doesn't relate to a holdable Berry. Cherubi and Cherrim has these pink "berries" they grow (Cherubi's has a face disturbingly, though dex says it eats it anyway), Applin family are based around apples which aren't considered a berry, heck, the fruit Tropius eats looks to be the same fruit for the Fruit Bunch ingredient used to make Tropical Curry.

Sadly, I don't think giving it a form change gimmick is really going to help it, it got a bad Typing and a stat spread totally unfit for it.

Here's a better question about Tropius: Why the F@#$ can it fly? Like, okay, I guess having a Pokemon use leafs as wings was the idea... but to make it a sauropod? GF, what media did you see a brontosaurus flying? Like, okay, I get idea of combining a long neck animal with a fruit-bearing tree, but to also combine it with a flying element? Felt like it was two separate ideas GF didn't want to make two separate Pokemon for so combined them cause banana tree leaves were long enough to be used as wings. Tropius could have been a Grass/Dragon than Grass/Flying; still wouldn't help it much but better than it has now.
 
Arceus: I mean, it's Pokemon GOD. You're same argument for why its presence is absent is also the explanation for why you don't encounter it. When was the last time you casually came across an avatar of God? Sure, you come across its children and other Legendaries that are nearly god-like, but Arceus is the very top, the Alpha, beyond you or me. You're going to be asked to be a bit more than just explore if you want to meet it, something that's beyond a normal player's control; an Event.
I understand the idea of keeping it sort of intentionally mysterious and out of the way but... I don't think the core Sinnoh games did a particularly good job at that. An example of what I'm getting it is PMD Explorers of Sky where Arceus was only present as a statue at the end of the optional dungeon Destiny Tower. Sounds lame, but I think that this one little reference alone did a great job at building a sense of suspense and intrigue at Arceus' purpose in this universe; a being beyond anything you are capable of recruiting, its memory only preserved in a secluded statue on a faraway tower. DPPt really needed a moment like that that built a similar amount of distant curiosity about this Pokemon, rather than just the typical Mythical in-world silence. I also mentioned the whole issue of Arceus' event being straight-up cancelled which could be its own Mysteries and Conspiracies conversation since as I alluded to the official reasoning for why it was scrapped has... a couple of holes, to say the least.
 
Huh? What ethics?

Well first thing to keep in mind is that there's no physical reason for the "one per cartridge" rule. It's not like they physically only have one Manaphy in each cartridge, and when you transfer it the game no longer has the Manaphy in it. No, the code to generate a Manaphy is still in the cartridge, they just programmed the cart to lock off creating any more Manaphy once a single transfer is done (so if you were able to hack into the cart and do like a factory reset or just remove the restriction you can have all the Manaphy you want).

This is where the "ethics" part comes in, and it's part of the classic case of what does the consumer actually "own" when they buy the product. Simply put, I bought the cartridge, therefore everything on that cartridge belongs to me now. However, the company had decided that this certain feature on the cartridge I should no longer have access to after using it once; the average person has no way to undo this. One can view this as the Pokemon Company had just gone beyond their reach, taking something away from the consumer that was legally bought and the consumer didn't know would happen upon purchase of the product.
 
The one thing I disagree with is Arceus' location.

The top of the Spear Pillar is perfect for it, the foundation was already set, it just needed to be above that.

*Cue a literal stairway to heaven.*
My problem is not the concept (it makes sense), but its execution. The hall of origin is just not visually interesting at all. I get this was the DS and only so much could be done, but surely they could've made a more interesting throne room for the deity of the Pokemon universe than just a floating glass floor. Here's to Legends amending this by, say, expanding it into a full Distortion World-esque dungeon
 
Well first thing to keep in mind is that there's no physical reason for the "one per cartridge" rule. It's not like they physically only have one Manaphy in each cartridge, and when you transfer it the game no longer has the Manaphy in it. No, the code to generate a Manaphy is still in the cartridge, they just programmed the cart to lock off creating any more Manaphy once a single transfer is done (so if you were able to hack into the cart and do like a factory reset or just remove the restriction you can have all the Manaphy you want).

This is where the "ethics" part comes in, and it's part of the classic case of what does the consumer actually "own" when they buy the product. Simply put, I bought the cartridge, therefore everything on that cartridge belongs to me now. However, the company had decided that this certain feature on the cartridge I should no longer have access to after using it once; the average person has no way to undo this. One can view this as the Pokemon Company had just gone beyond their reach, taking something away from the consumer that was legally bought and the consumer didn't know would happen upon purchase of the product.

The whole mythical aspect is lost though if you can just continually transfer multiple Manaphy from the same game. I personally thought The way it was executed was great, a great advertisement for (imo) one of their best sidegames and a Mythical not being locked to an isolated event. Ofc I may be biased as Manaphy will always be special to me as the first legal Mythical Pokemon I was able to obtain as prior to this and later WiFi events, Australia was not a hotspot for events.
 
The whole mythical aspect is lost though if you can just continually transfer multiple Manaphy from the same game. I personally thought The way it was executed was great, a great advertisement for (imo) one of their best sidegames and a Mythical not being locked to an isolated event. Ofc I may be biased as Manaphy will always be special to me as the first legal Mythical Pokemon I was able to obtain as prior to this and later WiFi events, Australia was not a hotspot for events.
"One per save" is a much better way to implement something unique than "one per cartridge".

If you gate the transfer behind completing the game, that's perfectly fine to give a effort -> reward situation while still not allowing to just brutally spam copies of it.
 
"One per save" is a much better way to implement something unique than "one per cartridge".

If you gate the transfer behind completing the game, that's perfectly fine to give a effort -> reward situation while still not allowing to just brutally spam copies of it.

Eh one per save is still easily repeatable and yes while there would still be some effort involved, its not like Ranger was a super hard game, and it would be very easy to have 10 Manaphy in a few days.
 
For as much as it seems like the fanbase at large has basically given up on it I truly believe that it is not only possible, but likely the Battle Frontier will be brought back for BDSP. I personally don't care whether it makes the cut or not so this isnt a wishlisting post, but lemme explain anyway.

-With the game's artstyle being a simple HD recreation of the DS layout compared to, say, a SWSH-style reimagining it's probably less effort in general to recreate Sinnoh, leaving more time to bring the Frontier back
-The Platinum Frontier is likely easier to code than the Emerald one. Not only are there less facilities but they're all less complex than the Emerald ones (for instance, there is no analogue to the procedural generation of the Battle Pyramid).
-Masuda is co-directing the game. Considering the infamous interview with him this may seem like a point against it, but on the other hand I think it's likely he still remembers the outrage over ORAS not having the Frontier and how that left long-lasting scars on the game's reputation that it didnt deserve over an overrated filler feature anyway he may very well want to avoid that from happening again, especially considering how volatile the fanbase is post-SWSH
-It's literally the most easy way to win over veterans possible! If ORAS proved anything it's that any and all effort to extensively revitalize an old region for a new generation via story rewrites, new content additions, old content revamps and numerous other little bits and bobs is basically a complete waste of time because the old-timers will get grumpy over not having a Frontier, so why bother? If the Pokemon devs have truly become as cynical and willing to cut corners as online Pokefans accuse them of being then surely they'll have figured out that porting the Battle Frontier is literally all that is needed to get the DS fans to forfeit their wallets. No, I'm not bitter at all, no sir.
 
The pokemon fandom is one of those that if you say that something could be considered bad faith or even racist, you get 50000 dudebros calling you a sjw cancel culture or whatever is the new hot slang to call.

The pokémon company having racist cases don't surprise me. Japanese people are known for being extremely racist and xenophobic and even fostering imperialistic views casually. What is a bit surprising is how people try to deny that its a thing. The pokemon company isnt going to give you a rare copy of swsh deluxe version when you defend their racism bro. No ones going to stop you from playing pokemon games either just because they said that lenoras original look was a bit racist, calm down
 
The pokemon fandom is one of those that if you say that something could be considered bad faith or even racist, you get 50000 dudebros calling you a sjw cancel culture or whatever is the new hot slang to call.

The pokémon company having racist cases don't surprise me. Japanese people are known for being extremely racist and xenophobic and even fostering imperialistic views casually. What is a bit surprising is how people try to deny that its a thing. The pokemon company isnt going to give you a rare copy of swsh deluxe version when you defend their racism bro. No ones going to stop you from playing pokemon games either just because they said that lenoras original look was a bit racist, calm down
Eh, I think this is a bit sensationalised. For sure, there are racists and homophobes and every other form of bigotry in the Pokémon fanbase, because put simply it’s huge and has very general appeal so bigots are able to like the franchise. But to say that Pokémon specifically has a huge problem with it seems a bit detached from reality. The vast majority of Pokémon fans are not bigots, especially considering older generations are much more represented in other gaming genres than JRPGs, and younger generations trend starkly downwards in regards to how much bigotry is represented.

Now obviously, any bigotry is too much and these conversations are important to have, I completely agree with that. But these conversations are definitely rolling even in Japanese based franchises. I immediately think of Danganronpa V3 where Kaito Momota uses homophobic slurs in the Japanese version but not any international versions, because the developers thought it was normalised enough in Japan to be acceptable, yet Kaito consistently is one of the least popular Danganronpa characters ever in Japan and really really popular elsewhere. Similarly, in Fire Emblem the bisexual characters tend to be extremely popular in Japan and the West. Audience is who guides this, and things are changing.

Albeit racism seems to be different to other forms of bigotry here simply in that Japan has a tiny black population, and so it seems like when creating characters, it’s a very intentional design choice to make one black, and in doing so stereotypes sometimes get involved. When western people make anime-style characters, a lot of the time it seems like the thought that goes into it is nothing more than something like “I want the clothes to be this colour and I think it looks really nice on this skintone”, to where the race of the character doesn’t affect their personality (which is good!), but Japan isn’t quite there yet.

But anyway, basically I’m not sure where your view here comes from. To my knowledge, there is nowhere for Pokémon fans to express bigotry. It’s not acceptable on Smogon, or showdown, or serebii, or Bulbapedia, or even smaller communities like PokéBeach, and people will face the consequences of their actions. If your regress is just with something like YouTube comment sections under PokéTuber videos, then the 8 year olds will learn soon enough.
 
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But to say that Pokémon specifically has a huge problem with it seems a bit detached from reality. The vast majority of Pokémon fans are not bigots, especially considering older generations are much more represented in other gaming genres than JRPGs, and younger generations trend starkly downwards in regards to how much bigotry is represented.
Yeah looking at this, you have a really good point in that racism is everywhere. Not in just Pokemon, but every franchise. And yes, with newer generations there is a lot less racism and other such things, which again is good.
 
But to say that Pokémon specifically has a huge problem with it seems a bit detached from reality.

I dont know how you even came to this conclusion because it sure wasn't from my post.

I also don't know why you're mentioning lgbt when racism and lgbt are two completely different issues and have different levels of progress in Japan, and the original video was about racism

I dont even know where to start because nothing you said relates to my post. Am I missing something
 
I liked the Hoenn contests in both R/S/E and OR/AS, but the Sinnoh contests are my least favorite minigame in the entire series. Not sure if that's an unpopular opinion, but that's how I feel about them.
I never played the Sinnoh games, but after a quick google I definitely agree with that. The RSE contests were interesting, which reminds me of the battle tents. Those were interesting as well, and I miss them quite a bit actually.
 
I liked the Hoenn contests in both R/S/E and OR/AS, but the Sinnoh contests are my least favorite minigame in the entire series. Not sure if that's an unpopular opinion, but that's how I feel about them.

Sinnoh contests are cool in theory but I dont like the new minigames they added. The dressing one means you need to keep getting good items to get a good score on it (matters a lot in the harder difficulties) and the dancing one is... ?????

Hoenn contests are super fun though. I loved making strategies for the harder levels to get the spot that gives you the most appeal
 
Honestly, the dancing minigame in Sinnoh contests was pretty fun. It was always at least a good way to pass time at school trying to trick your friends with your rhythm.

But it definitely should have been a separate minigame to contests. The overlap between people who want the strategy of contests and a basic rhythm game is pretty small (as in, just me from the sounds of it lol) so I can see why having to do one in order to do the other gets tiresome.
 
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