XY has the best story, champion, and pace.
And the best Eeveelution.
And the best Eeveelution.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
Hard disagree on best Champion, it feels like they wanted to make a fight similar to Cynthia without really understanding what made Cynthia cool and exciting in the first place. She's also not hard, which adds to her forgettability.
Her theme is fire though.
I really, really want you to elaborate on this point considering by the time I finished my recent XY replay my opinion of the story absolutely tanked. I'm not mad at you, hell I legit admire people like you who are able to see something in media or components of media that pretty much nobody else can, and that's why I'm so curious to know your reasoning in greater depth.
I just wished Stealth Rock's max damage was just capped at "weakness" (aka 1/4th of max HP) instead of allowing for "double weakness" (aka HALF of its HP).
I agree with Ironmage in that flying already has an amazing advantage over other hazards, which constitutes the 1/4th damage taken from rocks. My view however, being somewhat less competitively inclined, is flavor focused. They add in the extra typing, which in terms of flavor, should also be weak to stealth rocks. This butterfly? The rocks SHOULD murder it. This.. fire bird? It makes sense that it is 4x weak to rock, and loses 1/2 of it's health, etc. In terms of flavor, it makes sense that they are extremely weak to rocks in their own way.
Rocks were introduced due to airborne mons being completely immune to hazards was unbalanced. However I just don't see how the type chart should play into this. IMO it would have made more sense if rocks did say 1/4 of max health to airborne mons and 1/12 to grounded ones.
The discussion in another thread about inter-generational transfer methods has made me think of something: I actually really liked the Pal Park. Yes it was slow and clunky as hell and if you're transferring to any of the Sinnoh games, the 24-hour restriction is unfathomably irritating because the console never seems to be set to the right time, BUT the actual minigame of hunting for your old Pokemon in the enclosure and then recapturing them was really charming and I'm pretty fond of it. PokeTransporter/Bank is highly convenient and easy to use so no complaints about that, but just for the aesthetic and general vibe of it Pal Park is probably my favourite method of transferring Pokemon between games, for all its faults.
Okay, then about about lowering the damage amount of Stealth Rock, or maybe you have to layer it like Spikes to get it to do that much damage:
Layer 1: 1/16 normally, 1/8 weak, 1/4 double weak, no effect if resistant
Layer 2: 1/12th normally, 1/6th weak, 1/3 double weak, 1/24 resist, no effect on double resist
Layer 3 (how it is now): 1/8 normally, 1/4 weak, 1/2 double weak, 1/16 resist, 1/32 double resist
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Oh god pls no about the Spikes. The unique thing about spikes is that you need to layer them to great effect, which improves gameplan to strategically place a layer and get a advantage. I wouldn't like factor ground-type damage because for me it doesn't make sense. Spikes should be punishable to all grounded-mons equally, not making some rock-type(that is already the second worst type on the game) getting loads of damage and would need to rework Spikes entirely. Although I really like yours idea of stealth rock, but the Spikes are fine as it's, Spikes is a unique hazard on my opinion and shouldn't be changed.
Yes, this works, but then it faces the same problem from before. I do agree that this is a good solution, but now it is much worse. Now I play 1v1, where hazards are nonexistent, but I played my fair share of other formats. And in every one, stealth rocks never seemed like a major problem. I would have something weak to rock, but then have defog, rapid spin, or boots. In every situation i can remember, it never was the biggest hindrance. Annoying, and I'd rather not have them there, yes. But I always planned for the fact that there would be a hazard setter on the opposing team. Like, if you are having problems with stealth rocks, just have a defogger or spinner. And they had much more use than removing hazards. The spinners generally able to do quite a bit of damage, the defoggers able to take hits normally, etc. So basically, the hazard removers where never a burden to have on the team. I never seemed to lose much of anything when i switched into my hazard removal, unless I did a bad switch and died. Which was my fault.
My fellas are still demanding the nerf of a mechanic that's used in a format that doesn't exist officially?
Remember the last you heard of Stealth Rock? It was in Let's Go, where it's the only entry hazard *with no way to remove it*.
Keep wishlisting :) But remember 6v6 singles doesn't exist, nor does 6v6 doubles. The only official formats for which balance changes are made are 4v4 doubles and 3v3 singles.
In fact, considering SR / Spikes / TS are never used in those formats, there's a good chance you'll see them *buffed* in the future instead. They already tried this gen, with a Dynamax move that lays Stealth Rock, one that lays Steel Type Stealth Rock, and one that Defogs.
Remember the last you heard of Stealth Rock? It was in Let's Go, where it's the only entry hazard *with no way to remove it*.
Keep wishlisting :) But remember 6v6 singles doesn't exist, nor does 6v6 doubles. The only official formats for which balance changes are made are 4v4 doubles and 3v3 singles.
In fact, considering SR / Spikes / TS are never used in those formats, there's a good chance you'll see them *buffed* in the future instead. They already tried this gen, with a Dynamax move that lays Stealth Rock, one that lays Steel Type Stealth Rock, and one that Defogs.
Which is why Focus Sash Mimikyu got a very specific nerf in Gen VIII.
(And even then it was #6 in usage stats last time I checked on HOME)
Were they common enough in gen 7 in those formats to warrant the existence of Boots?
Stealth Rock was only the one was that the uncommonly used, and in BSS its main purpose was to break focus sashes, not to punish switching only time. The other ones were significantly rarer, with only Toxic Spikes and Sticky Web receiving any serious.
As for actual users of Heavy Duty Boots, Dragonite and Volcarona are the ones that only come in mind. Maybe Articuno, which has a legit niche in BSS as a stallbreaker with Sheer Cold and good bulk, but Stall is rare thanks to Dynamax, not to mention that Sheer Cold does not affect Dynamax Pokémon.
Yeah, definitely agree, as they make it so you don't need to use a spinner/defogger on your team if you really need that 6th pokemon slot.
Black and White are better than Black 2 and White 2. BW have less roadblocks, more interesting storyline and more forgiving difficulty. They also feel much more unique thanks to their limited Pokedex. BW2 may have better postgame content but the overall adventure feels inferior.
Sun and Moon are better than Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Due to the new legendary storyline, many of the characters and scenes from SM got butchered. Aside from that, I am not fond of the side events which often stop the gameplay to present unnecessary cutscenes. Ultra versions added mini-games, Mina's trial and more details to Alola but it's an inferior product overall.
Emerald is a below average Pokemon game. While I appreciate the addition of Battle Frontier, Emerald did very little to fix Ruby and Sapphire's issues (lack of the night-time, average spritework, boring water segments, bad movepools etc.).
Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are great remakes. Contrary to my previous point, I consider these a vast improvement. Characters are more interesting, movepools are better, water segments look nicer and new additions (soaring, PSS etc.) make Hoenn a great region.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team games are better than Explorer games. Not being tied to a guild gives a better feeling of independence in the first set of games. Considering the series focuses on immersion, I consider this aspect important. Aside from it, I love Friend Areas and complain over their exclusion. Explorers also have a weird tendency of punishing the player in cutscenes even if he wins battles.
Sun and Moon are better than Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Due to the new legendary storyline, many of the characters and scenes from SM got butchered. Aside from that, I am not fond of the side events which often stop the gameplay to present unnecessary cutscenes. Ultra versions added mini-games, Mina's trial and more details to Alola but it's an inferior product overall.
Emerald is a below average Pokemon game. While I appreciate the addition of Battle Frontier, Emerald did very little to fix Ruby and Sapphire's issues (lack of the night-time, average spritework, boring water segments, bad movepools etc.).
Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are great remakes. Contrary to my previous point, I consider these a vast improvement. Characters are more interesting, movepools are better, water segments look nicer and new additions (soaring, PSS etc.) make Hoenn a great region.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team games are better than Explorer games. Not being tied to a guild gives a better feeling of independence in the first set of games. Considering the series focuses on immersion, I consider this aspect important. Aside from it, I love Friend Areas and complain over their exclusion. Explorers also have a weird tendency of punishing the player in cutscenes even if he wins battles.
So I'm sitting here, discussing Mega Evolution and Z-Moves in the PS chatroom, and see people saying how it's so much better than Dynamax. So I researched. Now, I already thought that Dynamax was an interesting addition to the game and wasn't terrible at all. So research showed me that we have 48 Mega Pokemon, with 4 of those being the X and Y variants. Now Dynamax has 32 different Gigantamax pokemon. So let's compare. (I'll also throw in Z-Moves too)
Megas have -
1. New designs to freshen up some pokemon.
2. Gives love to some unloved pokemon (a good example being mawile)
3. 100 more BST for every mega.
4. New abilities.
Dynamax/Gigantamax has -
1. New designs for some pokemon.
2. Gives love to some unloved pokemon (a good example is garbodor)
3. Doubles HP.
4. Makes different types/categories of moves different when Dynamaxed.
5. Easily accessible in-game.
6. Usable on every pokemon.
Z- Moves have -
1. Special moves that depend on the type of the move/category of move/pokemon.
2. Useable on every pokemon.
So obviously I missed some stuff, and this will all be discussed. But while I may not think that mega's were a worse addition, I do think that they were a lazier addition. Dynamax simply has more features and new things to go with it, while still being original.
Edit: Sorry, I had accidentally chosen the wrong font color, feel free to see it easily.
Megas have -
1. New designs to freshen up some pokemon.
2. Gives love to some unloved pokemon (a good example being mawile)
3. 100 more BST for every mega.
4. New abilities.
Dynamax/Gigantamax has -
1. New designs for some pokemon.
2. Gives love to some unloved pokemon (a good example is garbodor)
3. Doubles HP.
4. Makes different types/categories of moves different when Dynamaxed.
5. Easily accessible in-game.
6. Usable on every pokemon.
Z- Moves have -
1. Special moves that depend on the type of the move/category of move/pokemon.
2. Useable on every pokemon.
So obviously I missed some stuff, and this will all be discussed. But while I may not think that mega's were a worse addition, I do think that they were a lazier addition. Dynamax simply has more features and new things to go with it, while still being original.
Edit: Sorry, I had accidentally chosen the wrong font color, feel free to see it easily.
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What are the other unloved Gigantamax pokemon? Aside from Garbodor, all of them are from either Gen 1 or Gen 8. No Gen 1 pokemon can be called unloved, and I don't think they gave any Gen 8 mon a Gigantamax form just because they predicted it would be unpopular.
I'd consider Kingler to be pretty unloved.
At least it has anime nostalgia to hold onto, being one of Ash’s mons.
I mean, wasn’t it in like 3 episodes? Tauros is a more iconic Ash-owned Pokémon and the only episode it was in never aired in the west :P
Second, y
MEGA EVOLUTION:
The Numbers:
# 46 Pokemon get Megas; of which 2 get two Megas for a total of 48. Number increases to 50 if you count Primal Reversion as a kind of Mega Evolution.
# Generation Breakdown: 13 RBY, 6 GSC, 20 RSE, 5 DPPt, 1 BW, 1 XY
Pros:
+ Each gets a unique design meant to be an exaggeration/enhancement/ascension form of that Pokemon.
+ Each gets an additional 100 BST to their stats which are individually applied to best fit that Mega Pokemon's needs; in addition to this some Pokemon "lesser" stats were further decreased and allocated to other stats giving a further boost.
+ Some got new Types & Abilities that, combined with the stat increases, helped either strengthen what the Pokemon was already good at or gave them a new niche.
+ Were given to an even mixture of already strong/popular & to average/weak/unpopular Pokemon; many in the later category became competitively viable in higher tiers like OU & Ubers.
+ Once Mega Evolved the Pokemon stayed Mega Evolved even when switched out.
+ Can be used anytime in any battle; this means in-game doesn't affect the flow of the story.
Cons:
- Only a handful of Pokemon got a Mega & the concept is limited to fully evolved Pokemon.
- For some Mega Pokemon the +100 BST wasn't enough of a boost; in addition some stat increase decisions did not help the Mega Pokemon (such as increasing the inferior offense stat, making it feel like a dump stat to not make the Mega too powerful).
- Sometimes the way a Mega Pokemon's stats were redistributed changed how they played meaning you couldn't use their regular form a bit & then Mega Evolve and continue playing the same way (or at least do so in a way that makes the most use of it).
- Mega Pokemon that gain new Types sometime struggle to have a good STAB move to use with it; infact some of the new Abilities were purposely made to remedy this problem which some may argue wasted the Ability slot.
- Some Mega Pokemon Abilities weren't as good as one of their normal Abilities.
- For a Pokemon to Mega Evolve they needed to hold their Mega Stone; some would argue wasting the Item slot. And since only one Pokemon can Mega Evolve, if you wanted to be flexible which Pokemon to Mega Evolve you'd have to waste the Item slot on each Pokemon.
- Since many strong/popular Pokemon got a Mega, and you could only Mega Evolve once per battle, that meant a good number of the time they were used over the other average/weak/unpopular Pokemon.
Z-MOVES:
The Numbers:
# 18 Z-Moves for each Type; 17 unique Signature Z-Moves (some shared with other Pokemon); 35 total.
# Generation Breakdown For Signature Z-Moves: 6 RBY, 11 SM
Pros:
+ Any Pokemon can use the normal Z-Moves; only limitation is the Type of moves the Pokemon can learn.
+ Z-Moves turn even the lowest Power move into a hard hitting attack; Z-Move's Category is based on the base Move's Category.
+ Status Moves have an additional beneficial effect when powered by a Z-Move.
+ Signature Z-Moves tend to make the changed Move more powerful than it would have with a normal Z-Move.
+ Signature Z-Moves come with their own unique animations with the Pokemon Model (swapping in a different distorts the swapped Pokemon into fitting the skeleton of the intended model).
+ Signature Z-Moves sometime comes with a secondary effect (normal Z-Moves do not; though all Z-Moves do deal 25% damage if the user used a Protect variant).
+ Can be used anytime in any battle; this means in-game doesn't affect the flow of the story.
Cons:
- Because Z-Moves go off a base Move, what Z-Move a Pokemon can use can vary between different Pokemon (and then there's the question of what the base Move in question is, notably it's Power & Category).
- Z-Moves are one-use. Though they hit strong or give Status Moves a beneficial effect, if you had to go out of your way to get a a base Move to do a certain Z-Move that's not so useful outside access to that Z-Move, you're stuck with that Move potentially using up one of your four Move slots.
- Since a Pokemon needs to hold a Z-Crystal to use a Z-Move, not only does this use up their Item slot (and if a Z-Move is used up it essentially leaves the Pokemon without a Held Item; this compared to Mega Pokemon where the Held Item was given up for permanent boosts) but they can only use the Z-Move of that Type; Also, since Z-Moves are once per battle, if you want flexibility which Pokemon can use a Z-Move you'll have to use their Item slot (another small branch to that, while in-game you can give Pokemon the same kind of Z-Crystal, PvP Item Clause forces all Z-Crystals to be different Types).
- What Pokemon got Signature Z-Moves was limited to Gen I & VII.
- Signature Z-Moves require a specific Move which could limit a Pokemon's Moveset, especially if the base Move isn't a desired Move.
DYNAMAX/GIGANTAMAX:
The Numbers:
# 33 Gigantamax
# Generation Breakdown For Gigantamax: 12 RBY, 1 BW, 19 SwSh, & Melmetal
Pros:
+ Any Pokemon can Dynamax.
+ Increases HP, at max level doubles it. Damage calculation is kept the same. When Dynamax/Gigantamax ends the amount of HP the Pokemon has left is based on percentage.
+ Changes all offensive Moves into harder hitting Max Moves of the same Category of the base Move and has a (usually) beneficial secondary effect: Raising user & allies stats, decreasing opponent's stats, summing Weather, or summoning Terrain. All Max Moves & G-Max Moves also deal 25% damage if the user used a Protect variant. Meanwhile all Status Moves turn into Max Guard which protects from all damage even from Max Moves & G-Max Moves.
+ Can hold any Item and, depending on the Item, usually benefits from its effect.
+ Gigantamax get a unique design meant to make that Pokemon look like a giant kaiju or natural/manmade structure.
+ Gigantamax get unique G-Max Moves that, in addition doing more damage than normal Max Moves, come with their own unique effect. There are also no specific Move requirement, depending the G-Max Move's Type it replaces the Max Move of that Type.
Cons:
- Only lasts 3 turns. Arguably this is better for competitive, though you can still only Dynamax/Gigantamax one Pokemon per battle.
- Because HP is the only stat affected and all Moves are changed either into a Max Move/G-Max Move or Max Guard, while any Pokemon can Dynamax not all Pokemon may be able to use it's time as effectively as others.
- Because all Status Moves change into Max Guard must plan ahead of time when to use Status Moves before or after Dynamax/Gigantamax.
- Because of the size changing mechanic and changing all Moves into Max Moves or G-Max Moves, certain Abilities & Held Items have no effect while Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed.
- Max Moves, notably the stat changing ones, may not have the effect you want for that Type. Have to choose either the Type or the effect, if that Pokemon has access to the Max Move with the desired effect.
- Because the G-Max Move replaces the Max Move of the Type it shares, you have to pick either the G-Max Move Effect or the Max Move effect.
- There is really no difference between a Dynamax and Gigantamax aside from the unique G-Max Move.
- Can only be used in places with a Power Spot; this means in-game it affects the story where battles take place if they want the opponent to be able to Dynamax/Gigantamax.
- What Pokemon get Gigantamax is limited to Gen I and Gen VIII. Yes, Garbodor and Melmetal are an exception, that doesn't remedy the issue but, if anything, essentiates it.
- Dynamax making the Pokemon giant loses its novelty fast, unfortunately the time spent to do all the animations doesn't go away with it.
Obviously all of this is of personally opinion... BUT I HARD disagree Megas were a lazy addition. Infact, quite the opposite, Megas probably took a lot of time to develop as they would likely need to go through the same steps a normal Pokemon needs to go through as they individualized their stats & other changes. The problem with Megas isn't the amount of effort put into them, but rather their limitation that the only Pokemon that benefits from the mechanic are the ones that got a Mega which were only 48/50 of them (which is still a nice number spanning across multiple generations, but still only them among the other 700+ Pokemon at that time; or rather their final stages within that number).
Now you'd then think laziest would then go to Z-Moves since they simplified things down to just one super attack. BUT, that said, they did really put a lot of effort into the Z-Move animations, especially the Signature Z-Move animations where they got the Pokemon model itself doing more dynamic movement only made for its model to look proper doing.
Nope, in my opinion, laziest award goes to Dynamax & Gigantamax. ~Ooh, they made the Pokemon model bigger!~ ... Yet it still does all the same animations as when it was smaller. The Max Moves also look like they have less pizzazz than the Z-Moves, ESPECIALLY the G-Max Moves which are just the Max Moves of their Type but with some additional effects. And though Gigantamax go through a form change, all they are is Dynamax Pokemon with a special G-Max Move which may or may not be better than the normal Max Move of that Type. Maybe if they at least changed their Ability to one better (or one that works while Gigantamax) that would have also been something but NOPE. Finally, I find the aesthetic only to be a bit creative due to them finding large things to turn the Pokemon into, but I find the Mega Evolution aesthetic of it being the "next step/super form" of that Pokemon feeling more natural (or at the very least less silly).
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While I love Megas and think they're a great mechanic, there's license to describe them as lazy in wider context. XY has to date introduced the smallest number of new Pokémon ever, and while it has a healthy number including Megas, I think it's fairly universal to say fans would rather have more brand new Pokémon than just megas to old ones. No one ever counts Megas as their own Pokémon, where we even count cross-gen evolutions. It's fairly obvious that they designed fewer wholly new Pokémon due to the development time spent creating Megas instead, which isn't a trade anyone wants. So it is "lazy" not to ensure enough new designs are introduced alongside the Megas.
Moreover, the general gripes people have with some megas being better off as wholly new designs (Mawile, Manectric with some modifications, Banette with some modifications, Sableye with some modifications etc.) is a big negative for the mechanic. Megas exist in an awkward space where if the design is just the old Pokémon with spikes stuck to it then it's a boring design, but if it's too creative and different people wish it were a whole new Pokémon. I wish they'd just continue introducing cross-gen evos; none of the 3-stage families who received a mega were crying out for it besides like, Beedrill? Maybe Ampharos? And with regards to Beedrill, they honestly should've just given it and other Pokémon a significant stat buff that maximises their role more.
Ugh, no, I don't think that's the case at all. I think the reason why Gen VI started making less new species of Pokemon (which, if you'll notice, kept happening even after they stopped making new Megas) is because we're getting pretty close to the big 1k and I don't think GF are quite ready to cross that threshold. So, only solution was to not introduce as many new species of Pokemon.
BUT, they knew fans would get quite upset if they felt they were getting less Pokemon then in the previous gen. Now I wouldn't be surprised if the concept that would turn into Mega Pokemon existed before this as a "something we'd like to do but not sure when", and with them now making less species of new Pokemon this would be the perfect opportunity. They're not considered new species by dex standard so don't increase the number, but in essence are new Pokemon. It also allowed them to go back to a select group of older Pokemon, both popular and ones they felt needed some more love, and gave them an uplift.
BTW, this is also likely one reasonal for Regional Variants. An idea they probably had pinned for later, wanting to keep the dex from growing too fast, but introduce a batch of new Pokemon. None of these Pokemon too away development time of new species of Pokemon because no more new species of Pokemon were planned.
However I'm all for blaming Dynamax & Gigantamax for Dexit because GF made them all separate models thus likely filled up so much memory it became very hard (if not impossible) to fit all Pokemon in vanilla Sword & Shield.
Now these are more critiques I can somewhat agree with.
* New Designs As New Pokemon: Yeah, like I would totally be down if they took a few of the Mega Pokemon for the single/2-stages and just made them evolutions. Though they can't do this for all of them.
* Designs Just Add Spikes: A few designs you don't like is no reason to damn the whole mechanic, otherwise people would be saying cross evolutions were a bad idea when they released the plethora of the odder cross gen evos in Gen IV (then again, that was the last gen we got cross evos outside of Eevee...
). There are just as many if not more Mega Evos designs I find pretty creative or I at least get what they were going for than ones I kind of wonder what they were thinking/thought they were phoning home on.* Stat Boosts In General: Yeah, they really could go more "all-in" on that. Seriously, people would feel less sore about Dexit if we actually saw effort in re-balancing some old mon to meet modern standards (even if they don't become good they could at least be usable in-game and/or be given a niche).
Honestly, I think somewhere in the mix of Mega Evos, Z-Moves, and Dynamax/Gigantamax there's a solid "super" mechanic... of course, GF always want to be playing with new toys and not combine & refine old ones...