Unpopular opinions

Moody's name in Japanese is "Sudden Impulse" so I think the thing with Smeargle is less "tortured artist" and more "ADHD as fuck artist". Still doesn't really explain any of the other mons get it.
If not ADHD, maybe the idea of just "inspiration suddenly hits" which is followed by a montage of them throwing paint at a canvas before panning back to a finished work that somehow came from those random strokes.


Side note: Mega Launcher is a very bland and badly design Ability. The name makes it sound like it would have some relation to attacks based on Projectiles or an artillery concept, which its only 2 Lines of users seem to support thematically. Despite this, the boost is specifically limited to moves with "Pulse" in the name plus Aura Sphere, to the point of including Origin Pulse despite neither user being able to learn it. Compare to Strong Jaw, which is available to about 8 Pokemon lines and encompasses twice as many moves because they went with things that were also biting thematically rather than literally just "Bite" and the Fang moves. If that would be too wide of a net for Mega Launcher then perhaps it should have been renamed (Mega Launcher also appearing to be the translation of the Japanese Ability name) to reflect the specifics. On top of this, it seems incredibly boring as essentially a signature ability for Mega Blastoise (who had to have most of the eligible moves added in the same gen) and Clawitzer, when at that point widening the umbrella was probably safe enough since they remain the only 2 users of the ability (or the only one for Clawitzer now that Megas have been un-Pokemoned).
 
Compare to Strong Jaw, which is available to about 8 Pokemon lines and encompasses twice as many moves because they went with things that were also biting thematically rather than literally just "Bite" and the Fang moves.

... but that's exactly what they did with Strong Jaw, encompass all moves that have something related to biting or teeth in the name.

They did the same thing with Mega Launcher, which affects all "hadou" moves.
 
... but that's exactly what they did with Strong Jaw, encompass all moves that have something related to biting or teeth in the name.

They did the same thing with Mega Launcher, which affects all "hadou" moves.
I was referring to the fact that stuff like Crunch, Fishious Rend (albeit it's Gill Bite in Japanese) or Jaw Lock got included, whereas Mega Launcher casts a wide net but it seems to be down to specifically the word "Pulse" or Hadou as it were being in the moniker, rather than the themed action. Like, if we're including non-learnable moves for the users, Octazooka or Mud Bomb would probably fit, and the restriction to energy attacks is doubly bizarre because one of the main users (not sure what Clawitzer falls under beyond its dex describing "Cannonballs of water") very clearly is designed around a Physical Launching method with Blastoise's cannons, as opposed to several of these moves seeming designed more as abstract Ki/Energy attacks like you'd see fictional Martial Artists fire out of their hands or brain (as Lucario's Dragon Pulse is depicted in the anime vs actual Dragons doing a Mouth Blast).

Strong Jaw stuck to a much narrower theme but didn't have (as many) egregious exclusions or an implementation that seems like they just CTRL+F'd exactly one term. Mega Launcher feels like they could have given Clawitzer and Blastoise different abilities without much issue because beyond literally the name, the moves feel flimsy at best in fitting their Physical designs and theme.
 
Anyone that religiously plays Pokemon and uses "weeb" as an insult is the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy.

I think an important reality is that Pokemon fans want to play the games and have a good time, whether amongst themselves or with friends, but that doesn't mean the games provide that to them simply by existing and being purchased. If players observe issues with new Pokemon titles, they don't necessarily have to buy into it, but their criticism is still worth considering in those cases because they are still consumers who were turned away by changes and may want to come back if things improve. I don't buy/accept the "Pokemon is a Kids IP" justification with regards to adult player criticism, because the existence of events like VGC, spin-offs like Unite and Masters, Multimedia like the Card Game, and a swathe of nostalgic references across all of them seem very much designed to keep some Adult audience on-board alongside other media making their income off the younger demographic.

This is pretty much why I have zero issue calling out Pokemon's lack of good game design, story writing, sluggish UI and so many other things about it in reference to both older and newer monster collectors. Especially since there's no rule or law against that and it's perfectly reasonable to do with just about any other game genre to see how they tackle overlapping features for their genre, such as an FPS game's aim sensitivity or a platformer game's running and jumping momentum. I'll stand by that comparing Pokemon to other monster collectors holds far more water than VGC Champion Wolfey using Mario Kart and Monopoly to justify why random crits are a good thing. Some like to throw around that "This monster collector is different" to try to debunk such criticisms and while true, there are certainly way more differences between a monster collector, a racing party game and a capitalist simulation board game to make a good argument around a random crit mechanic. The games don't just exist, they also put forth an effort to make their game mean something and DON'T justify things by being a kid's game. It's also why I choose to borrow Pokemon games or buy them used so I don't support them, can still play and enjoy them, can still give more educated criticism and use my money to instead support things like indie monster collectors.

In reference to your comment, another dumb shill statement I see get thrown around is that Pokemon "accomplishes what it sets out to do".

What does that even mean?
That just being a monster collector that exists is all it takes provided it has the Pokemon logo?
Next, you might as well praise your own lungs for accomplishing what they set out to do with breathing.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver accomplished what they set out to do which is be MORE than just a remake as the devs themselves said. It shows in how heavily it's praised with content and extras like PokeAthlon and the PokeWalker setting out on its attempt to be a Digimon-esque VPET game that puts the PokeBall Plus to complete shame.

Pokemon ORAS accomplished what it set out to do, as the devs themselves admitted they intended for it to have less content and anything even remotely special so people could spend their better games. It got heavily criticized for lacking things like a Battle Frontier.

Accomplishing what you set out to do doesn't make the goal praiseworthy.
 
Last edited:
Speaking of creative, Moody sucks.

Not just because +2 on a random stat is busted, even with the Gen VIII nerf that prevents it from boosting evasion.

But also because optimal Moody sets are similar:
- Substitute
- a disruptive move like Spore or Disable
- one attack with almost no immunities like Ice Beam (haha Shedinja go brrr) or Power Trip (frick)

The fourth move varies, it's either Protect or any Protect variant, or a boosting move (e.g., Shell Smash on Smeargle).

It's also really random in terms of flavor. Smeargle I guess fits because it's an artist and people love tortured artists for some reason, and I guess Bidoof and Bibarel are meant to be silly Sweepers, but the Remoraid and Snorunt line? Why do they have this Ability?

In hindsight, it's great there are no other Pokémon with this Ability after Generation V. This Ability is a mistake.
I agree. This ability is beyond broken just because it is so easy to stall out turns in this game. At the very least, its possibly the best buff that Pokemon like Octillery and Glalie could have gotten, as they went to being low-tiers to on par with, if not stronger than Ubers like Kyogre and Calyrax. However, even in this regard, this just relegates these Pokemon to the boring Sub Protect strategy until they are omniboosted enough and can sweep w/ DMax.
 
If not ADHD, maybe the idea of just "inspiration suddenly hits" which is followed by a montage of them throwing paint at a canvas before panning back to a finished work that somehow came from those random strokes.


Side note: Mega Launcher is a very bland and badly design Ability. The name makes it sound like it would have some relation to attacks based on Projectiles or an artillery concept, which its only 2 Lines of users seem to support thematically. Despite this, the boost is specifically limited to moves with "Pulse" in the name plus Aura Sphere, to the point of including Origin Pulse despite neither user being able to learn it. Compare to Strong Jaw, which is available to about 8 Pokemon lines and encompasses twice as many moves because they went with things that were also biting thematically rather than literally just "Bite" and the Fang moves. If that would be too wide of a net for Mega Launcher then perhaps it should have been renamed (Mega Launcher also appearing to be the translation of the Japanese Ability name) to reflect the specifics. On top of this, it seems incredibly boring as essentially a signature ability for Mega Blastoise (who had to have most of the eligible moves added in the same gen) and Clawitzer, when at that point widening the umbrella was probably safe enough since they remain the only 2 users of the ability (or the only one for Clawitzer now that Megas have been un-Pokemoned).

This ability seems to have been made with Lucario in mind, considering how he gets near all pulse moves, and he doesn't get it ://///

I wonder if Mega Lucario would've remained Ubers tier with Mega Launcher instead of Adaptability
 
Mega Launcher and Bulletproof not sharing the same list of affected moves is absurd.
Mega Launcher's category actually existed before Mega Launcher itself (and since Bulletproof was introduced in Gen 6, it also existed before the ball-and-bomb category). Pulse moves became a thing in Gen 5, where they and Flying-type attacks had the unique ability to hit non-adjacent opponents in triple battles.

Still doesn't explain why they gave this ability to specifically pulse moves and not more general projectile moves.
 
by "this ability" I meant "the ability to hit non-adjacent opponents in a triple battle" not "the ability Mega Launcher"
Oh... no clue, prolly just to give another oompf of utility to these pulse moves considering most of these (like Water Pulse, Dragon Pulse or Aura Sphere) have significantly lower damage than the most used moves of same type.

In fact I believe of all these moves, the only one that actually sees use is Dark Pulse, and only really for lack of other dark stabs for dark type special attackers anyway...
 
Objection. Kricketot is not the only Gen 4 Pokémon with a good cry.
  • The Chimchar line's monkey noises
  • The Starly line's electronic bird sounds
  • B I D O O F
  • Kricketot's xylophone sound (this one is underrated)
  • Luxio
  • Cherrim
  • Gastrodon
  • The Drifloon line
  • The Stunky line
  • Chatot
  • Spiritomb
  • Garchomp
  • Drapion
  • The Finneon line
  • Snover
  • Magnezone
  • Electivire
  • Mamoswine
  • Porygon-Z
  • Froslass
  • Rotom
  • Dialga
  • Giratina
  • Manaphy
  • Both Shaymin Formes
  • Arceus
Gen 4 cries were so good. Gen 5 cries were second best and it went downhill from there. Recent Pokemon cries nowadays is literally just unedited animal noise like Wooloo's.
 
ORAS is a sequel to XY. This may sound weird and people often think ORAS took place during the same time as FRLG because RSE did for sure, but I think in the Mega Evolution universes, ORAS took place much later than RSE and around the same time as XY. To start off, Zinnia finalizes the lore on Mega Evolution and explained the cause of it was AZ's Ultimate Weapon. (...) Kalos had the technology to be aware of a meteor threatening the entire world and should have known about this in XY had it taken place before then. By this logic, they should've also known of a Mega Rayquaza. (...). Lastly, Wally in SM/USUM looks as if he aged significantly less than Red and Blue have. It is very possible for ORAS to take place during XY in mega universes while RSE happened during FRLG in non-mega universes.

I guess this would explain the small plothole when Sycamore said that Kalos is the only region which Mega Evolution was known to exist. XY happens first, then ORAS which reveals Megas are now in Hoenn.

Ice type should be resistant to water moves and fairy types should be weak to bug attacks.

Out of curiosity why Fairy weak to Bug?
Separating Water from Ice in the first place is arguably dumb. Both Ice and Water are scientifically the same element in the first place.

Don't think Ice as simply just being "solid water", rather think as Ice also representing "Cold" and, if you want to get scientific, "Entropy/Atrophy". Ice-types are actually more a counterpart to Fire-types in that regard, both being representatives of thermodynamics. Where as Fire-types represent the "attracting/energizing/accelerating force(s)" of heat transfer, Ice-types represents the "repelling/dampening/slowing force".

If the Ice type’s biggest problem is that they are too slow to take advantage of their offensive type, I was thinking Hail should buff speed of any Ice type by 50% when it is active .

Wouldn't it make more sense if Hail halved the Speed of non-Ice-types (and maybe Fire-types cause, well, they essentially have a heat shield negating the effect that's slowing down the other Types)?

It's also worth noting that in the context of Crown Tundra's campaign, Calyrex couldn't even remember what its steed originally looked like. It lost so much of its power over the years and even its memories of what it did with its steed are unclear even to itself.

For the sake of the game's campaign you are only allowed to choose one of the steeds but it is entirely possible in reality that Glastrier was indeed a "draft horse" during its time and that Calyrex had both horses and they each served different purposes for it. Calyrex lost most of its power and with it most of its memories, even to a point where it is easily impressed by modern humans and their capacity for innovation because its loss of power left it estranged from the Pokemon world for a looooong time. So of course, it can easily be perceived that Glastrier did act as a draft horse once upon a time while Spectrier was a fast war horse back then.

I like the theory that, in addition to Calyrex being unable to remember the Wild Horse he had, that the Wild Horse he had died after escaping his control (though either was unable to take care of itself or the Tundra began to freeze over and it was just unable to survive the changing environment) and split into Spectrier (the freed spirit of the original Wild Horse) and Glastrier (the frozen body of the original Wild Horse). I feel this at the very least doesn't make Calyrex look like a complete idiot, especially with there being two horses running around and it just doesn't realize what has happened.

I thought the Rotom Pokédex being able to talk to the player was cute, and I am still saddened by the Rotom Phone's and Masters EX' Porygonphone's shared inability to talk.
MY MAN!!! Honestly the only issue was that you couldnt cut the dialogue when going to use it, but if they fixed that, itd be peak pokedex. I love the rascal

An easy way to fix everyone's main issue with the Rotom Dex was to have it so you needed to press a button to hear anything non-story it had to say. At one of the corner of the bottom screen have there been a Rotom button that, when pressed, you talk with Rotom (I know there's a way to do that, honestly I forgot but I'm just giving an example). However, if Rotom has something to say, instead of Rotom temporarily wrestling the controls from you, the "Rotom Dex button" will simply blink a few times. Its then up to the player whether to tap the button to talk with Rotom Dex. I know this idea probably needs some working on due to other factors such as the Roto Loto, but I'm just presenting the main idea.

if we're going to play with deleting types, delete bug and dragon ez. very irrelevant teams on a "what does this type allows you to design" because it's not like there needs a mammal or bird type for them to design birds and mammals (which they realized with birds and changed it to flying but not with bugs... lol).

Hm, I actually feel those Types are okay. It's hard to explain, so let me ask this: If Bug-type didn't exist, what other Type would you make all the Bugs, especially those which are pure Normal-type? Normal doesn't quite fit, and not all Bugs are poisonous or have affinity with the ground or air. I see Bug-type the same as I see the Fighting-type, it's a special trait Bug-types have which manifests itself as a Type. Like Bugs having exoskeletons I think is something which would play a major part in their biology what it would indeed effect Type match-ups, and the "hive mind" or "bug mind" I think is also different enough that they would behave differently which could be where "Bug-type energy" is generated from; it's not your normal definition of energy but rather how a bug manipulates the energy within itself via its thinking and behavior that gives it a unique power.

As for Dragon-type, the thing about Dragon-type is that originally it was supposed to be the "Ultimate" Type. Dragon-types were resistant to the Starter's Types (and Electric) and, though only strong against themselves, final stage Dragon-types were characterized with having strong stats rivaling Legendaries. So when future gens came Dragon was sort of caught in an awkward position where it was meant to be this special Type but now more and more Pokemon were being added to it (including Legendaries and other Pseudos). Dragon-type had to somewhat reinvent itself to fit in with Pokemon lore and so it came to represent a sort of "raw power" Type. Dragon-types have accessed an energy which could tear other creatures apart which try to harness it, so them able to harness it shows all the stronger they are. It disrupts natural law (hence resistant to Starter-types) and only weak to itself, an atrophic force, or a more refined form of its energy which is also immune to it.

Better question is, why so many types resist Grass despite being one of the three starter types?

Just unfortunately how it worked out: Bugs consume or use plants, Dragons I explained above were meant to be a super Type resistant to the Starters, Fire burns plant material for fuel, Flying whips up winds which blows around or knock over plants, the energy Grass-types use to attack is essentially the same energy they feed upon via photosynthesis, Poison decays plant material, and Steel's smooth & hard surface is had for plant energy to get through.

Now I'm wondering if Grass/Fire would be a good defensive type, since they resist a lot of each others' weaknesses.

Weak To: Flying, Rock, Poison
Resist: Ground, Steel, Grass (x0.25), Electric, Fairy
Neutral: Normal, Fighting, Bug, Ghost, Fire, Water, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark

Eh, certainly isn't bad. You'd need to ask a more competitive player what role a Fire/Grass-type would be able to take as some Move Types are more common then others.

Normal needs a buff, possibly more than any other type. It's a solid contender for worst type.

I've had an idea that Normal could be given a special trait where Normal-type Moves receives a Power increase depending on the user's Level: ((((Level * .25) / 100) + 1) * Move's Base Power).

There are no plausible reasons for Fighting, Fairy and Ghost to resist Bug.
Fighting should resist Steel instead.
Fairy doesn't need this resist, and so does Ghost.

Also the idea of Flying beeing the "bird type" should change, since now we have even baloons and fans that are flying type.

Same goes for the idea of "if you throw a rock to it, it dies/breaks" for beeing weak to Rock. If you throw a rock fast enough at anything it will die or break, and/or the rock will be shattered.

  • Fighting resist Bug: Bug's movements & behavior are systematic which Fighting-types are able to read and thus properly prepare a defensive stance against.
  • Fairy resist Bug: Fey have traditionally been shown having a controlling relation with Bugs; they likely have learned to understand Bug behavior which is a major factor in preparing countermeasures to their attacks.
  • Ghost resist Bug: Next to Normal & Fighting, Bug energy is a more "physical form" of life energy coming from a living creature which doesn't generate its own energy from the nature around it (as oppose to Grass-types which, though could also be looked as having "live energy", said energy comes from the environment it absorbs thus having a deeper connection to nature and natural laws).

Fighting neutral to Steel: While Fighting-types are better at finding weak points they can counter to weaken moves (such as with Rock), Steel is a harder Type to scan for a weakness as the structure of Steel-types are meant to be uniformed throughout. At the very least they're naturally durable and not negatively effected by Steel to be weak to it.

Rock super effective to Flying: Not only are rocks heavy and have sharp edges, but their edges are also rugged which disrupts air flow around it. Hitting a Flying-type with a Steel-move will knock it around, but the smoothness of its structures allows air to better flow which a Flying-type can use to recover. Meanwhile a Rock-type move not only knocks it around but disrupts the air flow it needs to recover, thus leaving the Flying-type vulnerable and even causing it to crash.

Moody's name in Japanese is "Sudden Impulse" so I think the thing with Smeargle is less "tortured artist" and more "ADHD as fuck artist". Still doesn't really explain any of the other mons get it.

Remoraid Family: Being based on firearms/artillery, they likely have "trigger fingers". If you played Legends: Arceus you know that Remoraid and Octillery are always ready to shoot first, ask questions never.

Snorunt & Glalie: Probably a reference to them being very active & reactive in cold temperatures other creatures wouldn't be able to. Snorunt play happily in frigid temperatures without care for storing energy (cause they get energy from eating snow and ice). Meanwhile Glalie is able to instantly release breathes so cold they freeze the air in front of it into any shape they like.

Bidoof family: They may seem dopey and clumsy... mostly because they are. HOWEVER when they got work to do such as making a dam they're agile and hardworking, able to quickly break apart wood and stone and build dams that never break or overflow.
 
I've had an idea that Normal could be given a special trait where Normal-type Moves receives a Power increase depending on the user's Level: ((((Level * .25) / 100) + 1) * Move's Base Power).
I mean, we are in the Unpopular Opinions thread, but I feel like that's just really not what the type system is supposed to do. Direct stat/power increases just seem like the most clunky and uninspired way of buffing types that seem weak. The battle system being significantly different between Level 50 and Level 100 also has really weird implications with VGC/BSS vs regular 6v6.

Plus, I feel like the overall effect is just "your bog-standard Normal-type physical attacker with Normal move + Ground/Fighting move + maybe Dark/Ghost move is better now". It's arguably even less interesting now because it's harder to take neutral hits, so there's more incentive to just make the "switch in your Rock/Steel and hope they didn't click the coverage move" play. This lack of attacking interactions does exist to an extent with Ghost, but at least it's partially compensated by Shadow Ball's low BP (Poltergeist is busted but they specifically denied it to most of the good physical Ghosts).

TBH I feel like if there has to be a type that's the worst, it's best that it's the type that is least interesting. (Giving back Return to Normal-types is probably okay I guess.)
 
Just unfortunately how it worked out: Bugs consume or use plants, Dragons I explained above were meant to be a super Type resistant to the Starters, Fire burns plant material for fuel, Flying whips up winds which blows around or knock over plants, the energy Grass-types use to attack is essentially the same energy they feed upon via photosynthesis, Poison decays plant material, and Steel's smooth & hard surface is had for plant energy to get through.
My issue with this is that some of these feel so Broad Strokes that they could be applied to several type relationships to the point that you could relate anything to anything for a type weakness.

For example: Rain Storms impact air pressure and density, along with potential waterlogging in rare cases, therefore Flying Types should be weak to Water to reflect this.

The purpose of Poison is to kill normally, therefore Normal should be weak to Poison. We also have pesticides and naturally occurring anti-Insect Toxins, therefore we should go back to Bug being weak to Poison.

There comes a point where the type relations are built on either flimsy logic, or arbitrary connections (insofar as the comparison applies to a few types but not all of them reflect in the match-ups). This is exacerbated a little if you try to apply the logic of some match-ups beyond their own. Like, Normal is weak to Fighting, I guess because your untrained random is inferior to a trained fighter. But in that case should I assume Joe next door would fare better fighting a Dragon than a Boxer or Karate practitioner?
 
Hm, I actually feel those Types are okay. It's hard to explain, so let me ask this: If Bug-type didn't exist, what other Type would you make all the Bugs, especially those which are pure Normal-type?

Bug type only, aka the main ones that will rely on Normal type:
Caterpie/Metapod: Normal
Pinsir: Fighting
Pineco: Steel
Wurmple: Normal
Silcoon: Fairy
Cascoon: Poison
Volbeat and illumise: Electric/Normal, or pure electric
Kricketot familly: Normal
Burmy: Normal that evolves into a monotype of whatever coat it had, or Normal/coat if you prefer that
Karrablast: Normal or Fighting
Shelmet: steel
Accelgor: Fighting
Scatterbug/Spewpa: Normal
Grubbin: Eh, pure electric works just fine, but you can go into a typical type if you want
Blipbug: Psychic

Bug dual types (this is where things get good):
Butterfree: Psychic, Psychic/flying, Flying
Weedle, kakuna: Poison
Beedril: Poison, Poison/fighting, Poison/dark
Paras/Parasect: Grass, grass/ghost, Grass/dark
Venonat/moth: Poison, Poison/psychic, poison/flying (moth)
Scyther: Flying, Flying/fighting, Normal/fighting, normal
Ledyba/Ledian: Any combo of flying, fairy and fighting
Spinarak/Ariados: Poison
Yanma/mega: Flying, Flying/dragon (lmao)
Forretress and scizor: steel
shuckle: rock
heracross: fighting
beautifly: flying, fairy, flying/fairy
dustox: poison, flying/poison
surskit: water
masquerain: water, water/flying
nincada: ground
ninjask: flying
shedinja: ghost/ground
Wormadam: mono-coat type, or normal/coat
mothim: flying
combee: flying
vespiqueen: flying, flying/dark
sewaddle family: grass
Venipede family: poison
Dwebble/crustle: rock, rock/ground
Escavalier: steel, steel/fighting
joltik and galvantula: electric
durant: steel
larvesta family: fire, fire/fairy if you want to play the godly thing
genesect: steel
vivillon: flying, fairy/flying
chargabug/vikavolt: electric, electric/steel
cutiefly family: fairy
wimpod, golisopod: water, water/dark, water/fighting
buzzwhole and pheromosa: fighting
dottler and orbeetle: psychic, steel psychic
kleavor: rock, rock fighting
anorith fam: water/rock (woe, cursed fossil type be upon ye), water
skorupi: poison dark
dewpider family: water
sizzlipede: fire
snom family: ice, ice/fairy

Really, a lot of them can default on their mono types or gain a new secondary type, even some of the mono bugs.
 
I have made a post complaining about the lack of consistent rule for Legendary Pokémon other than "the creators say so".
You can only get one Farfetch'd in Red/Blue. Legendary status is no longer a meme, eh?
That's not a legendary Pokémon catch, that's a trade.
This in-universe trade, like all others, symbolizes the need to trade to complete the Pokédex glitchless.
And hey, if DUX the Farfetch'd is a Legendary Pokémon, so are LOLA the Jynx, MARC the Lickitung, and MARCEL the Mr. Mime.
 
Back
Top