Unpopular opinions

[pika pal]

The Pokemon games have always been pretty mediocre when looked at from a gameplay level-design standpoint. They just knew better how to dress it up in the story and sprite-art, or allow options that were worth experimenting with despite the simple approach to difficulty.

Pokemon Anime peaked in Gen 4 and Gen 7, while Pokemon Origins isn't that good once the novelty of not being the Ash anime wears off.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Literally what I’ve said the entire time, it doesn’t make much sense for the mints etc (or whatever they come up with in the future) to be unlocked during the main story and be available in post game activities.

Have you ever shuffled in grass for almost an hour to get a Scyther and when you finally got one, it's a Modest, Swarm one?

Yeah, sorry, I ain't got time for all of this nonsense.

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

Have you ever shuffled in grass for almost an hour to get a Scyther and when you finally got one, it's a Modest, Swarm one?

Yeah, sorry, I ain't got time for all of this nonsense.

The argument here isn’t about availability, it’s about main game vs postgame. The problem described is also solved if Mints remain postgame but are easier to get in future generations.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

The argument here isn’t about availability, it’s about main game vs postgame. The problem described is also solved if Mints remain postgame but are easier to get in future generations.

I know the argument and gave a main game example.

Despite Game Freak's best attempts to do so, (glares at Gen 7), these games are fairly replayable. If you played Platinum right now, that scenario could happen to you.

SwSh did introduce the mints, and it's nice that Hyper Training exists, but if they seriously want to get people a little more involved with post-game activities/online battling, they gotta bridge the main game and the post-game better.

6v6 Singles is the most popular format despite not being the main VGC format because that's what people have been doing for over 25 years. I repeat, we haven't had a single Champion challenge be a Doubles match. That doesn't make a lick of sense if they wanna push VGC so bad.

More availability for competitive items in-game is also good because then people can actually get their feet wet with the strategic part of the game instead of running through it with their eyes closed because you got Gym Leaders like this:

As it stands, the main game serves absolutely no purpose. Matter of fact, the entire game doesn't if the gap between the game and its competitive part is supposed to be that wide.
Competitive battlers are much better served by going straight to Showdown in order to face better competition with better rulesets and no futile grinding.

 

[Arkm]

Arceus(both the game and mon) sucks hard

 

[Shedinja-43152]

Have you ever shuffled in grass for almost an hour to get a Scyther and when you finally got one, it's a Modest, Swarm one?

Yeah, sorry, I ain't got time for all of this nonsense.

You can breeding eggs of Schyther untill come the nature and ability do you want.

Competitive battlers are much better served by going straight to Showdown in order to face better competition with better rulesets and no futile grinding.

I would like to have friends to play with my grinding pokémon, should be an experience very different then Showdown, with so many clauses.

 

[Bakugames]

I think a compromise of allowing people to use generated mons for unranked battles, which then gives you BP that lets you deck out your own pokémon for actual rankings and official formats would be fun. Could be called training grounds or whatever. Also helps with one of the bigger issues imo that to get a lot of BP for fixes, you still need some good pokémon aka you need to grind the traditional way for them. Sometimes in-game teams can do decently but they get crept real fast and the way the bp scales means you need to play, what, dozens of battles just to get one mint.

 

[pika pal]

I think a compromise of allowing people to use generated mons for unranked battles, which then gives you BP that lets you deck out your own pokémon for actual rankings and official formats would be fun. Could be called training grounds or whatever. Also helps with one of the bigger issues imo that to get a lot of BP for fixes, you still need some good pokémon aka you need to grind the traditional way for them. Sometimes in-game teams can do decently but they get crept real fast and the way the bp scales means you need to play, what, dozens of battles just to get one mint.

Don't even need a new dressing for it. Pokemon XD had Battle Sims for pre-made Battle Scenarios, just apply that as the aesthetic reason for this hypothetical unranked Battle system.

 

[Worldie]

I would like to have friends to play with my grinding pokémon, should be an experience very different then Showdown, with so many clauses.

I have a bunch of friends who play "with no real rules", the only rule they use is "no legendary". (Which as I said earlier, is one of the stupidest rules people can think of as it changes nothing in a given metagame)

Needless to say, i've stomped them in every single mini tournament we've done, cause I'm using competitive movesets anyway, and they're playing with "what they think works". On cartridge eh, not on smogon.
You think it's fun, it really isnt, as soon as any of the people you play with/against knows what they're doing, any attempt to "play with no rules" devolves in who gets a baton pass chain or a stupid cheese going.
Shoutout to my lvl 1 togedemaru rolling over everyone. FEAR is good memes against people who don't expect it.

It's not a matter of "rules or no rules", it's a matter of knowing why these rules exist.
If you think for example that "baton pass rule is stupid", go check one of the replays from the era when Baton Pass was allowed on smogon, or even one of the replays from early gen 8 when Moody was allowed in OU.
If your definition of "fun" is "the person who gets luckiest first and gets a evasion boost wins" well I don't know what to say.

Then again, you've been playing AG, you've seen how fun these mechanics are when you're the receiving end of them.

It reminds me a lot when I hear League players say that "they miss AP master yi" or "they miss Deathfire Grasp", and when I ask them "so you miss having one against and click deleting everyone for free pentakills with 0 counterplay?" the answer is "no I mean, I miss being the one playing them".
Duh...

 

[Arkm]

Ursaluna is the best pokemon to be added since Volcarona

 

[Samtendo09]

I have a bunch of friends who play "with no real rules", the only rule they use is "no legendary". (Which as I said earlier, is one of the stupidest rules people can think of as it changes nothing in a given metagame)

Needless to say, i've stomped them in every single mini tournament we've done, cause I'm using competitive movesets anyway, and they're playing with "what they think works". On cartridge eh, not on smogon.
You think it's fun, it really isnt, as soon as any of the people you play with/against knows what they're doing, any attempt to "play with no rules" devolves in who gets a baton pass chain or a stupid cheese going.
Shoutout to my lvl 1 togedemaru rolling over everyone. FEAR is good memes against people who don't expect it.

It's not a matter of "rules or no rules", it's a matter of knowing why these rules exist.
If you think for example that "baton pass rule is stupid", go check one of the replays from the era when Baton Pass was allowed on smogon, or even one of the replays from early gen 8 when Moody was allowed in OU.
If your definition of "fun" is "the person who gets luckiest first and gets a evasion boost wins" well I don't know what to say.

Then again, you've been playing AG, you've seen how fun these mechanics are when you're the receiving end of them.

It reminds me a lot when I hear League players say that "they miss AP master yi" or "they miss Deathfire Grasp", and when I ask them "so you miss having one against and click deleting everyone for free pentakills with 0 counterplay?" the answer is "no I mean, I miss being the one playing them".
Duh...

If someone says they like it better if they use an unholy broken mechanic than being on the receiving end even if they know how hideously broken it is, then that just being stupidly selfish and especially inconsiderate to other players.

 

[Divine Retribution]

If someone says they like it better if they use an unholy broken mechanic than being on the receiving end even if they know how hideously broken it is, then that just being stupidly selfish and especially inconsiderate to other players.

You just described like 80% of competitive gamers.

 

[Bakugames]

I watched wolfeys video on ranking the pokemon gimmicks in a vgc context. Went about as I expected, with z moves being the worst, megas being either too much or worthless, and dynamax being overtuned but the closest one resembling balanced.

I went to check the comments and I saw some comments that said "Megas are only unbalanced/bad because they stopped early. If gamefreak kept going, it'd be a good mechanic", which is a common counter argument to people who think megas are bad, but I don't think I can see it.

Because you can only have one mega in a team, decided in the builder so to speak, megas not only compete with other mons, but with themselves. Why use mega pidgeot when you can use m ray (extreme example because m ray is an extremity but hey, it was in the game)? As megas kept being added, I find likely they'd just powercreep other megas or be too weak to be considered for a slot, which leads into a very constricted metagame. Sure, maybe in 2022 worlds would have been mega dragapult, turtonator, lycanroc and cinderace instead of the cores we had in gen 6 and 7, but all you're changing is which pokemon you're limiting teams to.

Megas fare better in a tier format (also why they're looked at more fondly by smogon players I assume), but I think there'd come a point where newer megas just kept pushing others out of the spotlight, which just means you created two ways of being powercrept.

I think in a way, that's one of the reasons why gamefreak dumped the concept. There has been an increased pressure on making vgc an e sports, and having the top 20 teams be the exact same 2 teams repeated over and over wasn't a good look. Not only that, but the amount of effort put in trying to come up w them and balance them out only to it fail to be useful 70% of the time is a lot of wasted design time. Sure, they're good merch and people think they're cool, but you can get good merch and people thinking theyre cool with normal pokemon already.

I think that with dynamax, they're going to stick with some base rules for most gimmicks from now on: any pokemon can use it and no held items needed. Let's see how well that fares in the future

 

[Samtendo09]

I watched wolfeys video on ranking the pokemon gimmicks in a vgc context. Went about as I expected, with z moves being the worst, megas being either too much or worthless, and dynamax being overtuned but the closest one resembling balanced.

I went to check the comments and I saw some comments that said "Megas are only unbalanced/bad because they stopped early. If gamefreak kept going, it'd be a good mechanic", which is a common counter argument to people who think megas are bad, but I don't think I can see it.

Because you can only have one mega in a team, decided in the builder so to speak, megas not only compete with other mons, but with themselves. Why use mega pidgeot when you can use m ray (extreme example because m ray is an extremity but hey, it was in the game)? As megas kept being added, I find likely they'd just powercreep other megas or be too weak to be considered for a slot, which leads into a very constricted metagame. Sure, maybe in 2022 worlds would have been mega dragapult, turtonator, lycanroc and cinderace instead of the cores we had in gen 6 and 7, but all you're changing is which pokemon you're limiting teams to.

Megas fare better in a tier format (also why they're looked at more fondly by smogon players I assume), but I think there'd come a point where newer megas just kept pushing others out of the spotlight, which just means you created two ways of being powercrept.

I think in a way, that's one of the reasons why gamefreak dumped the concept. There has been an increased pressure on making vgc an e sports, and having the top 20 teams be the exact same 2 teams repeated over and over wasn't a good look. Not only that, but the amount of effort put in trying to come up w them and balance them out only to it fail to be useful 70% of the time is a lot of wasted design time. Sure, they're good merch and people think they're cool, but you can get good merch and people thinking theyre cool with normal pokemon already.

I think that with dynamax, they're going to stick with some base rules for most gimmicks from now on: any pokemon can use it and no held items needed. Let's see how well that fares in the future

As time passes, I started to be less and less fond of Mega Evolution, or rather, in it’s current state as is. If it were given another chance, I rather have it revamped to make it easier to rebalance, but even then, the impact back in ORAS makes any solution too little and too late.

Great designs and concept alone aren’t going to cut it if the execution went so bad the first time, the damage is done unless the concept went through a major “reboot” in term of mechanism, to say the least.

 

[Hugin]

I watched wolfeys video on ranking the pokemon gimmicks in a vgc context. Went about as I expected, with z moves being the worst, megas being either too much or worthless, and dynamax being overtuned but the closest one resembling balanced.

I went to check the comments and I saw some comments that said "Megas are only unbalanced/bad because they stopped early. If gamefreak kept going, it'd be a good mechanic", which is a common counter argument to people who think megas are bad, but I don't think I can see it.

Yeah, GF needs to decide if they're going with VGC rules(doubles, no stall) or not for all games going forwards. Dynamax was ridiculous trash(there's a reason it was the only super mechanic banned so far), but I think VGC is happy with it. And if GF wants to do so, that's fine. But then focus on that. Give us a doubles-focused game. Make the player and the enemies in-game use things like items, support moves, proper EVs/Natures, etc. Build the single-player and the competitive off the same rules and mindset. As-is, the games give us 6-vs-6 singles as the primary way to engage with everything, GF should balance based on that.

For the record, my ranking would be Z-moves>Megas>Dynamax. Z moves have a cost associated with them(item slot), are semi-predictable, and Z-Status moves can enable diverse strategies you don't otherwise see. Megas are no different from new mons in practice(yes, exception for Gyarados/Sharpedo which will delay mega depending on situation) except for the 1-per-team limit and no item, and are just as balanced as new mons(not very). Dynamax is stupid-busted, worse than Gen 5 weather, and specifically blocks 95% of all counterplay. And they eliminated the Support ZMove option in favor of Protect+, because Dynamax is about 2 giant monsters slugging it out, not clever tactics or creativity. I'm just so unhappy with that mechanic.

 

[Worldie]

Dynamax is stupid-busted, worse than Gen 5 weather, and specifically blocks 95% of all counterplay. And they eliminated the Support ZMove option in favor of Protect+, because Dynamax is about 2 giant monsters slugging it out, not clever tactics or creativity. I'm just so unhappy with that mechanic.

I would kinda disagree, but I can see why you'd think that as singles player.

Dynamax did definitely warp the metagame in VGC as well, but it did create its own dedicated strategies. Weakness Policy abuse was one of them ofc, as well as multiple creative ways to actually rid of opposer dynamax.
Eerie Sound, Eject Button Switcheroo, Yawn abuse, were some of the many shenenigans people would pull out to subvert the position where you Dynamaxed and suddently had a useless pokemon with half the HP that will get ignored.

At same time, many dynamaxers would employ abilities like Clear Body to make sure to preserve the buffs they acquired. Other Dynamaxers are picked specifically to work with certain weathers or terrains.
Some creative Dynamax usage also made otherwise-completely-unviable mons like Regigigas or Coalassal actually see the spotlight and reach "you need a counter for this or you get rolled over" status, not much unlike certain singles sweepers like Volcarona.

I can definitely see where Wolfey was coming from, and while I won't disagree with the mechanic being horrible for singles (i've played a bit of BSS and honestly it wasn't fun in the slightest), people need to accept these mechanics are designed for doubles and "breaking singles" isn't something GameFreaks really cares for.

(On a more positive note, I'm on the train of thought that Teralyze won't remotely be as gamebreaking for singles as Dynamax was, so maybe they did indeed learn their lesson on that front)

 

[Bakugames]

I truly believe the best solution would be something like a doubles tutorial and then it gives you something to enable double battle opponents. Main issue is you'd double (haha) the time spent creating teams which is really bad, but I know not everyone likes playing double battles all the time

 

[Shedinja-43152]

Dynamax is stupid-busted

I also don't like Dynamax pokémon, first because it brokens all my strategy of Double Team + One Hit KO moves, and also because I don't understand how it works. I noted some pokémons change the ability when is dynamax (as my Articuno who start to hail when is dynamax) and some moves have weird new features as Max Airstream raises speed.
Also Endeavor don't works in Dynamax pokémon and can't understand how it is calculated.

Z-moves

I also don't understand how it's works...

Megas

But I like Megas pokémon, is a new way to give some old pokémon new evolutions and new abilitys (and new types). I think Game Freak should stick with Mega Evolution and forget Dynamax and Z moves for the gen 9.

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

I also don't like Dynamax pokémon, first because it brokens all my strategy of Double Team + One Hit KO moves, and also because I don't understand how it works. I noted some pokémons change the ability when is dynamax (as my Articuno who start to hail when is dynamax) and some moves have weird new features as Max Airstream raises speed.
Also Endeavor don't works in Dynamax pokémon and can't understand how it is calculated.



I also don't understand how it's works...



But I like Megas pokémon, is a new way to give some old pokémon new evolutions and new abilitys (and new types). I think Game Freak should stick with Mega Evolution and forget Dynamax and Z moves for the gen 9.

Does every post you make have to be about evasion and/or OHKO?

 

[DreamPrince]

I went to check the comments and I saw some comments that said "Megas are only unbalanced/bad because they stopped early. If gamefreak kept going, it'd be a good mechanic", which is a common counter argument to people who think megas are bad, but I don't think I can see it.

Because you can only have one mega in a team, decided in the builder so to speak, megas not only compete with other mons, but with themselves. Why use mega pidgeot when you can use m ray (extreme example because m ray is an extremity but hey, it was in the game)? As megas kept being added, I find likely they'd just powercreep other megas or be too weak to be considered for a slot, which leads into a very constricted metagame. Sure, maybe in 2022 worlds would have been mega dragapult, turtonator, lycanroc and cinderace instead of the cores we had in gen 6 and 7, but all you're changing is which pokemon you're limiting teams to.

Megas fare better in a tier format (also why they're looked at more fondly by smogon players I assume), but I think there'd come a point where newer megas just kept pushing others out of the spotlight, which just means you created two ways of being powercrept.

I think in a way, that's one of the reasons why gamefreak dumped the concept. There has been an increased pressure on making vgc an e sports, and having the top 20 teams be the exact same 2 teams repeated over and over wasn't a good look. Not only that, but the amount of effort put in trying to come up w them and balance them out only to it fail to be useful 70% of the time is a lot of wasted design time. Sure, they're good merch and people think they're cool, but you can get good merch and people thinking theyre cool with normal pokemon already.

On the topic of creativity in “ team building “, VGC suffers a huge problem. Unlike Smogon tournaments where you can switch your teams and have no specters due to the nature of PS!, you can switch your teams around and apply more surprising strategies because you are not devoted to a single team. In VGC, you are team locked foe an entire tourney that not only you have to play a BO3, but people will get to see your team ahead of time. So that’s why VGC teams tend to use the more consistent Pokémon like Landorus-T and Zacian-C over more niche counterparts. That also means bulky offense tends to be more common than any other archetypes, because it’s the most consistent, sure it might be boring for spectators, but players are here to win, not entertain.

I would kinda disagree, but I can see why you'd think that as singles player.

Dynamax did definitely warp the metagame in VGC as well, but it did create its own dedicated strategies. Weakness Policy abuse was one of them ofc, as well as multiple creative ways to actually rid of opposer dynamax.
Eerie Sound, Eject Button Switcheroo, Yawn abuse, were some of the many shenenigans people would pull out to subvert the position where you Dynamaxed and suddently had a useless pokemon with half the HP that will get ignored.

At same time, many dynamaxers would employ abilities like Clear Body to make sure to preserve the buffs they acquired. Other Dynamaxers are picked specifically to work with certain weathers or terrains.
Some creative Dynamax usage also made otherwise-completely-unviable mons like Regigigas or Coalassal actually see the spotlight and reach "you need a counter for this or you get rolled over" status, not much unlike certain singles sweepers like Volcarona.

I can definitely see where Wolfey was coming from, and while I won't disagree with the mechanic being horrible for singles (i've played a bit of BSS and honestly it wasn't fun in the slightest), people need to accept these mechanics are designed for doubles and "breaking singles" isn't something GameFreaks really cares for.

(On a more positive note, I'm on the train of thought that Teralyze won't remotely be as gamebreaking for singles as Dynamax was, so maybe they did indeed learn their lesson on that front)

They should at the very least try to heed some attention to BSS, since not only is it the official Singles format, but it’s also dominated by Japanese primarily, their local audience. I also think BSS would be more appealing for newcomers to join because it is closer to the main campaign than Doubles is. And before anyone goes down my throat saying stall is going to dominate BSS, I disagree. Stall is less reliable compared to 6v6 to two factors, one being that it’s harder to wall things with 3 Pokémon as opposed to 6, and things are squishier than at Lv.50 as opposed to 100.

My rankings are this: Megas #1, Z-Moves #2, and Dynamax #3. I really like Z-Moves because there’s not only limited offensive effects, Z-Powers can be used defensively as well, like Z-Trick Room and Z-Haze. And coming from a 1v1 Player, Z-Crystals were amazing to put on stall mons because they deny Trick and Switcheroo, huge achille heals for stall Pokémon.

On topic of Wolfe, I really can’t say I enjoy his videos, simply because he looks from things only a VGC perspective, without taking consideration of other formats ( like his Mega Ranking and Super Mechanic ). And the fact he called people who used Mega Altaria “ dumb “, and I’m someone who took Mega Altaria to 1800s + on BSD for ORAS.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

More Double Battles in the main game would be great, as are more interesting strategies.

But my number one improvement has to be an optional Trainer School like Earl's Pokémon Academy from Pokémon Stadium 2.
Earl's Pokémon Academy is by a country mile the best tutorial in the games. I want it back ASAP because it would benefit anyone.
It teaches everything you need to know about playing the game somewhat decently, from the basics to more complex stuff. You have things like Type match-ups, status conditions, move categories, stats, but you also get to learn shit like additional effects of moves and recovery, as well as things that were new to GSC, e.g., held items. And at the end of every lecture, you get to answer questions to prove you paid attention to the lesson.

This is already great, especially compared to what other games in the franchise teaches the player, but the cherry on top is the battles. That's right, in Pokémon Stadium 2, you are given special "puzzle" battles to prove you know how to battle well. Because good teaching isn't just lecturing. You are thrown into a 3v3 battle, and you have to find the three best available Pokémon.
A memorable example is early on, a battle that teaches Moves with a semi-invulnerable turn and Moves with a charging turn.

• Your opponent uses moves like Solar Beam, which are strong but came with a significant drawback: a charging turn.
• You are given six Pokémon, three of which having moves like Dig or Fly to evade the damage dealt by Solar Beam and the rest.

For me, this is one of the most memorable battles in the franchise. It's not a self-imposed challenge, it's not a boss battle, it's just a lesson.

And this was back in Generation II! Can you imagine the lesson battles if they were made after that? With Double Battles and its own set of strategies? New battle types like Triple and Inverse? The Physical/Special split? New moves like Stealth Rock or the Pledges, Abilities, the Fairy type, new items? You can do so fucking much with all these new toys!

Alright, gushing over. All I want to say is, Earl's Pokémon Academy = good, please bring it back.

 

[Siggu]

More Double Battles in the main game would be great, as are more interesting strategies.

But my number one improvement has to be an optional Trainer School like Earl's Pokémon Academy from Pokémon Stadium 2.
Earl's Pokémon Academy is by a country mile the best tutorial in the games. I want it back ASAP because it would benefit anyone.
It teaches everything you need to know about playing the game somewhat decently, from the basics to more complex stuff. You have things like Type match-ups, status conditions, move categories, stats, but you also get to learn shit like additional effects of moves and recovery, as well as things that were new to GSC, e.g., held items. And at the end of every lecture, you get to answer questions to prove you paid attention to the lesson.

This is already great, especially compared to what other games in the franchise teaches the player, but the cherry on top is the battles. That's right, in Pokémon Stadium 2, you are given special "puzzle" battles to prove you know how to battle well. Because good teaching isn't just lecturing. You are thrown into a 3v3 battle, and you have to find the three best available Pokémon.
A memorable example is early on, a battle that teaches Moves with a semi-invulnerable turn and Moves with a charging turn.

• Your opponent uses moves like Solar Beam, which are strong but came with a significant drawback: a charging turn.
• You are given six Pokémon, three of which having moves like Dig or Fly to evade the damage dealt by Solar Beam and the rest.

For me, this is one of the most memorable battles in the franchise. It's not a self-imposed challenge, it's not a boss battle, it's just a lesson.

And this was back in Generation II! Can you imagine the lesson battles if they were made after that? With Double Battles and its own set of strategies? New battle types like Triple and Inverse? The Physical/Special split? New moves like Stealth Rock or the Pledges, Abilities, the Fairy type, new items? You can do so fucking much with all these new toys!

Alright, gushing over. All I want to say is, Earl's Pokémon Academy = good, please bring it back.

I often read people complaining that recent games (especially Gen VII), "spend too much time with tutorials" at the start.

The true problem is not the length, but the fact that, as tutorials, it's terrible, as it barely teaches anything. If they were good tutorials, at least...

 

[pika pal]

Here's my stance: Dynamax is a terrible gimmick because for it to work as designed, it has to outright ignore several mechanics. It's a two-fold sign of how poorly balanced Pokemon is for Doubles or VGC's attempted E-Sports format, because we went from a bunch of mechanics completely dominating a bunch of teams (Protect scouting, Fake Out, Best Megas, Weather, Trick Room), to a Gimmick that dominates the game because it literally ignores half of them (Flinch and Protect) and gives brainless access to several others (Tons of HP for tanking out, Max Moves for Weather/Boosting).

Dynamax being what Wolfey ranks highest for VGC (even if his basis and criteria are all correct and reasonable) is not indicative of Dynamax being a good game mechanic in and of itself. It's just the latest sledgehammer GF took to the Square Block that is Pokemon in the Round Hole that is E-Sports. Their game design in the context of BO3 Use-4 Doubles is broken to the point that avoiding an overcentralized team-set required a gimmick that cheats its way out of several balance decisions to begin with. I'd be willing to say this happens in some degree with Singles, but I'm biased because most of my experience with "competitive" minded Singles is through Smogon.

The gimmicks continue to demonstrate to me that Pokemon as it exists and is handled is not suited to being an E-Sport. The (legal) accessibility for game pieces and practicing resources is horrid, the balancing is hands-off to the point of worthlessness (Compare Card-games with huge amounts of decks/styles implementing banlists or rotating formats with deliberately chosen pools), the design around it is incredibly half-hearted, and there's no consistent design goal besides making sure they can squeeze all the battles into a certain timespan rather than an idea of example match progression. Pokemon is in a similar position to where "competitive" Super Smash Bros. is, or is at least perceived to be: a party game with token attention to Competitive design that is sustained by the size of the consumer base much more than effort or dedication by the company in charge.

The imbalance/propensity of certain Megas to get particularly common is a point cited against them in VGC, but besides that occurring significantly more in Doubles than Singles w/ a banlist, how is that any different ultimately than Non-Megas that simply ARE everywhere the same way, like Tapus for Terrain or Incineroar because Intimidate/Fake Out/Parting Shot is that effective a support combo? Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Mawile didn't become dominant because they were the best Megas, but because they were just busted Pokemon in the format, Mega or not.


tl;dr Dynamax is a shit gimmick in Singles, which is what most of the game is about. It being better in Doubles is irrelevant because GF/TPC either sucks or gives 0 craps about how to make Pokemon an E-Sport

 

[Ironmage]

A new thought I had on the topic of Dmax and the focus on doubles:

I'm an entry hazard enthusiast. I want switching to be more prominent in doubles because my favourite moves are less used there. Dmax provides trivially easy access to powerful boosts that are removed on switching, which means that it works against what I feel is one of the things that needs to happen if I'm going to accept doubles as the primary format.

 

[Bakugames]

A new thought I had on the topic of Dmax and the focus on doubles:

I'm an entry hazard enthusiast. I want switching to be more prominent in doubles because my favourite moves are less used there. Dmax provides trivially easy access to powerful boosts that are removed on switching, which means that it works against what I feel is one of the things that needs to happen if I'm going to accept doubles as the primary format.

I'm not the biggest double fan (playing-wise, I enjoy watching pretty much any kind of pokemon format lol), but I think this is just the wrong way to look at doubles. If you want to use entry hazards, play singles, the format where those can be used for. Different formats will always pick different moves for their metas and teambuilding and wishing that doubles become more like singles is lame as hell. A more productive convo would be featuring singles on VGC (more likely BSS format), which would be pretty fun.

Also, I think we have to be realistic here that doubles is and always will be the primary format, no matter how many people use smogon or the gameplay itself is singles oriented. The acceptance has to be on our part to accept the L.