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Flinch is basically useless for rock types because there are only 4 unique non legendary rock types with base speed over 80. And that includes Archeops.
Cool, but you do realize that pretty much every other physical attacker runs Rock Slide if they can cause of how good that move is in doubles right?
No? You never played or watched VGC?
Even in singles, Rock/Ground is one of the best "2 move neutral coverage" you can run, and most ground types will always run Stone Edge or Rock Slide on top of their ground stab, as well as other way around obviously, rock types will generally run Earthquake or similar moves on top of their stab.
Most of the buffs people suggest for the Ice-type either wouldn't actually matter much, or wouldn't make much sense from a flavor standpoint. The single biggest buff Ice needs is a design philosophy change; instead of slow, bulky Pokemon like Avalugg, Regice, Glastier, etc., Ice needs more fast offensive Pokemon like Weavile and Darmanitan and... wait, there basically are no other fast offensive Ice-types, and that's the problem. Ice is garbage defensively but very solid offensively, but offensive Ice-types are few and far between, and often fall into the typical Ice-type trap of having a slow, awkward stat spread. The few Ice-types that are designed as fast, offensive Pokemon prove that Ice has a ton of potential as a type, it just needs more Pokemon who are designed around that potential.
I also consider Rock to generally be as bad if not slightly worse than Ice in practice, at least in modern metagames. More weaknesses, half the resistances it does have are basically irrelevant, and Rock-types are often saddled with a similar design philosophy of being slow and bulky, which also doesn't mesh well with their type match-ups. Even the few Rock-types that do succeed arguably do so in spite of their Rock typing, not because of it (I would argue that Tyranitar, for instance, would be even better if it was, like, Ground/Dark or Dragon/Dark or something).
Cool, but you do realize that pretty much every other physical attacker runs Rock Slide if they can cause of how good that move is in doubles right?
No? You never played or watched VGC?
Even in singles, Rock/Ground is one of the best "2 move neutral coverage" you can run, and most ground types will always run Stone Edge or Rock Slide on top of their ground stab, as well as other way around obviously, rock types will generally run Earthquake or similar moves on top of their stab.
Exactly who mentioned Charizard in all this? If anything Charizard is extremely vulnerable to Rock Slide due to being 4x weak and the simple existance of the move has always hindered its viability in VGC outside of Mega Chari Y. In fact it's due to the fact almost noone was running it that it was able to get somewhat moderate success in VGC gen 8, since rock coverage is pretty lacking in general, and its other 2 main weaknesses, electric and water, are much easier to cover with redirects.
You can save the angry ranting really, this is how reality works. Rock Slide exists and it's been (was, since due to Dynamax it was almost never used this gen) one of the most common moves used in VGC, and as stated above, many phisical attackers use either Rock Slide or Stone Edge as coverage moves due to complementing extremely well Fighting and Ground stabs that lot of phisical attackers use by hitting Flying and Bug types supereffectively.
Also sadly your (let me be blunt) absolute lack of knowledge of how competitive pokemon works shows again after the whole Weavile meme: just because rock types are slow often, doesn't mean they don't get to use the flinch chance of Rock Slide. Most defensive pokemon in singles will not invest in speed, and do get outsped by bulky pokemon, meaning that several defensive pokemon can be one flinch away from losing a 1v1 against pretty much any flinch-move user.
On top of it, certain slow pokemon have been consistently used in Trick Room teams in doubles, and guess what, when you're slow, in trick room you go first. Stakataka notably is a pokemon that actually uses this in singles too, and has been able to run Rock Slides just as well in doubles during the timeframes where it was good or Trick Room was a viable strategy. (same applies to Gigalith during restricted formats)
TLDR: you may have a lot of unpopular one-liners opinion, but when it comes to competitive pokemon strenght, you may want to actually get some informations first before dubbing something as "bad" or "undeservedly punishing".
That's why I don't particularly care that Rock Slide is kind of wack. (Even though Worldie raised an excellent point as for why certain mons invest in Speed and why TTar's base 61 Speed is so important to it.)
If anything, there should be something better that actually synergizes well with the type.
Matter of fact, this is one of Pokémon's main flaws. Ultimately, a lot of types lack signature moves. Something that truly defines them instead of "Hey, STAB Ice Beam hits pretty hard, but you really should run it on a Water-type instead lol"
Ice does have options like these with Freeze-Dry and Avalanche, but they don't synergize too well with their signature status condition (Freeze).
Fighting used to have a great one in Close Combat, but SwSh ruined it.
Pokémon rom hacks with more than 500 Pokémon feel bloated. They make team building overwhelming and the increased amount of Pokémon in each route makes looking for anything specific a chore. The only real benefit is that enemy trainer teams feel less repetitive with the extra variety.
Pokémon rom hacks with more than 500 Pokémon feel bloated. They make team building overwhelming and the increased amount of Pokémon in each route makes looking for anything specific a chore. The only real benefit is that enemy trainer teams feel less repetitive with the extra variety.
They also kinda feel like a waste when it comes to connecting multiple hacks from the same author and saving dev time. For example, why would I bother even looking at trashmons like Sunflora in an Emerald hack? I got stuff to do, places to be. Slapping a Sunkern with a 4% encounter rate in Route 117 just so I can say I got a 386 hack isn't a priority.
I personally don't mind hacks that include all the Pokémon in a generation (every Pokémon is someone's favourite, after all, except for the canine ones).
What I do tend to be annoyed by is when hacks start to include Pokémon, moves, abilities, and other battle-related content from future generations. Box Link and the Exp. Share are fine, but what's the point of adding things like Megas in an Emerald hack? For that, I'd just play ORAS...
I personally don't mind hacks that include all the Pokémon in a generation (every Pokémon is someone's favourite, after all, except for the canine ones).
What I do tend to be annoyed by is when hacks start to include Pokémon, moves, abilities, and other battle-related content from future generations. Box Link and the Exp. Share are fine, but what's the point of adding things like Megas in an Emerald hack? For that, I'd just play ORAS...
If you named any game other than Emerald I'd probably agree with you, but I'd love to see an Emerald with modern features only because of the Battle Frontier, just so long as the physical/special split is also implemented.
If anything Charizard is extremely vulnerable to Rock Slide due to being 4x weak and the simple existance of the move has always hindered its viability in VGC outside of Mega Chari Y. In fact it's due to the fact almost noone was running it that it was able to get somewhat moderate success in VGC gen 8, since rock coverage is pretty lacking in general, and its other 2 main weaknesses, electric and water, are much easier to cover with redirects.
About base Charizard, even it Gen IV didn't give us Smogon Rocks (which aren't relevant in VGC anyway), it's still a Glass Cannon with good, but not outstanding, Special Attack and Speed, as well as a decent offensive movepool, but far from the hardest hitting. Fire/Flying has good resistances, such as Fairy, but annoying weaknesses (oh hi Regieleki, who effortlessly outspeeds the Starter). Also, its only good setup move is Dragon Dance, which boosts its meh base 84 Attack.
And Mega Charizard Y was popular because it's a Drought summoner and a fiery nuclear missile launcher at once. 159 SpA is excellent, and Fire is a popular offensive type. However, because it's a Mega, not all teams are going to use it.
I wouldn't actually say glass cannon.
Sure Charizard isn't exactly Ho-oh, but 78/78/85 isnt exactly paper either for early gens. When I think of actual glass cannons I mostly thinks of mons with so little bulk that even neutral hits can 1hko them. Weavile for example is at 70 65 85, on phisical side it's pretty easy to bring in range of 1hko with extremely minimal chip.
In fact (correct me if i'm wrong) but in lower tiers defensive Charizard was actually a thing I believe... and then checking old gens I ran into a random atrocity sword dance no item Charizard set and my life now feels like a lie.
The first generation of Pokemon is still pretty decent, and I think people are too quick to jump on it nowadays. Also, genwunners are all but extinct at this point, we should drop that term from now on.
The first generation of Pokemon is still pretty decent, and I think people are too quick to jump on it nowadays. Also, genwunners are all but extinct at this point, we should drop that term from now on.
Also, Gen l's bugs are awesome. I will always remember the East shore of Cinnabar Island as some Eldritch Location that spew Pokémon that shouldn't be here.
The first generation of Pokemon is still pretty decent, and I think people are too quick to jump on it nowadays. Also, genwunners are all but extinct at this point, we should drop that term from now on.
I would agree if Game Freak doesn’t overhype it by putting special treatment to the first Generation so much ever since the sixth generation. Not that it deserve such overwhelming hate, but such hate isn’t unfounded either. The fan animation side didn’t helped the case either, likely due to coming off as too complacent.
I mean, there why the fact a vast majority of returning Pokémon that got a G-Max form are from the first generation, resulting wasted potentials for other generations, wasn’t well received by many. It also happened with Alola forms back then, all being Gen 1 Pokémon, but it wasn’t as bad as none of these Gen 1 Pokémon had already got special treatment or form beforehand.
It seems my first post was liked, so here’s a more hot take.
Diamond and Pearl are the worst Pokemon games of all time. While Platinum is excellent, DP are close to unplayable. They are extremely slow and have a horribly limited PokeDex. While the small dex is kinda forgivable, the slowdown makes the games an absurd chore to play.
The first generation of Pokemon is still pretty decent, and I think people are too quick to jump on it nowadays. Also, genwunners are all but extinct at this point, we should drop that term from now on.
It seems my first post was liked, so here’s a more hot take.
Diamond and Pearl are the worst Pokemon games of all time. While Platinum is excellent, DP are close to unplayable. They are extremely slow and have a horribly limited PokeDex. While the small dex is kinda forgivable, the slowdown makes the games an absurd chore to play.
Oh no, no. That's not hot at all. Lemme show you what a spicy take looks like.
RBY > FRLG. Because of the bugs.
Kanto is a slab of cardboard, which is fair considering its humble origins, but while FRLG did its best presentation-wise, taking out the Gen 1 bugs made its blandness a lot more apparent. And of course, you have FRLG's own shortcomings as well, like how certain mons will not evolve without the National Dex.
Gen 1 Kanto has a very distinct and unique flavor, especially if you can play it with Stadium 1.
Oh no, no. That's not hot at all. Lemme show you what a spicy take looks like.
RBY > FRLG. Because of the bugs.
Kanto is a slab of cardboard, which is fair considering its humble origins, but while FRLG did its best presentation-wise, taking out the Gen 1 bugs made its blandness a lot more apparent. And of course, you have FRLG's own shortcomings as well, like how certain mons will not evolve without the National Dex.
Gen 1 Kanto has a very distinct and unique flavor, especially if you can play it with Stadium 1.
Absolutely agree with this, even though I think FRLG is a superb remake.
I keep waiting for the day we get a Kanto game where someone just casually mentions "legend says that Mew was once spotted around Route 8", like how ORAS mentions Mirage Island once being on Route 130. Be playful and reference that old glitch, Game Freak.
Absolutely agree with this, even though I think FRLG is a superb remake.
I keep waiting for the day we get a Kanto game where someone just casually mentions "legend says that Mew was once spotted around Route 8", like how ORAS mentions Mirage Island once being on Route 130. Be playful and reference that old glitch, Game Freak.
Blindingly unlikely, though as with the Mew reference, I just want a shout-out. Have an NPC mention that the east coast of Cinnabar is associated with many strange ghost stories, or that the old man in Viridian puts a curse on anyone who agrees to let him teach them how to catch Pokemon. Have a painting in a museum resemble it. Something fun like that.
People were talking Kanto in Unpopular Opinions and kinda touched upon how it's never meaningfully updated and it reminded me of something
Look, at this point I've accepted that Game Freak has no real interest in updating that ancient Game Boy map design to a modern standard. I'm not really torn up about it, either. Well, except for one thing. More specifically, one settlement, that being Saffron City.
Because you know what Saffron City's supposed to be? In case you've forgotten, it's supposed to be Tokyo. One of the biggest metropolises on the entire planet.
Pokemon has come a long way since those days, and SV has made this clear in one way: The towns and cities look flippin' awesome. Obviously they aren't going to be 1 to 1 recreations of their real life counterparts anytime soon, but if you've seen the shots of Mesagoza and the like you can see a world fully realized like ever before after nearly 30 years of handheld-friendly approximations. Pokemon running about, detailed storefronts and interiors, funky-ass neon signs, that kind of thing. Still some limitations that come from being on relatively weak hardware and Pokemon's unique graphical struggles, but pretty cool all the same and gets one amped both for this game and for the future (imagine how expansive and beautiful they'll be able to make major landmark settlements on the inevitable Switch 2!).
So open your eyes, your hearts and minds. Open them all up and try to imagine a Pokemon city that is modeled after and has the titular creatures and their trainers roaming places like THIS.
This, my friends, is a taste of what a next-gen Saffron City could look like. Imagine pesky Rattata and Meowth scampering about the narrow backstreet of picture 2. Or how about picture 5 with a bunch of ads for Pokemon-themed items, including references to companies and products from previous games? Maybe you could even catch a glimpse of Sabrina at somewhere like picture 3, using the tranquil surroundings to calm her mind and refine her Psychic powers while similarly relief-seeking Psyduck drift in the water, pink petals lazily falling on their faces.
This is a Saffron we can dream about. And yet it may very well be a Saffron that we will never see. Tokyo was spent on a region that might never be anything more than what was implementable on hardware from the 80s that even back then was already a decade out of date. And that's just sad. I don't blame RBY for it, heck I don't even blame current Game Freak for it, but it's sad all the same.
This looks a little more like how Castelia was portrayed, which brings me to a conclusion.
BDSP was right for returning to a 2D-inspired mold instead of going full 3D like Legends, and I hope all remakes build on this idea.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that full 3D Hoenn and Sinnoh wouldn't be awesome. The thing is that they would need to be significantly remade, which kind of defeats the point. Some routes and maps only work in that perspective and I don't trust Game Freak to handle good 3D mapping yet.
Let's see how SV handles its maps though. I can't say Legends map design had me thrilled, but it was a massive improvement compared to SwSh's DLC, so I might change my mind down the road.
Ok, let’s talk about Johto. As much as I too am sad by Johto's reliance on Kanto, it remains one of if not the most aesthetically pleasing region in the Pokémon universe. I mean, beating Lance was nice and all… oh what am I saying I only played Gold to heat Red. I'm not the biggest fan of the Gym Leaders or some of the Pokémon there, but to me it has the most awesome looking places.
Oh, and Gen 7 features one of the best regions we've ever had. Pokémon? Great. Characters? Great. Ultra Beasts?! Great!!
This looks a little more like how Castelia was portrayed, which brings me to a conclusion.
BDSP was right for returning to a 2D-inspired mold instead of going full 3D like Legends, and I hope all remakes build on this idea.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that full 3D Hoenn and Sinnoh wouldn't be awesome. The thing is that they would need to be significantly remade, which kind of defeats the point. Some routes and maps only work in that perspective and I don't trust Game Freak to handle good 3D mapping yet.
Let's see how SV handles its maps though. I can't say Legends map design had me thrilled, but it was a massive improvement compared to SwSh's DLC, so I might change my mind down the road.
If they develops BW remake and be a faithful .... remake, my hands are full on HD-2D style that Square Enix has been doing. Pokemon with beautiful sprites? I'm in