Unpopular opinions

Also, please give Triple Kick and Rolling Kick a wider distribution. I dunno, I thought a flinch-inducing roundhouse kick is neat.

Interestingly kicking moves in general don't have the greatest distribution when they're not directly taught. In generations where it isn't a TM or tutor move almost nothing learns Mega Kick, and only one Pokemon (Stufful) gets it via breeding; Rolling Kick is only learned by five species, and Blaze Kick is learned by surprisingly few Pokemon even when it's a TM. Hi Jump Kick has decent distribution but only two non-Fighting types learn it. Double Kick is the exception to this rule because it's a fairly common early-game move by a lot of different species like Nidoran, but even that is relatively restricted - only seven Kanto families and one Hoenn and Sinnoh family apiece (and no Johto species at all) get it by levelling up, when I would have guessed a lot more.
 
Interestingly kicking moves in general don't have the greatest distribution when they're not directly taught. In generations where it isn't a TM or tutor move almost nothing learns Mega Kick, and only one Pokemon (Stufful) gets it via breeding; Rolling Kick is only learned by five species, and Blaze Kick is learned by surprisingly few Pokemon even when it's a TM. Hi Jump Kick has decent distribution but only two non-Fighting types learn it. Double Kick is the exception to this rule because it's a fairly common early-game move by a lot of different species like Nidoran, but even that is relatively restricted - only seven Kanto families and one Hoenn and Sinnoh family apiece (and no Johto species at all) get it by levelling up, when I would have guessed a lot more.
I think this kinda makes sense, to be fair. Kicking with actual force without losing your balance is much harder than, say, throwing a half-decent punch. Gen I/III/VIII Mega Kick is a clear exception, as you noted, but at least it's a notoriously unreliable move so I can sorta accept its wider distribution, while Double Kick kinda gives off 'Baby's First High Horsepower' vibes, at least thematically, with many of the Pokemon that learn it being quadrupedal mammals which presumably kick with their hind legs.

Skilled, precise kicking feels like it should mostly be the domain of Fighting or Fighting-adjacent Pokemon.
 
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Skilled, precise kicking feels like it should mostly be the domain of Fighting or Fighting-adjacent Pokemon.
Still weird that Rolling Kick isn't as well distributed though. You'd think mons like Combusken would have it.

The biggest problem with it and Triple Kick is that they're pitifully weak for signature moves. Triple Kick is especially jarring now that Triple Axel exists.
 
Also, please give Triple Kick and Rolling Kick a wider distribution. I dunno, I thought a flinch-inducing roundhouse kick is neat.

Hmm, well before looking up Pokemon to give them to, let's consider the context of the moves:

Move: Triple Kick
Description: A consecutive three-kick attack that becomes more powerful with each successive hit.
Learned By: Hitmontop, Pheromosa
Analysis: Previously the Signature Move of Hitmontop for 5 gens, the idea of it was Hitmontop was spinning on its head to deliver multiple kicks, it getting stronger because of centrifugal force. Pheromosa getting it is a surprise, though with Pheromosa being super fast and main method of attack is kicking, it makes sense it would have its own version. So, the concept of Triple Kick is the user is able to spin around really fast and can kick while doing so.
Candidates:
  • First let's see about Pokemon which are just very fast. Using Serebii's Top 300 Speed list, I've come up with the following: Accelgor, Cinderace, Lopunny, H-Lilligant, & Urshifu-Rapid.
  • But Speed isn't everything, a good spinner could qualify too. So, looking through Rapid Spin learners: Tsareena.
  • Obviously this is a kick, so going to have a quick look through of learners of Low Sweep ("Low Kick" in Japanese), Double Kick, Low Kick ("Kick Down" in Japanese), Rolling Kick, Mega Kick, & Blaze Kick (Note, Jump Kick & High Jump Kick are not included as they're not actually kicking moves, in Japan they're a knee attack): Hitmonlee & Infernape.
  • Finally, just to cover all our bases, a quick look through of the Fighting-types: Meloetta
  • Overall: Hitmonlee, Lopunny, Infernape, H-Lilligant, Accelgor, Meloetta, Tsareena, Cinderace, & Urshifu-Rapid

Move: Rolling Kick
Description: The user lashes out with a quick, spinning kick.
Learned By: Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Marshadow; Via Egg Move: Machop, Elekid
Analysis: Note the Japanese name of this move is just straight-up "Roundhouse Kick". When Chuck Norris/Walker Texas Ranger memes were popular it was joked this was actually his Signature Move and the Hitmons were just borrowing it (or people just named their Hitmonlee and 'top "Chuck (Norris)" or "Walker"). Anyway, it's just a kick which the user spins around to give it an additional "oomph" (which, in this case, isn't a high Power but rather the chance to Flinch). I can tell you already that a lot more Pokemon would be likely to learn this than Triple Kick which is much more specialized.
Candidates:
  • This time around I'm going the opposite method, first the Fighting-types: Mankey family, G-Zapdos, Combusken/Blaziken, Meditite family, Lucario, H-Lilligant, Sawk, Mienfoo family, Pangoro, H-Decidueye, Bewear, Passimian, Hakamo-o/Kommo-o, Buzzwole, & Urshifu-Single
  • And as if THAT list wasn't enough, to be fair, here's all the kicking move learners (honestly quite a few Pokemon could go on here so, just to make things easier/quicker, gonna stick with notable choices): Sudowoodo, Lopunny, Incineroar, Tsareena, Zeraora, Cinderace
  • Overall: Mankey family, G-Zapdos, Sudowoodo, Combusken/Blaziken, Meditite family, Lopunny, Lucario, H-Lilligant, Sawk, Mienfoo family, Pangoro, H-Decidueye, Incineroar, Bewear, Tsareena, Passimian, Hakamo-o/Kommo-o, Buzzwole, Zeraora, Cinderace, & Urshifu-Single
 
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Baseless speculation here, but Triple Axel might be nerfed in future games, if its allowed to be transferred. In Legends Arceus's internal data, they reduced its BP from 20 -> 10 and this change does seem to be junk data like Eerie Spell (which was massively buffed). I'm hoping this is not the case, as I like the move as it is currently, particularly on Pokemon like Hitmontop.
 
Baseless speculation here, but Triple Axel might be nerfed in future games, if its allowed to be transferred. In Legends Arceus's internal data, they reduced its BP from 20 -> 10 and this change does seem to be junk data like Eerie Spell (which was massively buffed). I'm hoping this is not the case, as I like the move as it is currently, particularly on Pokemon like Hitmontop.
I think it's more likely that it was copied from a point when Triple Axel was just Ice-type Triple Kick, and that its power was doubled after the fact.
 
Baseless speculation here, but Triple Axel might be nerfed in future games, if its allowed to be transferred. In Legends Arceus's internal data, they reduced its BP from 20 -> 10 and this change does seem to be junk data like Eerie Spell (which was massively buffed). I'm hoping this is not the case, as I like the move as it is currently, particularly on Pokemon like Hitmontop.

GF, if 20 is too much, but 10 is too little, may I suggest 15 instead? That would put all strikes hitting at 90 Power (15 + 30 + 45). Also, how about an additional secondary effect to spice things up? Like maybe gives the second strike a +1 to Critical Hit and the third strike a +2 to Critical Hit. Or that the third strike has 30% chance to Flinch?
 
Most people complaining about Focus Miss are either memeing or are salty about having recently missed. Everyone absolutely does not agree in ernest that it's a bad move.
No they are not

Plus Triple Axel can still hit once or twice, so it's not an all-or-nothing deal like Focus Blast. Sure it's weaker but damage is still damage.

1) Everymon who uses it is a glass canon so if they can't do full damage they lose
2) hitting only once is worse than not hiiting due to how common rocky helmet is this gen
 
Risk vs Reward. While there are some Moves where a lower Accuracy doesn't make them worth using, there are other factors to take into consideration than how likely you are to hit.

Focus Blast for example, as DrPumpkinz said, is joked about ("Focus Missed" etc.) but there's so many jokes about it BECAUSE it's used so much. A 120 Power Special Fighting-Type Move is nothing to sneeze at, even with low Accuracy. It's that Special category which makes it stand out, there's not a lot of Special Fighting-type Moves and the other there are aren't wide spread. It's status as a TM means plenty of Special Attackers get it, and Fighting is one of those Types which adds nice coverage.

Triple Axel has the opposite uniqueness: a widespread Physical Ice-Type Move. Well, not as widespread but enough Pokemon get it that want it (Ice being another Type with notable coverage). Also, with only a tenth of a chance missing, it's FAR from being on the missing meme level as Focus Blast. And being a multi-strike move (one where its strongest hit is done last), it can bypass certain blocks notably Focus Sash, Focus Band, Sturdy, Disguise, and Ice Face.



I feel this is especially notable for the Rival. It's nice SwSh wave us Bede who was a jerk rival that was cathartic taking down a level; but as you said the villain team(s) fail to really make you feel the same way. Not that I need the rivals and villain team to feel cathartic when defeating them, but I need something to replace the feeling if they're going for something different.
Triple Axel and Focus Blast are used because other options are worse not because they are good moves
 
GF, if 20 is too much, but 10 is too little, may I suggest 15 instead? That would put all strikes hitting at 90 Power (15 + 30 + 45). Also, how about an additional secondary effect to spice things up? Like maybe gives the second strike a +1 to Critical Hit and the third strike a +2 to Critical Hit. Or that the third strike has 30% chance to Flinch?
20 is not too much for them; they're not nerfing it!

For confirmation of what DrPumpkinz already said, this is exactly like the time altered versions of the LGPE moves were discovered in SwSh.
People assumed that SwSh had rebalanced these moves at some point before deciding to cut them, but it turned out to be the opposite: those versions were from an older version of LGPE - SwSh were forked from that version early in development, and they were never brought up to date because the moves were not in the game anyway.

The simple explanation: SwSh's DLC was not already completely done by the time Game Freak began development on Legends (obviously P:), so they forked from the build of SwSh that they had (post-launch, DLC in the middle of development), and they did not need to make balance updates to moves alongside SwSh because those moves weren't in Legends anyway.
The final LGPE versions of the LGPE move are more up to date, and just like them, the final SwSh versions of the DLC moves are more up to date; the unused versions you see in SwSh and Legends are leftovers from earlier in development and are outdated where discrepancies exist.
This is actually really cool to me because it gives a look into the way these moves were thought through during development! but it is definitely not useful to do that if you don't even know which one came before and which came after, so that's really important to clear up, haha.
Big changes:​

Burning Jealousy was originally a 100 BP move and still had its 100% effect chance, which implies that it had a drawback at the time that we don't know about.
Similarly, Lash Out was a 150 BP move outright, as opposed to the 75-but-sometimes-150 BP move we know today.
From context, I assume Lash Out would have outright failed if its condition (that the user's stats were lowered) was not met, and it was buffed from the extremely binary 0-150 to a much more viable 75-150 after testing. As Burning Jealousy is something of an opposite Lash Out, I suspect it underwent a similar change: it probably outright failed if its condition wasn't met, but its power was lowered and it was revised so only the burn rate was conditional instead of the move as a whole.

Eerie Spell had the startling stats of 110 BP, 100% accuracy and 35 (56) PP.
What we got in the end was a completely different move, but more to the point, I would not take this as "an iteration of Eerie Spell" so much as "stock data from before they even started on Eerie Spell."
Incidentally, though, the move's flavor was already decided to some extent - it was already a sound-based move and bypassed subs even in this early stage!

Other nerfs:​

Flip Turn was nerfed from 70 BP to 60 BP (a good choice: this is meant to correct for its more threatening offensive type and potential for field effect abuse compared to U-turn + the scarcity of Flip Turn immunities compared to Volt Switch immunities - this is a very satisfying move that engages especially well with the value of Storm Drain in certain VGC formats, allowing it to be blocked from anywhere on the field, and I am always grateful when would-be clones are given different powers to account for fundamental differences in their types or categories);

Scorching Sands was similarly nerfed from 80 BP to 70 BP (also a good choice: Scald is one of the strongest moves, and Ground is an insane attacking type that synergizes with its effect for reasons similar to Water, but Scorching Sands is widely distributed among Fire-types as well and Ground/Fire is pretty frightening coverage);

Expanding Force was nerfed from 85 BP to 80 BP;
Skitter Smack was nerfed from 80 BP to 70 BP;
Poltergeist was nerfed from 120 BP and 100% accuracy to 110 BP and 90% accuracy;

Scale Shot was nerfed from 30 BP to 25 BP (this one interests me! it did already hit 2-5 times at this point in development, so it would have been the strongest such move by power in addition to its effect; a bit of a longshot, but I wonder if it used to have only the Defense-lowering drawback, and the associated Speed boost might have come after it was nerfed? there's no way to determine this from what we can see in Legends, unfortunately - either way, I really like where this move ended up, so no complaints!);

and Misty Explosion was nerfed from 120 BP to 100 BP (this is also interesting! I have always thought the move was strangely designed and blatantly underpowered compared to the other terrain moves, especially Expanding Force; this tells us they actually tried it at a higher power and didn't like how it played for some reason, so I'm curious about what that process was like but will no longer assume it was a mistake!)

Other buffs:​

Obviously Triple Axel's power was straight doubled;

Corrosive Gas was buffed from a 20 BP special move to a non-damaging status move (it traded minor chip of a weak attacking type for the ability to remove items from Poison-immune targets, since status moves in general don't obey type-based immunities, which is definitely an improvement! but here's something neat: it tells us that if Corrosive Gas were a damaging utility move, the power they would have chosen was 20, the same as pre-buff Knock!);

and Glacial Lance was buffed from a 120 BP move (the same as Astral Barrage) to a 130 BP move (10 more than Astral Barrage, which was intentionally not changed - the point was making the physical attacker that has to deal with Intimidate and burns and stuff hit harder up front! this is very standard fare and good design, even if I think Astral Barrage's BP is way too high for its type and maybe it would have been better to create the desired dissonance by nerfing that one).
Now, uh,
after looking at them, imagine starting with what we have now and intentionally making all those changes in reverse P:
Hopefully you can see that the Legends versions are obviously the unfinished ones ashdjfkfk

Also please do not give Triple Axel a flinch chance
 
Oooh I love unpopular opinions!!!
  • Gen 6 is my favorite gen. Not only is it my first and nostalgic, it has an awesome storyline and so many things to do
  • Sun and Moon is one of the best anime seasons. It has some goofy and cute episodes, but also some really dark and sad ones
  • I love all the kawaii pokemon stuff but deep down inside my heart my greatest desire is for an M rated pokemon horror game
  • Gen 1 is my least favorite. Not because it's bad, it's just so bare bones and people praise it as the greatest thing ever
  • 3d pokemon > pixellated pokemon
  • Sw/Sh isn't as bad as people say it is, the story was just garbage
 
Water is fundamentally an extremely unbalanced type and needs more than a few changes - both to the type itself and to mechanics that operate with Water typed - to correct it. Granted, the type chart is a really complex machine and it's a miracle that its as well-balanced as it is, but I think Water in particular needs some more checks. As a Seaking (just a Seaking, in fact!) I think I can attest to this with some credibility.

In terms of the type chart, Water is only beaten in “why are you like this” by Fairy and pre-Gen VI Steel. It’s got two weaknesses, one of which is a pretty poor offensive type overall in Grass. Electric actually has a pretty neat interaction here with Rain, but I’m getting ahead of myself. It resists double the types it’s weak to, however - Fire, Ice, Steel, and itself. Resisting yourself is hardly unusual, and neither is resisting a type you hit super-effectively, Something not easily noticed at a glance, though, is that it combines with several types to have absurd defensive synergy - Water/Ground. Water/Flying, and Water/Steel stand out to me in this regard. Its lack of weaknesses comes together really well to form a pretty universally effective. While Steel has many more resistances than Water, this is kept in check by being weak to some very common offensive types - Ground, Fighting, and to a lesser extent Fire. It's also a rather poor offensive type, offsetting a robust defense. That isn't true with Water. Water is also just... a nightmare to deal with in practice, defensively. It has no immunities, yes, but its lack of weaknesses and synergy with common types make it difficult to deal with - and that's not getting into one particular defensive tool that Water types have, Scald, which puts any and all physical attackers opposing a Water type in a really bad position. Either you're a Fire type and Scald will hit you super-effectively, or you just have to run the risk of a 30% burn. Water is far too oppressive as a defensive type when it can leverage burns with no downside, and it needlessly limits your options to deal with a Water type effectively.

Offensively, I think Water is mostly fine - on paper, that is. It hits 3 types super effectively, and 3 types non-effectively. In practice I think it ends up being much more oppressive than that, however - Water types almost universally have access to Ice coverage, which A. somewhat undermines Ice's offensive utility and B. allows them to get around 2 of those types that resist its STAB. (In general I think coverage has gotten far too good across every single type except Electric, but Water has done this as far back as Gen III so I take issue with it in particular). Water has the means to get around two its checks with just two moveslots, and has two more to do whatever it wants with - be that set-up moves, secondary STAB, ally support, or what have you. Rain also contributes to this even further, with nothing except 'mons with Storm Drain being able to keep up with Rain-boosted STAB - much less from 'mons with Swift Swim. Gen VIII even saw fit to give Water types STAB U-Turn, which is thankfully barely kept in check by limited distribution - however, it was still given to many Swift Swimmers, such as Kabutops and Barraskewda, who hardly needed more tools to abuse under Rain. The downside for Rain is evidently supposed to be that you're leaving yourself vulnerable to Thunder, but what good does that do when you're outrunning anything with Thunder to begin with?


So... I've said a lot about what's wrong with Water, but how would I personally change it? This is something much easier said than done given how many moving parts make up the type chart and the game itself, but I'd like to think that the changes I'm about to propose will mostly be a net positive for keeping Water in check while also not ruining the type outright, nor giving any one type too much of an advantage.

1. Water is now weak to Poison - the thematic reasoning essentially being the impact of water pollution, especially by oil. This positions Poison as a sort of anti-meta offensive type, and this + Gen 8's toxic distribution nerf puts Poison in a much better spot than before. I'm neutral on whether or not Poison should resist Water, but I lean on a neutral matchup there.
2. Ice is now immune to Water, and Ice is now neutral against Water. Freeze-Dry exists if you want to hit Water super-effectively, but I think this interaction makes much more sense than before. This also lessens the synergy of Water/Ground and Water/Flying types, and gives Ice the slightest defensive mileage with a wholly unique immunity while also not making it any offensively stronger than it currently is.
3. Highly limit the distribution of both Scald and Ice-type moves. If given the choice I'd remove Scald outright and leave the Water burn gimmick to Volcanion, but if it must stay around I definitely think much more care should be put into who gets it. As for Ice moves, I'm not nearly so keen on suggesting outright removal, especially given how much coverage most 'mons get these days, but I think things should be dialed back somewhat - maybe not every Water type needs Ice moves, nor do they all need to get the strongest consistent option in Ice Beam. You could make a comparison in Fire types getting the perfect coverage move in Solar Beam, but that requires Sun up to get mileage out of it. Ice Beam does not.
4. I think Rain needs a much closer look in terms of balance, to the point that it goes beyond the scope of this post. Suffice to say, however, I think that Rain is an absurdly unbalanced weather condition and just blows its contemporaries out of the water (i'm hilarious i know). It just has so much more in the way of offensive and defensive tools than any other weather form, and while this isn't directly related to Water, I think it very closely interacts with Water to the point where it counts.

With all that said - I don't think Water is actually the best type right now, that goes to Fairy. Being the most unbalanced does not inherently make you the best - just look at Gen 1, where Psychic is the most absurdly unbalanced type ever and yet Normal still wins out as the best by virtue of Gen 1 meta. I just feel that Water is in this odd position where it has almost everything going for it, and has not nearly enough downsides to compensate. I won't act like I'm some all-knowing expert on the type chart or the meta, but I think changing up some things about Water would make it a more balanced type overall. Better yet, we can do this while also lifting up some of the weaker types, which is always a good thing.
 
In terms of the type chart, Water is only beaten in “why are you like this” by Fairy and pre-Gen VI Steel. It’s got two weaknesses, one of which is a pretty poor offensive type overall in Grass. Electric actually has a pretty neat interaction here with Rain, but I’m getting ahead of myself. It resists double the types it’s weak to, however - Fire, Ice, Steel, and itself. Resisting yourself is hardly unusual, and neither is resisting a type you hit super-effectively, Something not easily noticed at a glance, though, is that it combines with several types to have absurd defensive synergy - Water/Ground. Water/Flying, and Water/Steel stand out to me in this regard. Its lack of weaknesses comes together really well to form a pretty universally effective. While Steel has many more resistances than Water, this is kept in check by being weak to some very common offensive types - Ground, Fighting, and to a lesser extent Fire. It's also a rather poor offensive type, offsetting a robust defense. That isn't true with Water. Water is also just... a nightmare to deal with in practice, defensively. It has no immunities, yes, but its lack of weaknesses and synergy with common types make it difficult to deal with - and that's not getting into one particular defensive tool that Water types have, Scald, which puts any and all physical attackers opposing a Water type in a really bad position. Either you're a Fire type and Scald will hit you super-effectively, or you just have to run the risk of a 30% burn. Water is far too oppressive as a defensive type when it can leverage burns with no downside, and it needlessly limits your options to deal with a Water type effectively.
Maybe it's just the fact that I usually play Monotype, but "combines for good defensive synergy" doesn't strike me as particular to Water. Lots of types have the ability to go down to only one or two weaknesses with the right pairing: Electric/Flying, Ground/Flying, Dark/Poison, Dark/Ghost, Grass/Steel, even pure Normal are all typings I associate with good defensive mons.

I agree that it probably shouldn't be better at getting burns than Fire, though (give more mons Lava Plume GF).
 
1. Water is now weak to Poison - the thematic reasoning essentially being the impact of water pollution, especially by oil. This positions Poison as a sort of anti-meta offensive type, and this + Gen 8's toxic distribution nerf puts Poison in a much better spot than before.
I really agree with this. Poison being SE on Water just makes sense and would do wonders balance-wise.

The problem with Water really boils down to Scald. That move is way too strong and not really thematically appropriate to be the premier STAB of choice for Water mons. It should've been a gimmick, not a widespread TM.

With that said, I'm not too sure about what I'd really associate with Water effect-wise.

Personally, I like that Water excels on both offense and defense, and that most Water-type Pokemon can do both with a single set. It gives the type a flavor of being reliable and adaptable.

"Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
This is also very important. Water has always been a very balanced type and I think it should be like that. That's why I don't think it needs a lot of nerfs.
 
If there's one secondary effect that I think makes a lot of sense to put on Water-Type moves, it's flinching. We've all been in a shower that's turned cold and it's made us flinch. We've all been walking home and a downpour's started that's made us either flinch or curse. And in the more extreme sense, a proper wave crashing down on you is very similar to the only move in Gen I that had a flinch rate, that being Stomp.

On the other hand Water-Type is good and flinching is annoying as all hell so it really doesn't need that kind of buff lol. Just flavour-wise, flinching makes a great deal of thematic sense. Might be alright since most Water-Type Pokémon tend to be quite slow, Swift Swim notwithstanding.
 
i love the water type but i think there are way too many water type mons. it leads to a lot of the lesser ones feeling extremely forgettable and dull and overall the type feels like it lacks any identity beyond being good. even if its supposed to be the all around type that's good at everything, it's ended up having some of the best walls, sweepers, wallbreakers, etc. i don't think that makes it broken or anything, just oversaturated. it is kinda cool though how bulky waters can often check opposing water moves though, no other type really keeps itself in check like that.
 
i love the water type but i think there are way too many water type mons. it leads to a lot of the lesser ones feeling extremely forgettable and dull and overall the type feels like it lacks any identity beyond being good. even if its supposed to be the all around type that's good at everything, it's ended up having some of the best walls, sweepers, wallbreakers, etc. i don't think that makes it broken or anything, just oversaturated. it is kinda cool though how bulky waters can often check opposing water moves though, no other type really keeps itself in check like that.

Considering what our world is like, Water being the most common type makes sense.

Also, consider that every employee at Game Freak was born on on a small chain of islands that have a deep cultural connection to the ocean due to it lacking many land-based natural resources that other island-based countries have(Most of the landmass of Japan in uninhabitable for people, and an even smaller amount than that is good for large-scale agriculture), which means that the ocean is where a large chunk of the populace's livelihood has come from for most of it's history.

As of late, Game Freak have been making more and more Pokemon that can be found in the water that are not Water type, which is a step in the right direction. I mean, the series always had Dratini and Dragonair, but until Gen V they were the exception.
 
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I agree that the Water-type is really full, and that can lead to a lot of standard designs. For example, when I first saw Barraskewda my first thought was "is this it?". I think that the fish concept has been done to death and that Game Freak could focus more on Water-types like Keldeo and Primarina, both of which are based on creatures that are associated with Water but it takes a different spin on them rather than just a fish. If you asked me what Lanturn was and I didn't know that it was a Pokémon, I'd tell you it looked like a drawing of an anglerfish. If you showed me a drawing of something like Suicune or Primarina, I would say Suicune looked like a leopard and a weird mermaid thing. One of those is something I wouldn't even associate with the Water-type, and the other is something that has a different spin put on it to make it a combination of a seal and a mermaid. Even if Game Freak wanted to stick to real-world things, there are still plenty of aquatic creatures that don't have the same basic design as fish such as hammerhead sharks (though I suppose you could argue this infringes on Sharpedo's niche as the Shark Pokémon) and octopus. You could even do something like a boat, which I know Smogon's Create-a-Pokémon project has done.
 
Personally, I like that Water excels on both offense and defense, and that most Water-type Pokemon can do both with a single set. It gives the type a flavor of being reliable and adaptable.

"Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Yeah, that's a very fair take. In terms of functionality, it aligns with Water practically a given for any in-game team from Gens 1 to 6, given that you'll be using at least 1 and at max 3 different water HMs just to get around the place. Having Water types be consistent and versatile makes sense with that in mind, but we're also far past the point where HMs are relevant anymore - so I don't think that's a reason to design Water that way anymore.

Maybe it's just the fact that I usually play Monotype, but "combines for good defensive synergy" doesn't strike me as particular to Water. Lots of types have the ability to go down to only one or two weaknesses with the right pairing: Electric/Flying, Ground/Flying, Dark/Poison, Dark/Ghost, Grass/Steel, even pure Normal are all typings I associate with good defensive mons.

I agree that it probably shouldn't be better at getting burns than Fire, though (give more mons Lava Plume GF).

This perspective makes sense, but I think Water is only really a problem in this sense when taken in context with everything else the type has going for it - sorry if I wasn't clear about that. I think it's also extremely versatile by nature of what it resists - Electric is in a similar position, but the type is much less defensively potent than Water otherwise. Ground is an extremely common offensive typing that hits the best defensive type in the game, after all.

Also re: the talk about the Water type being oversaturated: Yeah, I agree with that. I'm glad that they've been more willing to add aquatic creatures that aren't necessarily Water type, like Stunfisk, Dragalgae, or Grapploct - it's a step in the right direction for sure.
 
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