Plz still no Gen 9 spoilers!!
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
Plz still no Gen 9 spoilers!!
My unpopular opinion is that the Distortion World was a neat spectacle in itself but took away from Giratina's overall lore. The original idea of Giratina as lord of a cave where the life and afterlife blended really gave the whole area a "you're not supposed to be here" vibe. The Distortion World itself has that vibe, but it also takes a lot away from the area around it; it makes Turnback Cave feel just sort of weird, rather than like you're trespassing on ground mortals shouldn't step on.
What I'm trying to say is I enjoy the idea of Giratina as a cross of Lucifer and Hades a lot more than it being the god of antimatter, and I liked its characterisation in PLA for similar reasons: it made Giratina feel scary for reasons other than it being powerful and unfamiliar.
What I'm trying to say is I enjoy the idea of Giratina as a cross of Lucifer and Hades a lot more than it being the god of antimatter, and I liked its characterisation in PLA for similar reasons: it made Giratina feel scary for reasons other than it being powerful and unfamiliar.
In my opinion, BDSP would have benefited greatly from the PLA Pokémon, especially if you can catch them in-game. Even as a post-game thing, it would be neat to see, I mean it's not like BDSP is a 101% copy of DP anyway (E.g., the Underground).Wow GF, really? No update for PLA transfers to BDSP?
dynamax is fucking awesome, fuck everyone who hates it
Generation 9's designs are the bottom of the barrel.
We might have a winner!
Anyway,
The Treecko like is my least favorite Grass starter, and yes, I played Explorers of Sky.
Sorry.
I'll swap the argument and say that it surprises me that most fans who like the Treecko line only liked it after Explorers of Sky.
I mean, it was my favourite starter until Snivy came along, and that favouritism came along way before Gen 4 was released...
Gen 3 is the only generation where I can't choose a favourite starter, so there's that.
I know it might be weird to say this when Pokemon is the biggest media franchise ever, and it's probably a cold take but screw it, I want to say it anyway:
Pokemon is a good franchise that is just in such an impossible position. It can't slow down with the games because it needs one released every year, and, because it's a famous cash cow franchise, people will nitpick regardless of what they do or how much long they take anyway. It's just what happens when a series gets such huge appeal - and no, nitpicking isn't inherently bad if it's out of wanting to see something better.
It's also hard as heck to get new media properties greenlit or heck, even feel confident in what you create even WHEN you have all the time in the world - just look at how much franchise integration and shared universes are pushed nowadays. Do something different and people will go: "I just want Pokemon" but stay the same and others will be "man the games are so stale now." - heck I can feel that way myself sometimes, the duality of man and whatnot. I've been writing a book for almost three years now, and only after double digit rewrites and endless worry I am at a point when I am satisfied with it. There is nothing worse as a creative than having a time limit looming over your head, and I pity the guys at Game Freak being swallowed by their own success.
Another thing: hard as it is to imagine as an adult: the game's main demographic is children - that's not to say games for kids can't have multiple demographic appeal, look at mainline Mario games - but with all the deadlines and pressure from other portions of the franchise, it is inevitable they wouldn't have the time to make the ultra-super-engaging-OU-maingame I, an adult, would actually not want a main series game to be - give me an easy but enjoyable over a hard game purely for the sake of being hard any day (hi Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which I drained my soul by 106%ing).
Yeah this post is kinda scattered but I also don't want to go into some huge tirade - there's plenty of videos that have probably said it beforehand. I'm not saying the newer games are exempt from criticism, but rather it's inevitable the quality will erode when executive meddling forces its hand. The developers are just doing the best with what they are given.
Pokemon is a good franchise that is just in such an impossible position. It can't slow down with the games because it needs one released every year, and, because it's a famous cash cow franchise, people will nitpick regardless of what they do or how much long they take anyway. It's just what happens when a series gets such huge appeal - and no, nitpicking isn't inherently bad if it's out of wanting to see something better.
It's also hard as heck to get new media properties greenlit or heck, even feel confident in what you create even WHEN you have all the time in the world - just look at how much franchise integration and shared universes are pushed nowadays. Do something different and people will go: "I just want Pokemon" but stay the same and others will be "man the games are so stale now." - heck I can feel that way myself sometimes, the duality of man and whatnot. I've been writing a book for almost three years now, and only after double digit rewrites and endless worry I am at a point when I am satisfied with it. There is nothing worse as a creative than having a time limit looming over your head, and I pity the guys at Game Freak being swallowed by their own success.
Another thing: hard as it is to imagine as an adult: the game's main demographic is children - that's not to say games for kids can't have multiple demographic appeal, look at mainline Mario games - but with all the deadlines and pressure from other portions of the franchise, it is inevitable they wouldn't have the time to make the ultra-super-engaging-OU-maingame I, an adult, would actually not want a main series game to be - give me an easy but enjoyable over a hard game purely for the sake of being hard any day (hi Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which I drained my soul by 106%ing).
Yeah this post is kinda scattered but I also don't want to go into some huge tirade - there's plenty of videos that have probably said it beforehand. I'm not saying the newer games are exempt from criticism, but rather it's inevitable the quality will erode when executive meddling forces its hand. The developers are just doing the best with what they are given.
Let's pretend that they can't slow down (which they can, they said so themselves they decide the game's timeframe, but let's pretend), and that they care about a minority of nitpicky fans about how long the games take (they don't), still I feel GF has ignored or even got in a way of potential workarounds that'll let them have a game longer in development. Simply put, hire 3rd party companies to make side games to fill the void if they MUST make a game every year. GF aren't ever going to let a 3rd party make a main series game, but they've let plenty make side games. Why not set an initiative where they, say, let two other companies develop a side game that will be the "main attraction" for two years in a row giving GF about 3 more years of development time.
I'm guessing this thought is toward the GEAR Projects and the failure of Little Town Hero? Yeah, that's a steep hill to climb and I do feel bad for GF that, though they also don't help themselves when they refused to change their development cycle.
Little Town Hero feels like a side project game stretched to be at least a double A game, given triple A marketing, but given no extra time to have its mechanics more thoroughly built upon, graphics to be more polished (& coming up with a system to make the non-major NPCs be different models), and story fleshed out (at the very least so that that you reach the story ending and not a "to be continued"). If GF REALLY felt like LTH had a strong franchise opportunity, what they should have done was develop it over time for a few years with little to nor corners cut. But, whether because they refuse to change their development cycle methods or were desperate to have a new franchise to focus on (or maybe a combination of both), they rushed LTH making it have the same shortcomings are modern Pokemon games and, well, if I want that I'd play a Pokemon game. They themselves ruined LTH's chance, and that's something I can't feel sorry for them about.
As you said, these thoughts are complicated and are as much about the developer as it's about the franchise. Especially a franchise that has a complicated ownership on top of everything else.
I have a more general opinion that longer development time has been put on a pedestal as something that magically makes every video game better. (It's not.)
But back to Pokémon, why do people never ever talk about trees in other video games? We get it, SwSh's Wild Area has trees that would be at home on a Nintendo 64 game, but why does nobody talk about the trees and grass of other games?
But back to Pokémon, why do people never ever talk about trees in other video games? We get it, SwSh's Wild Area has trees that would be at home on a Nintendo 64 game, but why does nobody talk about the trees and grass of other games?
Because the Sword and Shield graphics controversy quickly turned into pointing-and-laughing.
Realistically speaking, because the fanbase (and thus, haterbase) of Pokemon games is much, MUCH bigger than any other franchise.
Do not underestimate how absolutely huge Pokemon is as franchise compared to literally anything else.
Yes I was indirectly referring to Little Town Hero. I straight up haven't even heard of the GEAR stuff! Also, I don't think "triple A marketing" would describe Little Town Hero.
It ended on a "to be continued"? That's a huge oof, wow.
Also, you guys want a fun Game Freak game? Try Mendel Palace on NES, their very first game. Flip tiles over to kill enemies. It's very basic but fun enough and each world has its own music. It is still an NES game, but pretty fun for what it is and I enjoyed my time with it.
Edgy as heck boxart.
To quote TV Tropes:
"The cover artwork and modified title screen for the American NES version was actually a result of a misconception within Game Freak's staff, who believed that American players actually preferred mean-looking "realistic" characters."
tfw your boxart looks like rejected EarthBound enemies.
I literally did not even know the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Little Town Hero existed until this post. Just mentioning that since it only enhances your overall point
They literally just tried that and it was a contender for worst game in the series that fucked up a bunch of backend transfer code all to keep people occupied for two (2) months before PLA dropped. Not saying that it couldn't be tried again with whatever went wrong with BDSP ironed out, but considering fan reception and the likely behind the scenes problems I won't be surprised if this is a ship that has sailed
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I did but only cause I happened to hear of it in a review video.
Sadly these games were just... a disaster.
In true gamefreak style, a lot of good ideas with mediocre execution, which is a shame cause I really liked the idea!
But all the reviews pointed that after the initial bit, the game would just become slow and repetitive with no real challenge...
Maybe the fact it didn't exactly have huge success is why it wasn't really advertised anyway. Differently from Pokemon which is allowed to produce somewhat subpar games (compared to other games released on same year) and get carried by the brand, the same cannot be said for a IP.
Yes there was a lot of poor reception, which was deserved no doubt, but it was still a clear success as a game for them, its sold 15 million copies, still ahead of Legends: Arceus (yes i know it was released 2 months later). It depends on what they as the developer consider a success and failure and how much the reception from reviews etc bother them. If you’ve still got 15 million people buying a remake game that is supposedly crap I wouldn’t necessarily feel an urgent need to force a change.
Correction. It more feels like you just finished the first chapter of a story. At the start of the game the main character's goal is wanting to leave the town which is under the protection of a castle as long as no one leaves the town. Obviously there's something fishy going on and, skipping ahead to the end, the main character does resolve the plot saving the town but it comes with a huge personal loss that makes them lose all ambition to leave the town.
Imagine playing Okami but it ends after defeating Orochi and saving Kamiki Village. It's like that.
How did I know someone was going to say that. I said SIDE game. BDSP was a main series game (heck, it's a core series game). Think Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Colosseum, Conquest, Detective Pikachu.
I really didn't want to bring up BDSP because I'm fairly certain GameFreak sabotaged that game, but that's a topic more for the mystery/conspiracy thread.
I am perfectly aware, but it does not change my point. If you sincerely believe that this company is petty and spiteful enough to deliberately undermine their first attempt at a similar initiative to what you're describing I don't even know why you think them handing the holiday reigns to some spinoff is even a possibility worth dignifying
Now that you mention those old spinoff lines though, here's another talking point for the thread: Most of them simply don't make sense to revive for current hardware, at least not without major changes
-Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is just an outdated, clunkier version of the average modern roguelike, with consumers clearly agreeing as the series has cratered in sales past the 2000s
-Ranger I've already posted about being essentially only viable as a mobile game, which I don't think many of its diehards would be too happy about
-Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a franchise that until extremely recently was almost completely dead in Japan (A quick Wikipedia scroll shows it got a new release in 2022, anyone capable of telling me if it was successful enough to facilitate a broader revival of that series?). The prospects for a sequel on this one would be significantly better if they had gone with the original idea of Pokemon X Fire Emblem
-Orre existed solely to provide a 3D Pokemon campaign in a time where the main series wasn't doing that. It has now been doing so for nearly a decade.
Console spinoffs are cool and we could use more of them, it's just that we should think a bit outside the box and ask for some new stuff. A non-main series 3d game like Colosseum/XD is a bust, but what about a fancy new sprite-based affair in the vein of Square's HD-2D offerings? A Pokemon life simulator, perhaps? Fuckin table tennis? I dunno! Your call!
Bro a team-based Pokemon sports game like baseball or soccer would be fucking wild (a non-team-based sport would also be wild but Pokemon's a team-based game). All the different Pokemon using their unique skills in crazy ways, it'd be like Gamecube era Mario sports games but even more bananas.
So you mean like...
Pokemon Unite?
Not if there was a point in it. And that point: Only GF can make a main series Pokemon game. When you compare the the job ILCA did with BDSP to any of the recent main series Pokemon games GF has done, well the ones GF made look like masterpieces. Clearly, from this one instance, GF are the only ones who can a main series Pokemon game and no one should ever doubt this or think otherwise, especially The Pokemon Company or Nintendo.
We just gotta ignore that ILCA isn't a major developer or at least on the same level as GF (only seemingly picked because they've previously worked on Home), that either GF or Masuda forced them to work with the old DP code (but not Platinum) and not to change anything unless absolutely necessary (or was something that GF didn't care about like opponent movesets and post game stuff), and probably a bunch of other nonsense restrictions/limitations such as no Pokemon from Gen V+ and having to work with this strange art style of replicating the 2D graphics in 3D (and not allowed to redesign the characters or introduce new ones; which wasn't a thing GF restricted themselves to with other Remakes (aside FRLG's strange no non-Kanto evo until post game side quest)). Heck, they weren't even allowed to bring over the Contest Spectaculars from ORAS, they had to dumb down Super Contests into a simply rhythm game.
However, side games are a different thing altogether. Many don't use the same gameplay as the main series does, more focused on using the Pokemon and few connected mechanics (Type Chart mainly) to build a new game upon (or adapt a Pokemon skin over). Sometimes these games help in the worldbuilding of Pokemon, but just as much these games are just meant to be a fun experience. And in doing so it shows the Pokemon franchise being flexible, that Pokemon are more than battling or battling isn't restricted to a turn-based system. And while I'm sure GF has plenty of side game ideas, they also aren't worried a side game made by a 3rd party is going to reflect on them negatively. If a side series does good, great, that's its own thing over there in the corner which is making The Pokemon Company some money. But if a 3rd party proves they can make a competent, if not good, main/core series title as GF than GF isn't looking as that hot of a developer anymore.
Or, if you want to look at it in a less conspiracy way, could be GF just didn't trust ILCA enough to make a main series to make a main series game without a blue print to follow. Of course, if that's the reason why, then why didn't they get a bigger studio known for making RPG games like Monolith Soft or Square Enix. "Maybe they wanted to work with someone who had worked on a Pokemon game before". Okay, then, Koei Tecmo made Pokemon Conquest and Bandai Namco made Pokken. Or if you want someone familiar with making a game on the same vein as the main/core series, Genius Sonority is still around (I don't think they would have mind taking a break from Cafe Remix).
I was just listing known examples, when it comes to spin-offs I would think most anything (as long as child friendly) is on the table.
It's kinda sorta basketball, but it's not like a basketball sim with Pokémon.
A Pikachu game that's also a sports game would be interesting, but which one?
I would go with soccer, but mainly because I know nothing about baseball.Speaking of simulations and spin-offs, parts of me are starting to miss the Pikachu series. Hey You Pikachu, Pokémon Channel, that kind of stuff. I have zero idea if pet simulators are a thing, but it would be interesting to see a Nintendogs-like game about Pokémon.
Wait... did I just describe Pokémon Amie?
Wasn't there a virtual pet game on the Pokémon Mini?
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