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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
USUM fixed my biggest problem with SM, which was that the UBs were too cool to not have any opportunity to use them ingame. If only they kept that lesson in mind when handling the Paradox mons in SV...
Best part is they're not even the final titans, so you still have opportunities to use them.
The Kanto pandering makes sense in Sun and Moon because they're anniversary games, but I'm now convinced that Leon's ace being Charizard was an elaborate joke. (Also, what are the three most popular Pokémon in Galar in-universe?)
Charizard, Gengar, and Machamp. This factoid comes up if you interact with the posters of those three on the wall of Hop’s bedroom.
Paradox mons. I used 3 UBs in my first USun playthrough.
Best part is they're not even the final titans, so you still have opportunities to use them.
Why was USM necessary ?
After watching Journeys I speculate that the Masters 8 and Ash retiring were put in mind when deciding Leon's ace.
I didn't say necessary, I said not unnecessary. They were fun games and also fixed some of the issues with the previous games and *should* have let GF develop the next games more (yeah idk what happened with sw/sh)
I mentioned this in another post, I am convinced giving Leon a Charizard to be beaten by Pikachu for the big win was SOMEBODY holding a grudge for Kanto's League (for reference, Ritchie's Pikachu from the infamous Charizard match-up is nicknamed "Leon" in the Japanese version)
Apologies for Double-Posting but it's been a day without a new one made and this doesn't fit with my last reply to edit in.
Koraidon running instead of "biking" is charming and a better animation than actually having him use Wheels. Cyclizar, the "present" counterpart to the Bikes, even moves the same way. Koraidon is also very Dinosaur-esque, and for all the Flintstones comparisons, the Feet-Powered Car thing was still just done with vehicles, rather than Koraidon clearly being a creature mount that would more accurately compare to the Appliances or "machinery" in that show's setting.
Also might just be me but Koraidon's running works better for a visual sense of momentum. Something about Miraidon's speed and how the wheels are animated make it feel slower than it actually is.
Koraidon running instead of "biking" is charming and a better animation than actually having him use Wheels. Cyclizar, the "present" counterpart to the Bikes, even moves the same way. Koraidon is also very Dinosaur-esque, and for all the Flintstones comparisons, the Feet-Powered Car thing was still just done with vehicles, rather than Koraidon clearly being a creature mount that would more accurately compare to the Appliances or "machinery" in that show's setting.
Also might just be me but Koraidon's running works better for a visual sense of momentum. Something about Miraidon's speed and how the wheels are animated make it feel slower than it actually is.
The idea of Koraidon’s throat and tail becoming actual spinning wheels (and thus needing to somehow detach from its body while remaining fixed to an axle) always felt really off-putting to me. I know we’re talking about a big feathery magic dinosaur and that realism has already left the building, but I can’t help that it’s always been a pet peeve of mine, a mild gripe that I have whenever they make a Pokémon with organic wheels or corkscrews. I don’t mind it for inorganic creatures like Rolycoly, Klink, or indeed, Miraidon, but the fully rotational parts of, say, Starmie, Skiploom, Buizel, and Barraskewda just feel sort of wrong whenever I think about how that’s supposed to fit into their anatomy. So I’m really glad that Koraidon and Cyclizar avoided that.
Because I only saw it with a white background for a while, I got the impression from the art that Cyclizar's tire was not connected all the way along and was just a tube. I naturally accepted this as it being closer to a non-motorized bicycle which are much more skeletonized in the center. Now I'm slightly dissapointed whenever I look at the white air sac because it's a clear reminder of Cyclizar not being as cool and weird as I thought it was.
I mean the speed IS slow
Starmie, at the very least, is probably based off of some Ultraman space(?) monster, so while Staryu and Starmie are nominally starfish, they're supposed to not really be totally normal earth creatures either.
The problem with the 2017-2019 Pokémon games varies depending on which game you want to blame for the issue. Most of us can agree that it wasn't a good idea for Game Freak to have Sun & Moon in 2016 followed up by yearly releases for three more years. The actual question as I see it is which game started the issue.
Up until Generation 7, Nintendo, TPCi, and Game Freak had always taken one year off during each active generation to work on the first games of the next one, since it naturally takes more time to make a new region from scratch. The years we saw this in were 1997, 2001, 2005 (since 2003 had no games and 2004 had two games), 2007, 2011, and 2015. With this in mind, one of three things could have happened to keep this pattern going:
- Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon either don't exist, or if they do released in 2018
- Either Let's Go Pikachu & Let's Go Eevee gets delayed to 2019 (if USUM got delayed), or Sword & Shield gets delayed to 2020
- Same as #2, but both delays happen and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon gets to stay as a 2017 release
Generation 8's lineup didn't completely fix the issue, as we still had Sword & Shield's DLC in 2020 and two Pokémon games release in 2022. I can excuse BDSP because it was made by a different company/team, but if the DLC release dates for Galar and most likely Paldea is taken into account, the years of release for Game Freak specifically suddenly goes from this:
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 (if the DLC was its own game), 2022, 2022
To this:
2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 (if a delay happened and still added DLC content), 2022, 2023
Not helping matters with the Gigantimax vs Dynamax thing is that often there’s just no reason to use the Gigantimax versions of a Mon because the Dynamax moves are just way to strong and their just super rare unless you buy dlc. Compare Centiferno, Wildfire and Fireball to setting up the Sun for free, Chi strike to an attack boost, etc.
Wildfire was extremely powerful in doubles. Easily worth using over regular Dynamax Charizard.
On the other hand, you have stuff like G-Max Grimmsnarl having a 50% chance to inflict drowsy that was counteracted by Grimmsnarl's own Fairy moves. Similar situation with G-Max Drewnaw not being able to set up rain with its Water moves and not wanting to use its Rock moves to replace any preexisting rain with sandstorm. Compare this to G-Max Coalossal and Lapras being able to set up weather and a beneficial effect without interfering themselves.
I went to the list on Bulbapedia and it's definitely a mixed bag. There's actual good options (Kanto starters, Lapras, Urshifu-Single), good moves on bad mons(Pikachu, Butterfree), options that would be good but are straight-up worse than the standard move(Machamp, Galar starters, Urshifu-Rapid), weak options(Centiscorch, Orbeetle), and options that are just bad for the way DMax works(Melmetal, Grimmsnarl).
The imbalance of the DMax moves definitely hurts. It's tough to like any max move that replaces one of the "+1 stat" or "set up weather/terrain" moves. And DMax being broken doesn't help, either, because it makes a bunch of effects either useless because you kill stuff to fast or useless because your oppt has also gotten bigger and is immune.
Like, I respect the difficulty GF had balancing this stuff, but they definitely made it as hard as possible to come up with good balance when they designed the DMax mechanic.
The imbalance of the DMax moves definitely hurts. It's tough to like any max move that replaces one of the "+1 stat" or "set up weather/terrain" moves. And DMax being broken doesn't help, either, because it makes a bunch of effects either useless because you kill stuff to fast or useless because your oppt has also gotten bigger and is immune.
Like, I respect the difficulty GF had balancing this stuff, but they definitely made it as hard as possible to come up with good balance when they designed the DMax mechanic.
That reminds me of that G-Max Steelsurge hazard is not coming back in SV as a standalone move.
... I think it better that way. otherwise Ice types are in shambles.
... I think it better that way. otherwise Ice types are in shambles.
See, here's the thing, we got G-Max steelsurge at home and its brother instead
Ice types will be in shambles either ways.
Also allow me a correction regarding the Dmax things.
The Galarian Starters G-max moves were actually useful in VGC. Ability negation was pretty important to get around things like Disguise or the various Multiscale clones from the restricted legendaries, and since Rillaboom set its own terrain anyway, losing the ability to set it on G-max attacks wasn't a huge deal. It also helped that G-max starter moves had fixed power so you'd not get punished for the otherwise low BP of Grassy Glide.
G-Max Cinderace had similar success in singles iirc for same reason (ability negating is very strong), though it didn't see much usage in doubles since glass cannon with no utility doesn't really do much, and well, rip Intelleon.
It's not even really "at home" since these are the existing Hazards, rather than Steel Surge's Steel-type version of Stealth Rock, which would bury Ice and Rock while doing a number on Fairies (except Clefable because Magic Guard is a fair ability)
Well yes, but the man was talking of ice types so...
(Besides, Stone Axe / Ceaseless Edge are going to potentially change a bit of how Hazards anyway are played since they allow to set Hazards in face of Magic Bounce and Taunt users, expecially as Kleavor and Samurott-H are somewhat decent mons on their own right)
My thoughts on the USUM matter is that I feel people wouldn't have been as bitter/soured towards it if it had released a year later than it did.
I feel people were mainly bitter towards it because it came out a mere year after SM did and despite being an overall better game in my eyes (albeit with a story that was worse in some parts) the fact that it stole the spotlight from SM as the main Alola game just one year later probably soured a number of people on it because of that alone.
Older third version games like Emerald and Platinum came out 2-3 years after their base games did which gave the base games more time in the spotlight to shine before their enhanced, better versions came and effectively outclassed them.
The problem is alleviated in subsequent generations with SwSh getting an Expansion Pass that added onto the original game instead of being a new game that was effectively the same as the original but better, thus allowing SwSh itself to remain relevant in the market for longer as a result because DLC in that regard is more consumer friendly and doesn't fully obsolete the base game. We can safely assume SV is getting DLC this year two, and in both of these cases the DLC came out just one year after the base game, and it being DLC as opposed to a third version game justifies the one-year gap.
I feel people were mainly bitter towards it because it came out a mere year after SM did and despite being an overall better game in my eyes (albeit with a story that was worse in some parts) the fact that it stole the spotlight from SM as the main Alola game just one year later probably soured a number of people on it because of that alone.
Older third version games like Emerald and Platinum came out 2-3 years after their base games did which gave the base games more time in the spotlight to shine before their enhanced, better versions came and effectively outclassed them.
The problem is alleviated in subsequent generations with SwSh getting an Expansion Pass that added onto the original game instead of being a new game that was effectively the same as the original but better, thus allowing SwSh itself to remain relevant in the market for longer as a result because DLC in that regard is more consumer friendly and doesn't fully obsolete the base game. We can safely assume SV is getting DLC this year two, and in both of these cases the DLC came out just one year after the base game, and it being DLC as opposed to a third version game justifies the one-year gap.