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Unpopular opinions

Alright, fellas. Now we're getting really serious. You have managed to play my hands to convince me to rank every single main series game based on how good its writing and/or story is. Here's what I ultimately came up with, and some extra notes on specific games that I think are worth mentioning for their spot on this tier list I made.

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  • For the sake of respecting under-appreciated content, not only did I go ahead and add the GameCube games to this tier list, but they're both in A Tier. Side games and spin-offs often have more creative liberty with their story writing than the main series on account of not being worked on by Game Freak's hilariously inconsistent writing team, and while I do think that the average Mystery Dungeon is still probably the gold standard for a well-thought out Pokémon story, these two aren't bad by any means. The way that Orre is presented both before and after the five-year gap between games does exactly what it's supposed to do, introducing a darker side of the Pokémon world rarely seen elsewhere and introducing memorable characters for fans who grew up with these games. Colloseum does get a bit of an edge for me just because it came first, but not by enough of a margin to where it would alter XD's tier placement. Unlike another game I'll be going over, XD makes enough changes to the areas seen within the campaign's route to where the gameplay loop is noticeably different from its predecessor.

  • On the other side of the spectrum, we have core series Pokémon's inconsistency during the 2010s. The only two games I have listed in F Tier are X & Y and base game Sword & Shield. To Galar's credit, I do think the DLC does just enough to warrant a higher tier placement, but the same tragically cannot be said for X & Y's notoriously unfinished world building and cast of characters that range from outright negligent to "just okay" at their best. I don't know which is worse, the heavily implied connections between Team Flare and a... certain German group (come on, I can't be the only one who sees it), or the fact that when bad things actually start happening, most of Kalos's NPCs are caught completely by surprise by things that feel like they could been suspicious from the very beginning. I don't know if the French-German connections were what Game Freak was going for with Team Flare on purpose or not, but at least there things to say about them. We barely get any sort of backstory, development, anything about Chairman Rose and Macro Cosmos in base game Sword & Shield. You know you messed up when the joke team of Generation 8 gets more story attention than the actual team.

  • Oh, good heavens, what on Earth did they do to Black 2 & White 2? I don't care if these games are designated sequels for the first time since the Johto region. I don't care if there are admittedly a handful of characters who got a much-needed glow-up from the first games, because to be fair, those characters are definitely there, and Iris in particular is one of the few Champions post-Gen 1 who we get to see develop into a Champion-caliber Trainer in between installments. That's where the positives end for me, however, as a large portion of Black 2 & White 2's campaign feels eerily similar to the first games (roughly from Castelia to Mistralton), largely missing the memo of what a Pokémon sequel can or should be. Alongside Orre, Unova is the only other individual region to have a sequel installment of its own, and even though I would personally prefer sequels to take place in different regions the way Johto did it- yes, even with Johto's over-reliance on Kanto Pokémon- I would argue that Johto and XD Orre both feel different enough compared to their respective predecessors, while during playthroughs of Unova's sequels, I've had several moments where I've told myself the way certain characters, especially Team Plasma (they completely butchered Ghetsis in this sequel in particular) are actively worse-written than they were before.

I won't spend too much time talking about Alola since most of its inconsistencies have already been discussed, but similar to Black 2 & White 2, I believe some characters got better while others got worse. Hau of all characters notably gets a writing upgrade across the board which is great to see, but Lusamine's decline, while not as drastic as what they did to Ghetsis in my opinion, is still noticeable, especially when combined with Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon's pacing issues and rushed development cycle relative to specific third version games such as Emerald or Platinum, feeling more on par with a Pokémon Yellow or a Pokémon Crystal by comparison.
 
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My biggest Pokemon hot take is that I have no higher aspirations for this series and just want more Alola. I make fun of Blueberry Academy's sometimes-heavy-handed Unova shilling knowing full well that if it were all Alola stuff I would look like the one Rise of Skywalker reaction meme. There is no further horizon. None of this is hyperbolic or a meme.
 
Yung Dramps said:
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My biggest Pokemon hot take is that I have no higher aspirations for this series and just want more Alola. I make fun of Blueberry Academy's sometimes-heavy-handed Unova shilling knowing full well that if it were all Alola stuff I would look like the one Rise of Skywalker reaction meme. There is no further horizon. None of this is hyperbolic or a meme.
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This take is hot enough to where I honestly really have to respect you for it. A bold statement for sure, even if Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon weren’t my personal favorite games as they were made. I feel like “true” Alola sequels would have a lot of potential with the writing, expanding on specific things seen in here and in Sword & Shield of all things, such as the stolen Type: Null notes and that Toxtricity poster in the Game Freak office (although I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed to be more than a coincidence).
 
Mystora said:
so this exists...
Chikorita is my favourite gen 2 starter and I think it's extremely overhated. Sometimes I feel like people hate on everything surrounding it including design when there's nothing wrong with the design, imo, it just has bad stats and an awful matchup vs the entire game. It's very cute in my opinion.
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Honestly I feel like this isn't even an unpopular take.

Chikorita's status as the underdog in Johto has helped it way more than it's harmed it imo. It's a Pokemon that a lot of people seem to love because it's well-designed and does what it does well - it's not an offensive powerhouse, but it gets all the right moves to be a disruptive staller and a defensive wall. Initially there was a lot of disdain for it but anecdotally over time a lot of people seem to have come to appreciate it precisely for the reasons you stated. It's a scenario I think happens with all starter trios - people always like to defend the worst-suited one (though in modern games that's less of a thing than it was). I like all the Johto starters but my personal take is that the Chikorita line is really fun to use in Johto for the challenge alone.

That said, it's hilarious to see Silver using it because Meganium suits him so much less than Feraligatr or Typhlosion. He's mean and obsessed with strength, he looks ridiculous with a big friendly flower dinosaur.
 
Idk if it's an unpopular opinion but...

SV raid battles are shitty and poorly designed

They tried to have a different approach than in SWSH by making the boss attacking everyone at once and not loosing due to having too many KOs. Instead, you just loose time. And THIS is the problem. Because given the new approach, they had to find a way to still have challenge and the possibility to loose the raid, and for that, they chose to set a timer, which is the reason why I consider SV raids shitty. Because the move animations you can't turn off anymore and the ceaseless messages about stat changes, critical hits and the whole shebang will make you loose precious seconds unfairly. Imo, they just should have kept the same approach than in SWSH, especially when ALL allies can be useful.
 
SpiritGuy said:
Idk if it's an unpopular opinion but...

SV raid battles are shitty and poorly designed

They tried to have a different approach than in SWSH by making the boss attacking everyone at once and not loosing due to having too many KOs. Instead, you just loose time. And THIS is the problem. Because given the new approach, they had to find a way to still have challenge and the possibility to loose the raid, and for that, they chose to set a timer, which is the reason why I consider SV raids shitty. Because the move animations you can't turn off anymore and the ceaseless messages about stat changes, critical hits and the whole shebang will make you loose precious seconds unfairly. Imo, they just should have kept the same approach than in SWSH, especially when ALL allies can be useful.
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Oh I am right there with you, I prefer SwSh raids to SV raids. For me it mostly comes down to the fact that SV raids commit the unforgivable UX sin of stealing control from the player in the middle of selecting an action from the menu, and then rubs salt in the wound by not even returning you to the same spot you were when it interrupted you. It's like the devs challenged themselves to translate the experience of "loading a webpage and trying to click on a link but you click on the wrong thing because a pop-up suddenly loads and moves everything on the page" into a Pokemon game.

Related is the issue I have with PLA battles, where the player is not interrupted thankfully but can spend like a solid minute not able to do anything but watch as four alphas take turns pulverizing your team.
 
Eriorguez said:
...

Stealth Rock shouldn't do damage according to how the 'mon is affected by Rock moves. Stealth Rock should do double damage to airbone 'mons instead. So, Flying types, Levitators and Air Balloon users, AKA the stuff that ignores all other entry hazards.
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Why?
 
Because it is conceptually the anti-air entry hazard (FLOATING rocks have been consistently the flavor text), yet stuff like Flygon is minimally affected by it, while stuff like Volcarona will be highly affected by it while still being vulnerable to the other hazards.
 
Coronis said:
Why?
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Non-Grounded mons are immune to Spikes/Sticky Web. So without SR, a mon like Flygon/Haunter/Pidgeot/Etc is immune to all entry hazards, which is OP in a switch-heavy meta. Given that, SR is an obvious source of balance, as a commonly-distributed Hazard that deals double damage to the most common group of non-grounded mons(Flying types).

But a grounded mon like Volcarona takes 4x from SR AND is hit by spikes, while Flygon takes half normal SR damage and is immune to spikes.

So if you make SR deal 2x damage to all non-grounded mons, every Rotom form, Flygon, Charizard, etc are all on equal footing with all entry hazards. And they're roughly balanced with grounded mons, in that they're weak to SR and immune to spikes, while Typhlosion and Dugtrio are both affected by hazards identically(normal damage from SR and Spikes). It fixes the weird effect SR currently has on specific types being buffed or nerfed due to this one weakness.

Also it buffs Zoroark.
 
Eriorguez said:
Because it is conceptually the anti-air entry hazard (FLOATING rocks have been consistently the flavor text), yet stuff like Flygon is minimally affected by it, while stuff like Volcarona will be highly affected by it while still being vulnerable to the other hazards.
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Hugin said:
Non-Grounded mons are immune to Spikes/Sticky Web. So without SR, a mon like Flygon/Haunter/Pidgeot/Etc is immune to all entry hazards, which is OP in a switch-heavy meta. Given that, SR is an obvious source of balance, as a commonly-distributed Hazard that deals double damage to the most common group of non-grounded mons(Flying types).

But a grounded mon like Volcarona takes 4x from SR AND is hit by spikes, while Flygon takes half normal SR damage and is immune to spikes.

So if you make SR deal 2x damage to all non-grounded mons, every Rotom form, Flygon, Charizard, etc are all on equal footing with all entry hazards. And they're roughly balanced with grounded mons, in that they're weak to SR and immune to spikes, while Typhlosion and Dugtrio are both affected by hazards identically(normal damage from SR and Spikes). It fixes the weird effect SR currently has on specific types being buffed or nerfed due to this one weakness.

Also it buffs Zoroark.
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As a strictly ingame player these days I don’t care about whether SR is balanced or not. Flavourfully it makes sense, and that’s all that matters to me.
 
Eriorguez said:
...

Stealth Rock shouldn't do damage according to how the 'mon is affected by Rock moves. Stealth Rock should do double damage to airbone 'mons instead. So, Flying types, Levitators and Air Balloon users, AKA the stuff that ignores all other entry hazards.
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Imagine switching in your air balloon rotom-fan and it dies instantly
 
Axiemeister said:
it would still make flavour sense (arguably more so) if it worked as described in this thread, so...
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Nah. Its literallu rocks digging into the opponent, it makes sense to work based on type matchups. With Spikes for example the type is basically irrelevant, its just Ground type because the spikes are on the gound - it could also be a Normal or Steel move and make perfect sense
 
Coronis said:
Nah. Its literallu rocks digging into the opponent, it makes sense to work based on type matchups. With Spikes for example the type is basically irrelevant, its just Ground type because the spikes are on the gound - it could also be a Normal or Steel move and make perfect sense
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then why don't the poison and burn statuses scale their damage with poison and fire type matchups? association with a type doesn't need to imply a type matchup
 
Sonikku A said:
Bro, imagine if volatile status could stack
Burn + Poison + Para + Sleep on one mon would be disgusting
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The Rise of Gengar. TWave, Toxic, Hypnosis, and WillOWisp all on one mon.

The Ghastly line may be the only line that gets that post-Toxic limit. Plenty of Grass or Bug types get Spore/Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, and Toxic/Poison Powder. Ghost types and the occasional Psychic often get Hypnosis and Will-o-Wisp, and occasionally get either Toxic or TWave for various reasons. But nothing I could think of and check gets all 4. The Grass/Ghost mons are not powder-users, the various powder users don't get any way to burn, and stuff like Rotom doesn't get Toxic. The pro-Gen 1 bias is the only thing that lets Ghastly keep it's perfect status status.
 
Paldea is one of the worst regions in Pokemon. You heard that right. Yes, the non-linear exploration is great and is a much needed addition to the series, but a region itself feels so shallow. I really don't want to write an essay here, but to put it simply: All the towns either consist of sandwich shops, meal power shops, Pokemarts, Pokemon Centers, and maybe a gym. This makes every town feel functionally the same even if some ingredients or items are exclusive to one shop. And you can't even walk around the shops: The game just gives a pop up menu and you buy things from there. It comes off as rushed and lazy, especially the former. Even Megasoza you can't even walk around like a normal building in the older titles- you have to use a menu to navigate between the floors. The only two towns I can think of that any reason to back to is Zappacio for Armor required to unlock Charcadet's evolutions and the the place where the auctions take place ( Can't remember the name ). Heck even the gym reception halls are all the same, though this is a problem with SwSh as well. So you are basically stuck exploring the region, which is fine at first because the Pokemon serve as the prize, but once you've caught the Pokemon, what else is there to do? I suppose there are raids, but those are also tied to Pokemon.

Anyway, I've been replaying Soulsilver recently on my 3DS, and I'm really enjoying Johto as a region. Playing the older generations ( 1-4 ) has made me realize how strong the inspiration of JRPGs was in Pokemon ( specifically DragonQuest ) and how much worse the RPG elements have gotten worse in later games, especially the switch games. With Johto specifically, I love how each region has it own unique culture for it. Violet City has a Sprout Tower in which trainers who are veterans are encouraged to reflect on the past, Azelea Town is close to nature between the Ilex Forest, Slowpoke Well, and Kurt's unique Pokeball Process, Goldenrod is the most modern city with department stores, radio towers, and underground shop full of trinkets for someone to buy, Blackthorn has the only location of wild Dragon type Pokemon as well as the ultimate moves in the remakes, Ecruteak is the most culturally historic town between Johto and Kanto due to the Legendary Pokemon tied with the town, Union Cave might seem like generic cave at first glance, but once you get Surf and explore further, your prize is a Lapras with the rare Ice type, and the Ruins of Alph has its own unique challenges between the Unown, secret location for Natu and Smeargle ( especially the utility for the latter ), Fossils, and even ties to the Sinnoh region with the Sinjoh ruins should one bring an Arceus. Even the Pokemon fit in this theme: The Legendary Beasts are a direct counterpart to the Birds, with their main distinction being with their lore: The Beasts are celebrated in myth as a celebration of life and a reminder of the tragedy 150 years ago, while the birds are merely called " Legendary " due to being simply rare Pokemon. Kingdra is very formidable boss because of its amazing typing, balanced stats, and Dragon/Ice are very rare especially the former, making it very difficult in practice to exploit Kingdra's Weaknesses, hence why Kingdra is a great surprise boss.

And lastly, I know some people are going to say that it doesn't matter of the game's quality, because the whole point is to sell plushies/cards, but that's still not a good excuse for the rushed nature of the switch era games, graphics and quality absolutely have an influence on the enjoyment of the game-better graphics are nicer and while it is subjective putting in the time and polish really shows love and care and a dedication towards the success of the game. If they don't have time to make an open world game, then don't do make it. Its quite obvious that the crunch cycle is a veru unsustainable cycle that needs to change- Because of this I didn't by the SV DLC- Since my primary interest is on the competitive scene which is easier to play on PS! and the fact that I refuse to support this crunch cycle which clearly has poor health on the laborers making these games.
 
DreamPrince said:
Heck even the gym reception halls are all the same, though this is a problem with SwSh as well.
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The gym reception halls in Paldea are all identical because it's non-linear. They can do the little pre/post gym cutscenes with Nimona and the E4 members in any gym because each gym is the same where that cutscene happens. It's a bit of a lazy programming hack, but smart-lazy rather than cheap-lazy IMO.

The SWSH Gym Foyers are not identical. They're very similar, but they have various changes to make the nature of the gym and your progress more clear(fewer challengers and more evolved mons as you go along are the ones I specifically remember, I'm sure there were others).
 
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