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Unpopular opinions

ScraftyIsTheBest said:
Sylveon was introduced in Gen 6 for that matter, and Kalos has Mega Evolution which requires a strong bond between Trainer and Pokémon to achieve.
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I know I am far from the first person to bring this up but it’s October of 2026 now and it still bothers me that to this day Mega Evolution doesn’t actually utilize the Friendship mechanic in any way. The lore of XY and the other forms of media made this such a prominent point of emphasis, but in-game, it’s like… it’s just a tacked on battle mechanic enabled by a Key Item in your bag and a held item on your Pokémon. This is realistically something that could have existed since Gen 2 given those specific gameplay parameters, which also happens to be the generation that Friendship was introduced in to begin with. And then when Megas returned in Let’s Go and in Z-A but Frustration and Return aren’t in the game? I can understand Dexit-ing these moves, but… really?
 
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QuickBH said:
I'm in the minority as well. I hate the way the gaming industry is and how much money people are willing to spend on games that, many of the times, they don't even own. The truth is that anyone who care about game ownership is in the minority, and that's why they have to fight extra hard. Sony feels like they are able to get away because gamers, and just modern society as a whole, have gotten to complacent. Your assumption of things being performative is insane, btw. GTA VI will still sell billions and PS5 Pros are being sold out, which obviously indicates that a vast majority of people don't care. Meaning that many of these people are, extremely likely, entirely different crowds.

I can't really argue past this because you've built your entire argument on an assumption that doesn't even make logical sense. I realize you're also assuming that every single person who cares about these antics are even gamers, not realizing that this also bleeds into other crowds including people into politics. given how literal government representatives are on this now.
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Methinks several people of those crowds who bought PS5 Pros might be either casual players (fair), but moreso not be even actual players, but streamers and rich people who likes to “collect” games and flaunt off their money, alongside the fact that GTA as a whole became part of the whole “Sports and Shoot and Cinematic” crowd that don’t bother with other video game franchises.
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
Leafeon and Glaceon are tied more to something natural which is why making them stone evolutions in SwSh and SV worked fine. The locations in the older games involved them being near some kind of rock to begin with.
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And in hindsight, it’s probably for the best, too, since I feel those kind of location evolutions feels redundant with evolution stones since those are also rocks. Although, it’s excusable since Ice Stone was not a thing until Sun and Moon, so Glaceon could not be possible back then without the location rocks.

I do think making it so location-specific evolution methods can also be used for stone-based evolution and vice versa, at least for Fire, Water, Leaf, Thunder and Ice Stone so that the former is easy but lategame, while the latter can be more readily available earleir on but can be rare.
 
Mad Ram said:
Obviously what we need is a Spectrobes revival. #Spectrobes2027 It will happen. This is probably the first time in maybe a decade I've actually thought about that game aside from remembering it exists.

As for an actual unpopular opinion, I think Umbreon is overrated a bit. I can understand it being popular, but sticking Umbreon's face on something makes demand for it skyrocket out of nowhere. I think the pins for it ran out faster at Pokemon XP than for Charizard. And that's not mentioning the cards.
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A coworker of mine has some TCG art of Umbreon as his phone background and I called it "basic bitch"

(My phone background is some Kartana artwork, so I think I have some justification)
 
Hugin said:
I remember originally a lot of the Palworld discussion online was people going "It's pokemon but with guns!" Not just a handful of comments, that was the only reason it got any oxygen whatsoever and the comparison was encouraged by the Palworld devs. In which case, yeah, Nintendo is going to find an excuse to sue. You're using one of their biggest franchises to boost your own game which is a direct competitor while also advertising using knock-offs of their designs? Wave a red flag in front of a bull, and I'm not going to be very sympathetic if you get trampled.
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I still have no idea of how palworld even plays.
Whole brand lives on being the opps. AEW ahh game. :mehowth:

CPU said:
A coworker of mine has some TCG art of Umbreon as his phone background and I called it "basic bitch"

(My phone background is some Kartana artwork, so I think I have some justification)
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lmaooooooo
 
palworld is fun for a few hours because for all its unpolish and bad gameplay loops, the early game is fast-paced cookie clicker of just getting exponentially more numbers, but once you start needing to explore more, do more combat, spend less time getting bigger numbers, the game gets worse bc none of that shit is polished

PocketPair as a studio is like. Not exactly the paragons of creativity.

Their previous 3D game before Palworld was a similar mashup of ideas except it was trying to be Breath of the Wild, Craftopia.

Then they have post-Palworld, kind of Hollow Knight But You Make Bases

And then they have a game where you play as a "progressive AI artist" and it's like an among us but you have to find the AI artist imposter. That is a real videogame they sell.
 
Forgive me if this proposal is too streamer bait difficulty hack-y but I've thought for a while that it'd be cool to give every Eeveelution an -ate ability of their type. Refrigerate Glaceon, Galvanize Jolteon and then new ones for all the others

I think it's thematically cromulent and would give the whole batch a bit more value added in both casual and comp play (early buffed Quick Attack would be cool in both settings)
 
Yung Dramps said:
Forgive me if this proposal is too streamer bait difficulty hack-y but I've thought for a while that it'd be cool to give every Eeveelution an -ate ability of their type. Refrigerate Glaceon, Galvanize Jolteon and then new ones for all the others

I think it's thematically cromulent and would give the whole batch a bit more value added in both casual and comp play (early buffed Quick Attack would be cool in both settings)
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It do feel wishlisty, though given the Eeveelution doesn’t have a second Ability between their first one and thie Hidden Abulity whereas Eevee does (Adaptability), I can imagine it working.

Not sure if Umbreon could really benefit a Dark -ate Ability given it’s low attacking stats unless one spams Dark Body Slam that can hit Ghost-type and threatens Paralysis to those.
 
Samtendo09 said:
It do feel wishlisty, though given the Eeveelution doesn’t have a second Ability between their first one and thie Hidden Abulity whereas Eevee does (Adaptability), I can imagine it working.

Not sure if Umbreon could really benefit a Dark -ate Ability given it’s low attacking stats unless one spams Dark Body Slam that can hit Ghost-type and threatens Paralysis to those.
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Considering that Umbreon's main role whenever it had been viable in VGC was mainly to spam Snarl and Foul Play, with usually Yawn or another utility move, I don't think it having a -ate ability would do much.

Sadly eevolutions in general have problems rooted more deeply than their abilities. Their stats (and sometimes movepools) simply are not there.

I would like them getting a flavor-based 2nd ability though. The 3 og ones did have those (water absorb / volt absorb / flash fire), it is a shame they did not keep this pattern with the others.
 
Yung Dramps said:
Forgive me if this proposal is too streamer bait difficulty hack-y but I've thought for a while that it'd be cool to give every Eeveelution an -ate ability of their type. Refrigerate Glaceon, Galvanize Jolteon and then new ones for all the others

I think it's thematically cromulent and would give the whole batch a bit more value added in both casual and comp play (early buffed Quick Attack would be cool in both settings)
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The best play would be to give them the Partner Eevee moves for their respective types. (EG: Umbreon gets Baddy Bad)
 
So the thing with making the Eeveeloutions good is, what do you actually want them to do?

If the idea is you want them to be "this type, with all it can bring to the table" then you need to give each Eeveeloution a massive movepool focused on every possible STAB, as well as rework a significant chunk of the stat spreads.
If you want them to represent the flexibility of Eevee given focus and direction, then I'd say let them all pass moves around freely so that each mon has STAB(and stat spreads) to provide focus, but they can all bring out Ice Beam or Leaf Blade to solve problems as needed.
If you just want them to hang at UU level and not worry about how, then each mon needs a broken type-relevant ability, several of them need either expanded movepools or reworked stats(or both), and forget about making anything mono-typed OU unless it's base 600 or better.
If it's just "I want them to be good enough to use in-game without being miserable", then make the evolutionary stones(ESPECIALLY ICE STONE) available early, probably give a couple of them a better level-up moveset(Flareon, Glaceon) that includes fixing low speed and poor STAB options, and otherwise it's all good.

And any of those can work, the question is what your goal is and why. Because not defining that is how we got the current situation where Espeon and Flareon are considered counterparts.
 
Personally I wouldn’t mind if each eeveelution got its own Seed Sower/Sand Spit variant but for their respective Weathers/Terrains.
Except because Dark has none for Umbreon, nor is there a Poison one to stretch the definition by this will never happen.
So I’d just give them all a second ability through stuff like Marvel Scale Vaporeon, Fluffy Flareon, Technician/Slush Rush Glaceon, etc.
 
vaporeon - marvel scale
jolteon - transistor
flareon - fluffy
umbreon - toxic heal
espeon - magic bounce
leafeon - chlorophyll
glaceon - slush rush
sylveon - pixilate

imo
 
Normally I’d say I’d be interested in the Eeveelutions just get their respective weather and terrain abilities for their respective Types, but the issue here is Dark doesn’t have one. Something I think could be a bit more interesting though would be if they got Abilities that reference the signature moves of the Partner Eevee in Let’s Go in some capacity. For example, Jolteon and Flareon could get Static and Flame Body respectively as a reference to those moves causing paralysis and burn respectively.
 
IDK - some eeveelutions like Flareon or Leafeon getting a stat buff would be cool and it would be nice if others got a movepool buff like Jolteon (which did get some nice buffs with alluring Voice and CM in SV), but I am a bit worried that excessive buffs will make the defensive Eeveelutions like Vaporeon or Umbreon even more cringe to face than they already are. If any of ya'll have played a lower tier or tier where these Pokemon have a niche (ESPICIALLY in official formats) these Pokemon are just very annoying to fight since they just spam annoying ass Yawn + Protect, while also being annoying to use since they can feel like they get overwhelmed easily vs passive damage and the like. Still, there is some merit to their defensive playstyles as well - but I'm just not a fan of how it plays out.

Regardless, I would like buffs for each of them, but probably with some movepool changes or nerfs to compensate. I'd say an additional ability slot would be fair. I like theorymonning so here are some buff strong buff ideas that have a modicum of basis in lore.

Flareon - Fur Coat / Fluffy, take away Yawn OR Sizzly Slide + Intimidate
- Deadass, Flareon is honestly not a horrible defensive Pokemon, but its big issue is its lacking physical defense. It just leads to it having the bad combination of being slow and frail, forcing it into a bad situation vs many dangerous physical attackers. I think Fur Coat would go a long way of improving both its defensive & offensive role, while also not even being overpowered since Flareon needs to heavily invest in physical bulk to not get overwhelmed by stuff like Gambit. This pokemon still would likely be outclassed by Arcanine or Dirge, but it can perform roles they can't such as Calm Mind. Alternatively, Flame Body could also work but would be much less impactful. Fluffy also works, as a new potential ability.
- Offensively, I do not think this Pokemon can be salvaged since there are too many broken Physical Fire-types it is competing with & no buff it recieves will bring it up to the same power level as them aside from some insane shit like Swords Dance + Fire-type extreme speed clone.
- Sizzly Slide would be cool move for it to get, but in that case, it might need a different ability since it may be too powerful in tandem with Fur Coat. Intimidate perhaps, but not very lore fitting.

Vaporeon - Regenerator, take away Yawn, Baton Pass, & Wish OR Bouncy Bubble + Storm Drain
- Yes, very cringe & uninspired, but I think it fits with Vapreon's theme. I don't want this shit keeping Yawn & Wish if it has Regenerator though. With Regen, it would be a nice, brainless defensive pivot that can flip turn to its allies, perhaps Roar away setup sweepers, and exert pressure through Scald, alluring voice, ice beam, etc.
- Bouncy Bubble would be an amazing buff as well for Calm Mind sets. Tera Poison Calm Mind, Acid Armor, Bouncy Bubble, and either Roar or Alluring Voice would be annoying threat for sure. May be too much in tandem with Regenerator however, so perhaps Storm Drain would be warranted as smaller buff.

Jolteon - Electric Surge, take away Rising Voltage
- Another cringe uninspired pick. I don't think Jolteon has many abilities it feasibly could recieve that would improve its viability to the level it needs to be. This would just make it a tapu koko side grade, trading defensive utlity for better power on its Electric attacks. Alternatively, static could work but that would barely affect this Pokemon's viability.

Umbreon - Poison Heal, take away Yawn, Calm Mind.
- Very cringe ability yea, we would just have spdef version of Gliscor. Still, it would more or less be a passive blob compared to Gliscor, who has every entry hazard at its disposable + SD & by taking away CM, it likely won't be able to exert a gamebreaking threat with some cheese set up set. I think removing Yawn would also be nice, though I'm not sure it would make up for how cheap it might become.

Espeon - Mega Sol, give it Solar Beam
- I think Magic Bounce is probably the best ability this Pokemon could have recieved, but Mega Sol would be cool for fun offensive strats. Increased recovery from morning Sun doesn't matter too much, but being a Psychic with super powerful Fire coverage would be cool in doubles I think with Expanding Force and Solar Beam, while a bit worse generally than Alluring Voice, would be cool to let it snipe TTar and Samurott-Hisui. IDK if this would make it good, but it would make it very unique which IMO is more important.

Glaceon - Adaptability, give it Earth Power
- Considering how people find Kyurem impossible to counter, I think Glaceon is just 1 coverage move away from being solid. This Pokemon's role is just spamming big damage anyways with Specs Freeze Dry / Blizzard, so Adaptability lets it do that better, perhaps to an even broken extent, while also not taking away niche from other Pokemon like Vanilluxe, which would still have Snow Warning as its own advantage. IDK, I may have gone to far with this one, esp since its also a bit uncreative by making Glaceon a one button clicker.

Leafeon - Sharpness, give it Shadow Claw or Sappy Seed + Rough Skin.
- Pretty obvious buff. Improves damage output considerably while also giving it perfect coverage + letting it run meme items like Scope Lens easier if you wanna gamble lol. Would make Leafeon a bit of threat vs Stall builds relying on Dozo as well, though your damage unboosted vs Corv is really really bad lol - like SHOCKINGLY so (you only 2HKO it with a Crit + SD boost like WTF?) so maybe magnezone support will be needed.
- Sappy Seed is another buff that could be given & I think it would be quite busted lol. Its like a better version of Salt Cure, though Leafeon's other traits are quite as potent. It would certainly make Leafeon a more unique threat though & you could maybe combine Sappy Seed passive damage with Rough Skin to be extra cheap.

Sylveon - Natural Cure, alternatively Misty Surge, remove Misty Explosion, Swirly Swirl
- Really lame ability, but out of the Eeveelutions, Sylveon is already the best. Its pokedex entries mention its ribbons having Soothing Aura and reducing hostility, kinda similar to Heal Bell. So natural cure seems the most fitting, with there being a bit of a trade off between removing status effects vs extra power on its Fairy STAB. Alternatively, Misty Surge would be a more powerful ability which kinda gets the same status blocking effect & has the same trade off as Natural Cure, though I believe Misty Surge would be much prefered. Would allow Sylveon to fit into many more team comps as well.
 
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Hey, so you guys know how in the DS generations, special attackers were usually seen as superior to physical attackers? I’ve done some looking into this phenomenon, trying to look at when physical or special attackers let’s have been stronger overall, and when the two categories have been pretty well balanced, and I must say… I think physical offense might be a little too strong nowadays, in contrast to what we saw with some of the more “specially minded” generations.

During the eighth generation, physical attackers started to receive a lot of significant buffs. The overall power level of Sword & Shield depended largely on the setting, but at least in my opinion, the removal of Mega Evolution and Z-Moves was more problematic for special attackers on average. Physical attackers notably benefitted from this change making Knock Off, a move already viable during the 3DS generations, harder to play against. In place of those mechanics being removed, Sword & Shield’s roster tends to be on the stronger side when comparing the Pokémon that did return to Gen 8 to their pre-Nintendo Switch iterations. Physical attackers did take some nerfs in the transition such as the removal of Return/Frustration and Pursuit, but this was more than made up for by changes like the Intimidate nerf, moves like Close Combat becoming more widely distributed and the general additions of more powerful physical attackers, many of which were intentionally made faster in Galar’s design philosophy of trying to avoid having too many slow Pokémon like Alola added. It speaks to the power of physical offense around this time that some Pokémon have found success with the newer move Body Press, which currently does not have a special counterpart and doesn’t even use Attack for damage calculation offensively meaning it goes great with other anti-physical tools like Iron Defense.

And then, we get to the ninth generation. Scarlet & Violet’s arguably the most Speed-coded generation we’ve ever received for a multitude of reasons, and the power level of the game thanks to Terastalization, the recovery moves nerf, and other more specific changes like the Scald distribution nerf lead the game in a very offensively minded direction. I would say the gap between physical and special attackers isn’t as large as it was in Sword & Shield, since Terastalization can help both sides out, but I would still say these past two generations have been the best physical attackers have ever been overall and with Scarlet & Violet being so focused on type shifting and Speed, often times these physical threats can just straight up ignore or choose their checks and counters.
 
bdt2002 said:
Hey, so you guys know how in the DS generations, special attackers were usually seen as superior to physical attackers? I’ve done some looking into this phenomenon, trying to look at when physical or special attackers let’s have been stronger overall, and when the two categories have been pretty well balanced, and I must say… I think physical offense might be a little too strong nowadays, in contrast to what we saw with some of the more “specially minded” generations.

During the eighth generation, physical attackers started to receive a lot of significant buffs. The overall power level of Sword & Shield depended largely on the setting, but at least in my opinion, the removal of Mega Evolution and Z-Moves was more problematic for special attackers on average. Physical attackers notably benefitted from this change making Knock Off, a move already viable during the 3DS generations, harder to play against. In place of those mechanics being removed, Sword & Shield’s roster tends to be on the stronger side when comparing the Pokémon that did return to Gen 8 to their pre-Nintendo Switch iterations. Physical attackers did take some nerfs in the transition such as the removal of Return/Frustration and Pursuit, but this was more than made up for by changes like the Intimidate nerf, moves like Close Combat becoming more widely distributed and the general additions of more powerful physical attackers, many of which were intentionally made faster in Galar’s design philosophy of trying to avoid having too many slow Pokémon like Alola added. It speaks to the power of physical offense around this time that some Pokémon have found success with the newer move Body Press, which currently does not have a special counterpart and doesn’t even use Attack for damage calculation offensively meaning it goes great with other anti-physical tools like Iron Defense.

And then, we get to the ninth generation. Scarlet & Violet’s arguably the most Speed-coded generation we’ve ever received for a multitude of reasons, and the power level of the game thanks to Terastalization, the recovery moves nerf, and other more specific changes like the Scald distribution nerf lead the game in a very offensively minded direction. I would say the gap between physical and special attackers isn’t as large as it was in Sword & Shield, since Terastalization can help both sides out, but I would still say these past two generations have been the best physical attackers have ever been overall and with Scarlet & Violet being so focused on type shifting and Speed, often times these physical threats can just straight up ignore or choose their checks and counters.
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At the same time, the most powerful individual attackers tend to be Special Attackers due to insane Speed and high Special Attack combined, which I refer to Shadow Rider Calyrex and Flutter Mane. Their low physical bulk may not mean much if they can easily outspeed and OHKO opposing physical Pokémon very easily thanks to fantastic neutral coverage for Flutter Mane and how easily spammable Shadow Rider Calyrex’s Astral Barrage with no penalty whatsoever.

Champions reversed the physical-favored trend a bit by bringing back Mega Charizard Y, Mega Alakazam and the likes, introducing Mega Raichu Y which took over VGC by quite a storm as well as removing Body Press from Archaludon so the latter is forced to run purely Special sets. I am not sure by how much, but presence of Mega Stones make Knock Off less cumbersome to fight against at the very least.

Regardless, Signatures are part of the blame for physical being too favored as well, with moves like Fisheous Rend + Bolt Beak, Gigaton Hammer, Population Bomb, Last Respect, Rage Fist and Glaive Rush making their respective users pretty oppressive. And for Abilities, stuff like Sword of Ruin (even by Legendary standards), Supreme Overlord (Singles specifically, given Kingambit prefers Defiant for VGC) and Protosynthesis + Quark Drive only pushes physical (and by extension, special) power creep more.
 
bdt2002 said:
Hey, so you guys know how in the DS generations, special attackers were usually seen as superior to physical attackers? I’ve done some looking into this phenomenon, trying to look at when physical or special attackers let’s have been stronger overall, and when the two categories have been pretty well balanced, and I must say… I think physical offense might be a little too strong nowadays, in contrast to what we saw with some of the more “specially minded” generations.

During the eighth generation, physical attackers started to receive a lot of significant buffs. The overall power level of Sword & Shield depended largely on the setting, but at least in my opinion, the removal of Mega Evolution and Z-Moves was more problematic for special attackers on average. Physical attackers notably benefitted from this change making Knock Off, a move already viable during the 3DS generations, harder to play against. In place of those mechanics being removed, Sword & Shield’s roster tends to be on the stronger side when comparing the Pokémon that did return to Gen 8 to their pre-Nintendo Switch iterations. Physical attackers did take some nerfs in the transition such as the removal of Return/Frustration and Pursuit, but this was more than made up for by changes like the Intimidate nerf, moves like Close Combat becoming more widely distributed and the general additions of more powerful physical attackers, many of which were intentionally made faster in Galar’s design philosophy of trying to avoid having too many slow Pokémon like Alola added. It speaks to the power of physical offense around this time that some Pokémon have found success with the newer move Body Press, which currently does not have a special counterpart and doesn’t even use Attack for damage calculation offensively meaning it goes great with other anti-physical tools like Iron Defense.

And then, we get to the ninth generation. Scarlet & Violet’s arguably the most Speed-coded generation we’ve ever received for a multitude of reasons, and the power level of the game thanks to Terastalization, the recovery moves nerf, and other more specific changes like the Scald distribution nerf lead the game in a very offensively minded direction. I would say the gap between physical and special attackers isn’t as large as it was in Sword & Shield, since Terastalization can help both sides out, but I would still say these past two generations have been the best physical attackers have ever been overall and with Scarlet & Violet being so focused on type shifting and Speed, often times these physical threats can just straight up ignore or choose their checks and counters.
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I'm somewhat thinking that focusing more on offense in general happens to benefit physical more because of how moves are designed. High-power special moves are often unreliable either through accuracy or something like Solarbeam being a dead turn without sun. In contrast, your Close Combats and Wave Crashes pay for their extra power in durability instead. In general, having this kind of diversity is probably for the best, but it does mean the balance between them can be off as a result of outside factors. In a faster, more destructive environment where durability matters less and missing one turn of output matters more, the physical moves seem to be in a better position.
 
Ironmage said:
I'm somewhat thinking that focusing more on offense in general happens to benefit physical more because of how moves are designed. High-power special moves are often unreliable either through accuracy or something like Solarbeam being a dead turn without sun. In contrast, your Close Combats and Wave Crashes pay for their extra power in durability instead. In general, having this kind of diversity is probably for the best, but it does mean the balance between them can be off as a result of outside factors. In a faster, more destructive environment where durability matters less and missing one turn of output matters more, the physical moves seem to be in a better position.
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Also, physical moves have a lot more counterplay. Including whole abilities made to punish contact moves, items that punish them like Rocky Helmet, and Burn as an entire status pretty much ruining most physical attackers on the spot.
 
Is it unpopular to say that X/Y are my least favourite main series games? Tbf, I think it’s close between them and Sword and Shield but X/Y are so mind-numbingly easy. They took the worst parts of Gen V (Gym Leaders having three Pokemon max, Elite Four only having 4 etc.) and extenuated it by giving the player a ridiculously OP gimmick that no-one but the Champion actually uses. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used a Mega while playing through Kalos because they make the game the game so trivial.

I also just don’t think the massive Pokedex works with exclusively random encounters and that size of game world. You just end up with every route having too many Pokemon on it and the whole world feeling more like an amusement park than an actual world. There is like no continuity between spawns either, like it’s incredibly rare for the evolved form of a Pokemon to be found later in the game after being able to find its preevolution being found earlier. Just makes each route feel like a zoo exhibit.

Also, the story is rubbish and Team Flare are terrible antagonists. I think that bit where you randomly fight Lysandre three times in a hour is maybe the worst bit of the whole game.
 
Once I hit a teenager none of the Pokemon games had difficult combat and, outside of the Unova games where I genuinely cared for the story, the criteria for enjoyment became how little grinding it required and smooth pacing. XY is one of those games that has a bit of a slow start but is extremely streamline and so you can just have some casual fun, so I can't get myself to hate it despite everything you're saying being true. My biggest complaint is just how many gift Pokemon you get that homogenizes a lot of teams, but overall I would say it's enjoyable.
 
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For me just about every game is fairly easy, though I agree even then XY skews heavily towards the easier side. To me XY is more about the region and content inside than it is about battling. I care more about the fashion, Pokemon-Amie and the aesthetic/ost than battling there frankly. I do think they are flawed games and show their unfinished natures a lot, and I do agree that there are a bit too many gift Pokemon (albeit, nothing forces you to use them because of the game's easy nature). I would say that even when it comes to difficulty, XY isn't the worst in the series.

As for my unpopular take: FRLG has hands down the worst OST in the series. It seems to be somewhat ranked in the middle for osts, and I just don't get it. It's not even on the GBA's sound capabilities here. There are ways to make GBC/NES sounds work on the GBA, we saw games that did this well with Fire Emblem, Super Mario Advance 4, and Metroid Zero Mission... FRLG just miss the mark entirely. It doesn't feel like GF knew how to use the GBA sound properly and the result is incredibly harsh, frankly screechy at times, and misses almost all the character that the original OST had. Hoenn at least had a handle on how to have its own character in its OST (and I don't even like Hoenn's music) but FRLG just... doesn't. It's probably the most unlistenable OST in the series to me.
 
XY isn't a masterpiece, but it's one of the nicest games to replay imo. The wide roster means you can spice things up every playthrough without making every single playthrough feel repetitive, and while it's not a hard game it's nice a nice and fun game to chill with.

Also the route Trainers are astonishingly playing hardball a lot, something I found out in my many playthroughs of Y, and was impressed by.

Funnily enough, the distribution problem among routes, which is also partially because a Pokemon in a certain sub-region apparently wasn't allowed to show up outside of that sub-region, is the polar opposite problem of, say, Diamond/Pearl lol. DP has a ridiculously small dex and almost every route is ridiculously same-y and repetitive. Platinum got a bit better about it but a lot of the routes still have this situation. Almost every route has either the evolved form of some early encounter or a variant and there's very little distinction among routes. The only ones that stood out generally were the Great Marsh with Croagunk and Skorupi and the northern snow routes with Snover and Sneasel.

XY's approach was kind of a loose mirror of BW1's imo. BW1 had a totally new roster but generally every single route or dungeon along the way from Route 1 to Route 10 had a small handful of the new Pokemon introduced one by one. Route 1 had Patrat and Lillipup, then Route 2 had Purrloin, then the Dreamyard had Munna and the gift elemental monkeys, then Route 3 had Pidove and Blitzle, and so on and so forth. One difference being that the evolved forms of some two-stage mons still showed up in some later routes, like how Route 7 has Watchog and Zebstrika, Route 11 has Mandibuzz, Braviary, and Bisharp, Route 14 has Mienshao and Beheeyem, etc, like in older games.

Older games before DP had a case of a certain set of mons showing up ad infinitum in every route and then the occasional new Pokemon was either moderately common or really rare. Like how RS has Zigzagoon and Linoone show up pretty much everywhere and then there were a few of the new Pokemon scattered across certain routes, though I think RS did it in a way that gave each route a sense of identity.

Hmm...this kind of distribution situation before SwSh is interesting to think about.
 
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