Yeah, IIRC the remakes turned it into a sort of collection thing and doesn't even let you delete numbers.Oh Wow, I did not know that. They must have removed this from HGSS, because I never noticed this in the remakes.
Yeah, IIRC the remakes turned it into a sort of collection thing and doesn't even let you delete numbers.Oh Wow, I did not know that. They must have removed this from HGSS, because I never noticed this in the remakes.
They did, yes. Much better.Oh Wow, I did not know that. They must have removed this from HGSS, because I never noticed this in the remakes.
It's not even "top percentage" until the remakes. I said what I said.I will stop you right here peasant, noone trashtalks Joey's top percentile Rattatas and lives to tell the tale, fite me
Additionally in GSC, you could also get the water/fire/thunder/leaf stones from the mystery gift (works on the VC releases through the 3DS's infrared port), just connect it up with another system and you have a, uhhh, .2% chance to receive a individual stone. nice. Johto does not like stone evolutions.That was introduced in Crystal and carried over to HGSS. It was much worse in the original Gold and Silver , with the 4 elemental evolution stones being locked in the post-game via an NPC that only gives you one of each over the course of 4 IRL days.
While their ORAS designs have grown on me, well:I guess it's unpopular that I don't like ORAS redesigns for Archie and Maxie?
It felt weirdly gimmicky, and odd cuz Archie was redesigned WAY more into a pirate caricature...while Maxie gets glasses
Neither really are present in the game either, nor crazed enough to suddenly sport "anime" wear. Though to be fair, Adventures Manga handled both sides way better (Archie actually takes advantage of his basic looks to run the media corps undercover)
Then again not really a fan of human designs after early 4, and especially when Sugimori stopped doing them after BW
Well he keeps calling it a Rattata even though it evolves into a Raticate later so I think Joey may need some glasses...It's not even "top percentage" until the remakes. I said what I said.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that in my initial post. How HGSS really didn't fix the flaws and just used smoke and mirrors (following Pokemon) to disguise it. Or what fixes they picked just became more annoying (the Johto Safari Zone). It is like adding icing to a stale cupcake. If the foundation is no good, no amount of cosmetic covering will save it.I... wouldn't go all out and say they are the worst (IMO that goes to Yellow), but that it's overrated is certainly something I agree with (and mostly for the same reasons you've stated). HGSS more than GSC, as while it might look pretty, it's still the same flawed game underneath.
Adventures Archie was big brain enough so he took control of the media before they were seen as crazy environmentalists like Magma. Also, Magma were scavengers there, which it feels kinda off considering how more sophisticated Maxie is.Kind of funny how in the Manga it's Team Aqua who are the ones in control of the media when, if you know what the real life inspirations for Team Aqua & Magma, that sounds more like something Team Magma would be doing.
Which doesn't even make sense, since Muk is water pollution, and Team Aqua is firmly against water pollution.(although at least AS gave them Grimer/Muk)
I think they're only in favor of water expansion, and Muk can thrive in it. Poochyena line is the most baffling one imo, how can this doggy live when everything's flooded.Which doesn't even make sense, since Muk is water pollution, and Team Aqua is firmly against water pollution.
While I wouldn't agree that GSC or HGSS are the worst games in the series, I agree with your points.GSC/HGSS are the worst games in the series. They completely mismanaged every advantage they had. Even their positive points were tainted by horrible decisions.
Let's see:
1. The new Pokemon. While there are some solid designs (Espeon, Umbreon, Heracross, etc), most of them are either Baby Pokemon or single stage Dex filler. But the biggest sin is that most of them play second fiddle in their region or they are not even in Johto! They are either only available at night or in the early morning, they are hard to obtain (trade evolutions),annoying to evolve (happiness) or locked into postgame. Nothing like a new game that hides away the largest selling point but throws the common Kanto Pokemon in your face! And the ones that are available largely flounder. Take Ledian. Great design but unusable.
2. Mismanagement of new assets. Sure, Dark and Steel Types expanded the gameplay but good luck using those types in your playthrough. Unlike XY, which proudly showcased the Fairy Type, GSC hides away these two new types. Actually using them to win Johto Badges? Nah. That is a luxury. The cell phone. Great idea. But locking stones behind the cell phone was imbecile. Sell them in the stores. We know how the cell phone works. Same deal with happiness evolution for Espeon and Umbreon. Use the Sun and Moon Stones. Game Freak apparently believed we needed constant reinforcement to remember they invented happiness evolutions. The Bug Catching Content. No Johto Pokemon in it despite debuting several new bugs.
3. The level curve. Enough said.
4. The addition of Kanto. Cool concept but it was an empty shell. Everything unique about Kanto was either stripped or downscaled. Sure, fighting the full teams of the Kanto Gym Leaders was exciting but that could have been done in Johto in some room.
5. Speaking of Gym Leaders. The Johto Leaders used only four Johto Pokemon for no discernible reason. Metapod and Kakuna? Really?!
So much wasted potential.
I was more referring to what Tama Hiroka said about the teams' origins in her retro review of Diamond & Pearl. Apparently around the time of Diamond & Pearl there was an economic situation going on where Japan's population was about to/has exceeded their food production but they had no more land to farm. The Japanese government decided to drain the last lake they hadn't already drained, however they met strong opposition from environmentalists and people who made a living on the lake. In the end the government won out and the lake was drained and the effects of that is still being felt today in Japan (and not in a good way).Adventures Archie was big brain enough so he took control of the media before they were seen as crazy environmentalists like Magma. Also, Magma were scavengers there, which it feels kinda off considering how more sophisticated Maxie is.
If I was to redo their teams (going to do a full team of 6):Also, he had Walrein. Several Walrein. In the anime, several grunts used Walrein. Why didn't RSE nor ORAS do that? Definitely a better roster than what they have (although at least AS gave them Grimer/Muk).
I watched her Ruby and Sapphire vid so I know what you were talking about. This manga Archie seemed genre savvy enough to know what will happen so he took control of the news, and it worked.I was more referring to what Tama Hiroka said about the teams' origins in her retro review of Diamond & Pearl. Apparently around the time of Diamond & Pearl there was an economic situation going on where Japan's population was about to/has exceeded their food production but they had no more land to farm. The Japanese government decided to drain the last lake they hadn't already drained, however they met strong opposition from environmentalists and people who made a living on the lake. In the end the government won out and the lake was drained and the effects of that is still being felt today in Japan (and not in a good way).
So with that in mind it would sound like Team Magma would have control over the media while Aqua was the scrappy rebellious group. I'd imagine Aqua's supporters would be the grassroots community who felt they've been ignored or oppressed by the government.
If I was to redo their teams (going to do a full team of 6):
Archie: Sharpedo, Walrein, Ludicolo, Starmie, Wailord, Kingdra
Maxie: Camerupt, Houndoom, Shiftry, Claydol, Relicanth, Flygon
Feels this makes the most sense. Yeah, Archie is all Water-type, but it's a vast ocean of Water-type diversity (Ludicolo is a stretch but I did it for dichotomy with Maxie's Shiftry). Meanwhile Maxie's Pokemon has a wider Type coverage as life on land had adapted in many different ways and land itself comes in different forms.
I guess much of my frustration does come from this sort of universal sentiment that GSC/HGSS were the peak of the franchise.While I wouldn't agree that GSC or HGSS are the worst games in the series, I agree with your points.
I see people putting up HGSS as the best game of the franchise and I'm like:
HGSS is pretty much a Gen 4 coat of paint on the same dumb issues GSC had. Toggleable Running Shoes? Good graphics and presentation? Following Mons? All cool stuff. They don't fix the level curve, Johto mons being out of focus, Kanto being an empty husk, and Johto being a squished region with a route split that just isn't sustainable.
In fact, because of the TM availability and the faster pace of the game compared to how slow the Gen 4 engine is, I play GSC over HGSS pretty much all the time. The mons available just feel weak compared to a lot of other games like Platinum, BW2, XY, and SwSh.
HGSS, as a remake, is too timid to actually address the original's flaws. That is just not a good trait in a remake. At least the level curve had to be properly addressed.
I don't think that's it at all. I'm curious if the manga caught on the theme because, since GF dumbed it down so much, the theme was lost on pretty much everyone. Aqua getting media control in the manga was a flip of the coin, one of the teams would have done it and it landed in Aqua's favor. Heck this wasn't even a factor in the games, both teams were just doing what they wanted to do. Though several gens later they would have Team Flare control the news media. Speaking of which.This manga Archie seemed genre savvy enough to know what will happen so he took control of the news, and it worked.
Eh, Magma is a land-based team. While that certainly means Ground, Fire isn't out of the question. Heck, Groudon's Ability benefits Fire-types the most, and when it Primal Reverses it becomes a Ground/Fire with a more powerful version of its Ability that really benefits Fire-types (and notably Kyogre's Ability and Primal Ability both hinder Fire-types rather then Ground-types).
You mean basically a supermajority of grunts of any team? Ever since Team Rocket of Gen 1 and 2, a lot of grunts use either a Poison-type (most often a Zubat or Golbat), a Dark-type, the regional rodent, or in the case of Team Aqua and Magma, a Carvanha or Numel respectively, with a very few deviations in-between. The Hypno line was also uncommon but still oft-present in comparison whenever that line was available.[...] The grunts used Poison- & Dark-types. [...]
I admit to being genuinely surprised when Lysandre's mega wasn't houndoom. Of course, the fact that I wasn't expecting him to be stupid enough to willingly make his gyarados a dark-type against someone who just obtained Xerneas right in front of him may have had something to do with it.Houndour was the perfect signature Pokemon for Team Flare and they blew it.
It's still a Dark-type, but Dark/Fire fits the team to a T.
For Team Rocket I guess it makes sense for them to use Poison-types as they're supposed to be thugs and easy way to cripple someone is by poisoning them. Though they do throw in other com mons so they're not completely mowed through by Ground & Psychic-types (makes me wonder if they made Bulbasaur part Poison-type is so that it would be neutral to Poison thus be on equal ground with Charmander & Squirtle against the Rocket grunts). Also with Giovanni being a Ground-type specialist having your villain team use a Type you're strong against is good to keep your minions in line. It only gets disappointing with Team Rocket with the Admins, you'd think they would at least have better Pokemon (they had a Game Corner handing them out, would actually have been a neat reference for them to use Pokemon that were given away thinking about it).That really reeks a lack of originality between the teams, and it especially hurts the Team Flare grunts, admins, and even the underwhelming scientists as they got nothing to really stand out from past teams in terms of what Pokémon they use.
They wanted Lysandre to have a male Pyroar so giving him a Fire-type Mega on top of that probably would have felt redundant.I admit to being genuinely surprised when Lysandre's mega wasn't houndoom. Of course, the fact that I wasn't expecting him to be stupid enough to willingly make his gyarados a dark-type against someone who just obtained Xerneas right in front of him may have had something to do with it.
Likewise. Half of Unova's legendaries also had limited movepools, and that never stopped them being good. Not letting the Tapus dominate another generation of VGC was a good idea, and they're still decent as terrain setters. Dynamax Adventures are a lot of fun so far, too.Given that the CT datamine thread is having some kind of day, here's what appears to be an unpopular opinion: I like and am broadly satisfied with the Crown Tundra