Unpopular opinions

Robcore said:
I personally always thought they should do a similar thing to how wild battles level up in Final Fantasy 8, where the level of the wild Pokemon and your foes, are all linked to an extent into the highest level of your main six. You'd still have a cap as to the highest a wild Pokemon could be at, so no Route One Level 99 Pidgeys, but it'd be reasonable to see them perhaps grow to a maximum of Level 30 whilst later routes would still have a higher cap to emulate the current set up.
Click to expand...

A problem with this I see is more with training, especially if other members on your team isn't up to the level of your highest (so switching them in would put them in an automatic disadvantage) but you don't want to focus directly on training them. Even for your strongest member now the battles put them on even footing with the opponent, meaning they won't be knocking out the opponent in a couple of hits (unless they're on a Route or location with a lower cap to their Level) which means they'll be hit multiple times which means more healing meaning more money spent on potions or running back to the Pokemon Center. It'll likely mean players will ignore the wild encounter more than ever if it's essentially going to be a mini-boss fight each time (because if they're also at equal levels the chance of running away isn't guaranteed, and each fail run away attempt is a free hit for the wild Pokemon). Also, it may take away the feeling that NPC Trainers are a greater challenge as they too would probably follow the leveling-with-you rule so be on even par with the Wild Pokemon.
 
Pikachu315111 said:
A problem with this I see is more with training, especially if other members on your team isn't up to the level of your highest (so switching them in would put them in an automatic disadvantage) but you don't want to focus directly on training them. Even for your strongest member now the battles put them on even footing with the opponent, meaning they won't be knocking out the opponent in a couple of hits (unless they're on a Route or location with a lower cap to their Level) which means they'll be hit multiple times which means more healing meaning more money spent on potions or running back to the Pokemon Center. It'll likely mean players will ignore the wild encounter more than ever if it's essentially going to be a mini-boss fight each time (because if they're also at equal levels the chance of running away isn't guaranteed, and each fail run away attempt is a free hit for the wild Pokemon). Also, it may take away the feeling that NPC Trainers are a greater challenge as they too would probably follow the leveling-with-you rule so be on even par with the Wild Pokemon.
Click to expand...

Not quite, but the basic concept you've got.

As mentioned, you'd have a cap per each area and an individual one for each Pokémon within that area, so some Pokémon on a particular route will be more difficult to defeat than others (like it currently is). But those caps would only be hit when say, X amount of Pokémon you own reach a particular level. It wouldn't be like for like, i.e. your starter hits Level 30, all the wild Pokémon are now at Level 30, as you'd need to compensate for the actual training element. It could be along the lines of if your average Pokémon level is 1-10 for Route 1, then the wild Pokémon there are between Levels 2 to 5; if your average is 11-20 then wild Levels are between 8 - 13; average between 21 and 30 then between 18 and 23.

It is a lot easier on a game like FF8 where you have a set amount of characters that you can use as opposed to Pokémon, admittedly, which is why I'm not saying it's a perfect fit-for-fit, but something along the lines of this would prevent over-grinding. Rather, the difficulty stays at a similar level.

NPC Trainers would have to be influenced by it too, perhaps a bit closer to your party average to demonstrate the improved training that they'll have given their Pokémon.
 
PokePoindexter said:
I'd also add "too much water" from gen 3 to that list. I really don't think it's that bad, especially since you can surf at twice the normal speed on a Sharpedo in ORAS and grab up a few Max Repels to not have to worry about the Tentacools.
Click to expand...
For OR/AS specifically, I think that "No Battle Frontier" is their negative tagline (or what it should be called).

Regarding "too much water", I haven't seen it a lot recently and I remember that in the past, it was mostly used to mock IGN rather than OR/AS. Though things might have changed since then, I don't know.
 
"Too much water" is 100% correct and mocking it was just because it was phrased in a funny way. The water routes of the game are monotonous, boring1 or just straight up annoying. Diving is a cool mechanic but you use it 1% of the game and the rest is just water routes everywhere until you reach the league
 
PokePoindexter said:
Not to mention the Mystery Dungeon games' cutscenes, especially in Gates to Infinity.

I'd also add "too much water" from gen 3 to that list. I really don't think it's that bad, especially since you can surf at twice the normal speed on a Sharpedo in ORAS and grab up a few Max Repels to not have to worry about the Tentacools.
Click to expand...

Gates to Infinity is REALLY insufferable when it comes to cutscenes and dialogue yet I hardly see anyone mocking the game like SM. Characters tend to repeat stuff we already know several times, everyone has Mojo Jojo syndrome.
 
Yung Dramps said:
"Le cutscenes" has become to SM what "Le ice cream/le garbage" was to BW. It's literally not a shred less petty or annoying or overused
Click to expand...
The problem with this is that "Le ice cream/le garbage" are perfectly easy to avoid in game. Don't want to use a Vanillite? Don't catch one, simple as that. Don't want a Trubbish? Same thing, don't catch it. Don't want to watch the cutscenes? Sorry, but there's no skip button and the text only goes so fast. Its compulsory, and it's damned annoying. The SM cutscene thing has be done to death, sure, but it really cannot be understated how much they drag when you don't care about the story and just want to play the game. I enjoy SM and USUM a lot, but I've never been able to finish them because by the time I get to Ultra Space/Ultra Necrozma I'm just too tired of the cutscenes to keep playing
 
pokemon4eva said:
Characters tend to repeat stuff we already know several times, everyone has Mojo Jojo syndrome.
Click to expand...

That's more of a problem common to all the PMD entries. Even sacred crow Explorers can feel like Apollo Justice in terms of parroting information you've just read minutes ago.

But the insufferably slow text of Gates to Infinity's cutscenes is certainly noticeable. It doesn't get much attention because most criticism is towards the game's very existence.
 
Some hot takes based on recent topics:

1. Gates to Infinity is my favorite MD game by a long shot (this is a hot take on its own, but the player’s “death” is handled the best in this version since they don’t immediately return)

2. Hoenn having too much water is a good thing since it helps set the region apart (I’d say other regions don’t have enough)

3. Cutscenes are not a bad thing in Pokémon games, and the Alola games in particular are helped by them more than they’re hurt
 
Siggu said:
That's more of a problem common to all the PMD entries. Even sacred crow Explorers can feel like Apollo Justice in terms of parroting information you've just read minutes ago.

But the insufferably slow text of Gates to Infinity's cutscenes is certainly noticeable. It doesn't get much attention because most criticism is towards the game's very existence.
Click to expand...
The issue is they expect the player to save and stop playing after each dungeon, so the repeat info to compensate. That and the absolute lack of pronouns and names hurts the MD series dialogue
 
Speaking of PDM, I've really hated PSMD, the only Pokemon game I've really disliked btw.

First of all the difficulty isn't well balanced. The game is either nearly impossible or too easy. For example, in my first playthrough, when I had Mudkip and Tepig, I got one shot by Heliolisk and its Thunder or Hyper Voice, in an early-game dungeon. And even when I arrived to the bosses, they were impossible to pass for me because they are Poliwrath and they resist to Fire and have Water Absorb, and the non-stabbed attacks were way too weak. And I say my first playthrough because yeah, I was forced to restart a new one with two other Pokemon.

And that's not the only time I got blocked this way. Of course I could train my mons and gain some experience, trying and retrying again and again until I beat the boss. But the problem is when you lost in a dungeon, you roll back to the last save, so you lose all your experience you gained. I've personally stopped playing after the Voidlands, since my Pokemon weren't trained and strong enough and probably never be. There were moments where I was thinking "Damn, this game is so mean !"

Speaking of the Voidlands, maybe that's just because of my frustration about this game, but I found this scenario part unnessecary long. They were several moments where I was thinking "Damn we're still there ? All right, that's enough !"

On the other hand, dungeons become way too easy when you have level 50 Alakazam or Tyranitar when you're not it the middle of the scenario. Because yeah, the other problem I have with this game is it's recruitment system. Besides the fact that you don't have anymore that chill after being nearly to beat a Pokemon you want to have and thinking whether it will join your team, because it's now 100% guaranteed the Pokemon you help will do it, helping it will connect it to other Pokemon, which will also join you. And some of them are overpowered when you've just finished the first part of the scenario, like the two I mentioned.

I've also HATED the partner. It's behaviour is so childish and annoying. I think I've never hated that much a fictional character before.
All this to say I've never finished that game and I never plan to do neither.
 
Getting stuck is an issue all of the PMD games can run into, since they all have sections where you are unable to back out to get useful items or EXP while the dungeon is designed around having them. I'm pretty sure the original/DX is the only one of the four I haven't needed to level grind in a one-dungeon space, since its just a single short locked-in section and I knew it was coming after having accidentally overleveled in my first playthrough (I just never entered the town to trigger the cutscene to start the section until I was like level 33 or something). Final sections for GTI/Super, Spacial Rift for Explorers. Super does have several long locked sections, which is one of its main flaws.
 
SpiritGuy said:
Speaking of PDM, I've really hated PSMD, the only Pokemon game I've really disliked btw.

First of all the difficulty isn't well balanced. The game is either nearly impossible or too easy. For example, in my first playthrough, when I had Mudkip and Tepig, I got one shot by Heliolisk and its Thunder or Hyper Voice, in an early-game dungeon. And even when I arrived to the bosses, they were impossible to pass for me because they are Poliwrath and they resist to Fire and have Water Absorb, and the non-stabbed attacks were way too weak. And I say my first playthrough because yeah, I was forced to restart a new one with two other Pokemon.

And that's not the only time I got blocked this way. Of course I could train my mons and gain some experience, trying and retrying again and again until I beat the boss. But the problem is when you lost in a dungeon, you roll back to the last save, so you lose all your experience you gained. I've personally stopped playing after the Voidlands, since my Pokemon weren't trained and strong enough and probably never be. There were moments where I was thinking "Damn, this game is so mean !"

Speaking of the Voidlands, maybe that's just because of my frustration about this game, but I found this scenario part unnessecary long. They were several moments where I was thinking "Damn we're still there ? All right, that's enough !"

On the other hand, dungeons become way too easy when you have level 50 Alakazam or Tyranitar when you're not it the middle of the scenario. Because yeah, the other problem I have with this game is it's recruitment system. Besides the fact that you don't have anymore that chill after being nearly to beat a Pokemon you want to have and thinking whether it will join your team, because it's now 100% guaranteed the Pokemon you help will do it, helping it will connect it to other Pokemon, which will also join you. And some of them are overpowered when you've just finished the first part of the scenario, like the two I mentioned.

I've also HATED the partner. It's behaviour is so childish and annoying. I think I've never hated that much a fictional character before.
All this to say I've never finished that game and I never plan to do neither.
Click to expand...

It's funny. I really liked it due to pretty much the same reasons you disliked it.
 
On the topic of cutscenes, I haven't actually played much of gen 7 yet so I can't speak to how annoying/tedious they are in that game, but any game that doesn't give you the option to skip cutscenes for repeat playthroughs and such automatically loses points for me, and I imagine a lot of other people are in the same boat.
 
Lemingue said:
"Too much water" is 100% correct and mocking it was just because it was phrased in a funny way. The water routes of the game are monotonous, boring or just straight up annoying. Diving is a cool mechanic but you use it 1% of the game and the rest is just water routes everywhere until you reach the league
Click to expand...
The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.
Water routes, of course, mostly only have water mons. There's the occasional island with a patch of grass, but as a whole, you're going to be up against stuff that lives in the water, and that's basically just fish, whales, and seagulls. Some games have a wider variety of water mons, some have less(RS had literally 3 families in the bulk of the oceans), but fundamentally no matter how many different water-types there are, the strategy is "stick something with TBolt as lead and bring a bunch of PP restores". The first route in the game usually has more type variety than your average ocean. Caves have rock, ground, and zubats as a minimum, and plenty throw in machop or paras or something, water routes don't do that. The trainers don't help either, the vast majority of the ones you encounter will be Swimmers, Tubers, and similar, using the exact same mons as the wild encounters.

Then there's surfing itself. You basically always have the bike before you can Surf, which means travelling over water slows you down. Some games are better than others(RS were the first to make surfing match your running speed), but given that the player had been Mach Biking everywhere before that, having to Surf is clearly a downgrade.

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".
I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.
 
Hugin said:
The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.
Water routes, of course, mostly only have water mons. There's the occasional island with a patch of grass, but as a whole, you're going to be up against stuff that lives in the water, and that's basically just fish, whales, and seagulls. Some games have a wider variety of water mons, some have less(RS had literally 3 families in the bulk of the oceans), but fundamentally no matter how many different water-types there are, the strategy is "stick something with TBolt as lead and bring a bunch of PP restores". The first route in the game usually has more type variety than your average ocean. Caves have rock, ground, and zubats as a minimum, and plenty throw in machop or paras or something, water routes don't do that. The trainers don't help either, the vast majority of the ones you encounter will be Swimmers, Tubers, and similar, using the exact same mons as the wild encounters.

Then there's surfing itself. You basically always have the bike before you can Surf, which means travelling over water slows you down. Some games are better than others(RS were the first to make surfing match your running speed), but given that the player had been Mach Biking everywhere before that, having to Surf is clearly a downgrade.

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".
I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.
Click to expand...
Add in that you go Water Route -> Gym -> Water Route -> Water Evil Team (one game only)/Evil Team -> Water Route -> Water Gym Leader -> Water Route -> Victory Road

And in Emerald, you have a Water Champion at the end of it all with a longer water route to find Ray before the Water Gym Leader
 
Hugin said:
The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.
Water routes, of course, mostly only have water mons. There's the occasional island with a patch of grass, but as a whole, you're going to be up against stuff that lives in the water, and that's basically just fish, whales, and seagulls. Some games have a wider variety of water mons, some have less(RS had literally 3 families in the bulk of the oceans), but fundamentally no matter how many different water-types there are, the strategy is "stick something with TBolt as lead and bring a bunch of PP restores". The first route in the game usually has more type variety than your average ocean. Caves have rock, ground, and zubats as a minimum, and plenty throw in machop or paras or something, water routes don't do that. The trainers don't help either, the vast majority of the ones you encounter will be Swimmers, Tubers, and similar, using the exact same mons as the wild encounters.

Then there's surfing itself. You basically always have the bike before you can Surf, which means travelling over water slows you down. Some games are better than others(RS were the first to make surfing match your running speed), but given that the player had been Mach Biking everywhere before that, having to Surf is clearly a downgrade.

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".
I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the frequency of wild encounters. If you don't bring repels, you're gonna be mashing the run button for a long time. Here's Mixeli getting four random encounters in B/W while trying to surf to shore from an Abyssal Ruins Dive spot.
 
Unpopular opinions #2:

1. I hate the trailer of Sinnoh Adventures. I prefer the official chibi remakes.
2. I'm tired of people who think they can do better Pokemon games than Gamefreak (the mayority of romhackers).
3. I liked the Gen VII cutscenes. It looked like it I was on a adventure with real people. Also I enjoed more Gen VII than V.
4.There should be more champions like Leon.
 
Dire Dire Docks said:
I'm curious about this one. Yeah, a lot of ROM hacks are attempts to improve upon actual Pokémon games, but why are you tired of that?
Click to expand...
Because I'm tired of the romhacks, they offer all the same. They only offer DS graphics(on GBA), mega evolutions and other evolutionary phenoms, Pokemon from further generations , and stories that involve more the evil team (even more than BW) than "Get 8 badges and beat the league" that pretend to be dark and edgy. And sometimes, they put you to battle NPC's with Smogon sets vs your shitmons. There is enough reasons to be tired of romhacks.

EDIT: The worst part is that people actually like these romhacks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top