The games in Gen 1 have a feral kind of energy around it that will never be matched. Part of that are the bugs (not the type) but another part is just how hilariously weird the TMs are. In between the usual stuff like Thunderbolt, Earthquake and other stalwarts that would make it further you've got Softboiled, Rage, Psywave, Mimic and my favorite, freakin Metronome. There's a Pokemon YouTuber I watch who uses Mimic sometimes in his strats and I think it's hilarious.
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Mimic being so bizarre in Gen I makes it legit one of my favourite moves in those games; you get shown the opponent's full moveset and can pick the move you want to copy, so you can copy a move they might not have even used yet. It's nuts. Back in the day I ran it on my Eevee and had a lot of fun with it.
Yeah it makes more sense in later gens but part of the fun was lost.
Dude imagine how insane it would be if it worked that way in link battles
You'll see people use Ditto that way on occasion, swapping it in more to scout than to actually do anything. If Mimic worked that way, people's views on it would be extreme.
The best part is this actually did happen.
It was made into a joke in Pokémon Sun and Moon for reference to similar scenarios. This kid might actually have a Mewtwo now but we'll never know for sure.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon changed the dialogue of this from "Mewtwo" to "shiny Pokémon".
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you can find a Luxury Ball in N's Room in BW2
that implies even further he sees mons as friends
similarly, finding the Overheat TM outside is cute, because of Reshiram in Black and all
chaining focus energy and scratch (or similar moves i presume) in mystery dungeon actually makes it look like your mon pulled out a sword and slashed somebody. it helps that they usually takes massive damage if you hit.
my torchic is literally a paladin
(note: i just started playing the game yesterday. hence, scratch)
my torchic is literally a paladin
(note: i just started playing the game yesterday. hence, scratch)
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Let’s say nice things about Gen 7. Or to be specific, the Alola games. I have often been quite negative towards them in the past, and while I don’t think they are perfect, I still like them a lot and Gen 7 is my third favorite generation. I’m saying this now because I have been thinking about it recently. I seriously overplayed Gen 7 back when it was new, I more or less played it non-stop from the release of S/M all the way to the release of S/S, which unfortunately made me very tired of it in the end. After that, I have barely played either S/M or US/UM since the release of S/S. And to tell the truth… I have started to miss them. I miss Alola, the games, and the Pokémon I have in them. I’m planning to go back to them in the future to complete the ongoing streaks I have at the Battle Tree, and I’m looking forward to it.
There are many great things about Gen 7. I think Z-moves are really great, and while I like Megas better as an overall mechanic, I think the way Z-moves were handled within the context of the games was much better executed. I’m also happy that Gen 7 kept Megas instead of just removing them entirely, allowing these two mechanics to coexist alongside each other. Poké Pelago is an amazing feature since it allows you to get progress done while doing other things in the game, or while not playing at all. Pokémon Refresh was a great successor to Pokémon Amie, and Hyper Training was something I had always dreamed of prior to the day when it finally became reality.
The Battle Tree is amazing and one of the best standard battle facilities in the series. The Alola Pokémon are great, there are many really good ones and I am especially fond of the Ultra Beasts. They are such a fantastic concept with a great execution as well. I also think Alola also has one of the best starter trios in the series. Alola forms were a great concept as well, I like how the following generations continued with the concept of regional variants and improved upon it. The Poké Ride is also amazing and way better than HMs ever were.
The story and characters deserve a mention too. I like how they tried something different with Trials over Gyms. I think S/M has one of the top three best stories in the main series Pokémon games, and while the story in US/UM wasn’t quite as great, it was still good in the end. One thing I especially liked about the US/UM story is Necrozma’s “character arc” (or what it should be called). Chances are I’m just glorifying it in my head due to unclear memories, but I recall liking it a lot and I think it is one of the best ways the games have ever handled the cover legend within the story of the games. The only thing I didn’t like was the battle against Ultra Necrozma at the end, but apart from that, it was fantastic. One more thing I like about US/UM was all the minor changes they made to S/M. There were many things that made me think: "Wait a second, was it like this in S/M as well? I recall it being different somehow..." And I think that was really cool. I like when the Pokémon games make small, subtle changes.
One thing I think Gen 7 deserves extra praise for nowadays is the fact that it was the last generation to have all existing Pokémon in the games, and it is currently the generation with the highest total number of Pokémon available in the games. Since dexit became a thing in subsequent generations, I can appreciate Gen 7 a lot more because of this. There are other things I like about Gen 7 as well, but I think everything I have talked about above are my top favorite things about it. While there were some things Gen 7 could have done better, I think the good outweighs the bad, and it was really good on the whole, thus earing the spot as my third favorite generation.
Next, let’s say some nice things about Gen 9 as well. I enjoyed Violet a lot. I’m really looking forward to it getting Home support (which is finally going to happen soon, yay) so I can go back to it and complete my Pokédex, as well as the future DLC, which will give me another very good reason to go back and play the game again. I think the game did many things right and it feels like Gen 9 is off to a great start. I hope they can keep it up during the rest of the generation.
The open world and non-linearity of the game worked surprisingly well, much better than I expected. It isn’t perfect, but the issues should be easy to fix in future open world Pokémon games (or if they just add them in a patch for ScaVio, not expecting that to happen though). I like Terastal as a mechanic, I definitely prefer it over DMax/GMax. The games also kept many good features and QoL improvements from previous games, while straight up improving some of them, like how Hyper Training can now be done at level 50 instead of level 100, or how Mints can be bought at regular shops.
I also think the story in the games is really great. It is my favorite story of all main series Pokémon games. There were many amazing moments, I really like how they had three different paths that you could play however you wanted, and how it all came together in one final path in the end. The way they handled the cover legend was really great too. It travels with you throughout the entire journey, but it feels very balanced since you don’t unlock its real power until the very end of the main story. It was also another great example of how to do HMs right within a Pokémon game.
I think the Gen 9 Pokémon are amazing as well, there are so many great ones. I grew to like the ones I used on my in-game team a lot, but there are several others I like that I have yet to use. I definitely want to use most of them in the future, hopefully for my DLC teams. The Paradox Pokémon were very unexpected, but I think they are really fantastic. They are like a completely different group of Pokémon, similar to the Ultra Beasts.
I also want to give some praise to an individual Pokémon from Gen 9.
Meowscarada is awesome. Don’t know of this is an unpopular opinion, but I really like how Sprigatito ended up standing up once it evolved. I love cats and an attention-seeking trickster/magician cat was something I didn’t know I needed from Pokémon. I used it on my in-game team and it was amazing. Flower Trick is a fantastic signature move as well. Meowscarada is my favorite Paldea starter by far, one of my overall favorite starters, and it has beaten Serperior as my favorite Grass-type starter.
So yeah, I like Gen 9 so far. Not really sure whether I like it better than Gen 8, they are sort of tied for me right now. S/S has the advantage of the DLC at the moment, but maybe Gen 9 will get the upper hand once the DLC for ScaVio is released. The future will tell.
Now, for something else. I’m not really sure if this is suitable for this thread, but I want to post another potential Pokémon reference from a different game. I mentioned two things from NEO:TWEWY a while ago, and now it is time again. Another of my favorite Switch games (and my most recent favorite) is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This game is amazing and you should play it if you haven’t already. In the game, there are various affinity bonuses you can get through increasing the rank for the colonies. One of these bonuses increases your chances of encountering rare monsters, and it is named Shiny-Hunter.
This feels like an obvious reference to shiny hunting in Pokémon (or rather, in the Pokémon fandom). Or maybe it is just a big coincidence, I don’t know. Really cool anyway.
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View attachment 517272View attachment 517273View attachment 517275View attachment 517276
Let’s say nice things about Gen 7. Or to be specific, the Alola games. I have often been quite negative towards them in the past, and while I don’t think they are perfect, I still like them a lot and Gen 7 is my third favorite generation. I’m saying this now because I have been thinking about it recently. I seriously overplayed Gen 7 back when it was new, I more or less played it non-stop from the release of S/M all the way to the release of S/S, which unfortunately made me very tired of it in the end. After that, I have barely played either S/M or US/UM since the release of S/S. And to tell the truth… I have started to miss them. I miss Alola, the games, and the Pokémon I have in them. I’m planning to go back to them in the future to complete the ongoing streaks I have at the Battle Tree, and I’m looking forward to it.
There are many great things about Gen 7. I think Z-moves are really great, and while I like Megas better as an overall mechanic, I think the way Z-moves were handled within the context of the games was much better executed. I’m also happy that Gen 7 kept Megas instead of just removing them entirely, allowing these two mechanics to coexist alongside each other. Poké Pelago is an amazing feature since it allows you to get progress done while doing other things in the game, or while not playing at all. Pokémon Refresh was a great successor to Pokémon Amie, and Hyper Training was something I had always dreamed of prior to the day when it finally became reality.
The Battle Tree is amazing and one of the best standard battle facilities in the series. The Alola Pokémon are great, there are many really good ones and I am especially fond of the Ultra Beasts. They are such a fantastic concept with a great execution as well. I also think Alola also has one of the best starter trios in the series. Alola forms were a great concept as well, I like how the following generations continued with the concept of regional variants and improved upon it. The Poké Ride is also amazing and way better than HMs ever were.
The story and characters deserve a mention too. I like how they tried something different with Trials over Gyms. I think S/M has one of the top three best stories in the main series Pokémon games, and while the story in US/UM wasn’t quite as great, it was still good in the end. One thing I especially liked about the US/UM story is Necrozma’s “character arc” (or what it should be called). Chances are I’m just glorifying it in my head due to unclear memories, but I recall liking it a lot and I think it is one of the best ways the games have ever handled the cover legend within the story of the games. The only thing I didn’t like was the battle against Ultra Necrozma at the end, but apart from that, it was fantastic. One more thing I like about US/UM was all the minor changes they made to S/M. There were many things that made me think: "Wait a second, was it like this in S/M as well? I recall it being different somehow..." And I think that was really cool. I like when the Pokémon games make small, subtle changes.
One thing I think Gen 7 deserves extra praise for nowadays is the fact that it was the last generation to have all existing Pokémon in the games, and it is currently the generation with the highest total number of Pokémon available in the games. Since dexit became a thing in subsequent generations, I can appreciate Gen 7 a lot more because of this. There are other things I like about Gen 7 as well, but I think everything I have talked about above are my top favorite things about it. While there were some things Gen 7 could have done better, I think the good outweighs the bad, and it was really good on the whole, thus earing the spot as my third favorite generation.
Next, let’s say some nice things about Gen 9 as well. I enjoyed Violet a lot. I’m really looking forward to it getting Home support (which is finally going to happen soon, yay) so I can go back to it and complete my Pokédex, as well as the future DLC, which will give me another very good reason to go back and play the game again. I think the game did many things right and it feels like Gen 9 is off to a great start. I hope they can keep it up during the rest of the generation.
The open world and non-linearity of the game worked surprisingly well, much better than I expected. It isn’t perfect, but the issues should be easy to fix in future open world Pokémon games (or if they just add them in a patch for ScaVio, not expecting that to happen though). I like Terastal as a mechanic, I definitely prefer it over DMax/GMax. The games also kept many good features and QoL improvements from previous games, while straight up improving some of them, like how Hyper Training can now be done at level 50 instead of level 100, or how Mints can be bought at regular shops.
I also think the story in the games is really great. It is my favorite story of all main series Pokémon games. There were many amazing moments, I really like how they had three different paths that you could play however you wanted, and how it all came together in one final path in the end. The way they handled the cover legend was really great too. It travels with you throughout the entire journey, but it feels very balanced since you don’t unlock its real power until the very end of the main story. It was also another great example of how to do HMs right within a Pokémon game.
I think the Gen 9 Pokémon are amazing as well, there are so many great ones. I grew to like the ones I used on my in-game team a lot, but there are several others I like that I have yet to use. I definitely want to use most of them in the future, hopefully for my DLC teams. The Paradox Pokémon were very unexpected, but I think they are really fantastic. They are like a completely different group of Pokémon, similar to the Ultra Beasts.
I also want to give some praise to an individual Pokémon from Gen 9.
View attachment 517271
Meowscarada is awesome. Don’t know of this is an unpopular opinion, but I really like how Sprigatito ended up standing up once it evolved. I love cats and an attention-seeking trickster/magician cat was something I didn’t know I needed from Pokémon. I used it on my in-game team and it was amazing. Flower Trick is a fantastic signature move as well. Meowscarada is my favorite Paldea starter by far, one of my overall favorite starters, and it has beaten Serperior as my favorite Grass-type starter.
So yeah, I like Gen 9 so far. Not really sure whether I like it better than Gen 8, they are sort of tied for me right now. S/S has the advantage of the DLC at the moment, but maybe Gen 9 will get the upper hand once the DLC for ScaVio is released. The future will tell.
Now, for something else. I’m not really sure if this is suitable for this thread, but I want to post another potential Pokémon reference from a different game. I mentioned two things from NEO:TWEWY a while ago, and now it is time again. Another of my favorite Switch games (and my most recent favorite) is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This game is amazing and you should play it if you haven’t already. In the game, there are various affinity bonuses you can get through increasing the rank for the colonies. One of these bonuses increases your chances of encountering rare monsters, and it is named Shiny-Hunter.
This feels like an obvious reference to shiny hunting in Pokémon (or rather, in the Pokémon fandom). Or maybe it is just a big coincidence, I don’t know. Really cool anyway.
Is the dislike of the final battle with Necrozma due to the artificial stat raise? Or something else?
Yeah, that's the reason. I understand that they wanted to create a really hard battle, but I think they went a bit too far. I got really frustrated by it the first time I played UM since I had no good strategy for it and I just wanted to continue with the story, being stopped by an unexpectedly hard boss like that wasn't something I enjoyed at all. I think it would have been better if the stat boosts had been a little less harsh, like if it was just +1 or if it had only recieved a boost for some stats instead of all. But that's the only thing I disliked about Necrozma in US/UM.
Speaking of Ultra Necrozma, I think it is an awesome Pokémon and form. It has a design which is awesome in every possible way and it can be played in many different ways. It is powerful, but not downright broken. This form, combined with how it was handled in the US/UM story, made Necrozma my favorite legendary from Gen 7. I really wish it was available in Gen 8 as well, I hope it can make a comeback in a future generation one day even if I'm sadly not expecting it to happen.
I've felt that Necrozma had to have overinflated stats in order to attempt to function as a single-mon boss that is defeated instead of captured. There are simply too many ways to get percentage-based damage through and/or trade one turn for another that the only way a single health bar can be threatening is if it's either immune to all of the tricks (e.g. Dynamax raids) or capable of outspeeding and OHKOing the player team.Yeah, that's the reason. I understand that they wanted to create a really hard battle, but I think they went a bit too far. I got really frustrated by it the first time I played UM since I had no good strategy for it and I just wanted to continue with the story, being stopped by an unexpectedly hard boss like that wasn't something I enjoyed at all. I think it would have been better if the stat boosts had been a little less harsh, like if it was just +1 or if it had only recieved a boost for some stats instead of all. But that's the only thing I disliked about Necrozma in US/UM.
Speaking of Ultra Necrozma, I think it is an awesome Pokémon and form. It has a design which is awesome in every possible way and it can be played in many different ways. It is powerful, but not downright broken. This form, combined with how it was handled in the US/UM story, made Necrozma my favorite legendary from Gen 7. I really wish it was available in Gen 8 as well, I hope it can make a comeback in a future generation one day even if I'm sadly not expecting it to happen.
Which is to say, I think that Pokemon should stop trying to make single-mon bosses work for several playstyles and focus on making Gym fights interesting challenges.
Brave and the Bold is the best Batman cartoon ever. It gave us Batman and Abe Lincoln fighting John Wilkes Booth.
In BW2 Driftveil there's an older man who paraphrased says "Three years ago I gave my Pokemon away to Team Plasma... I'm lonely now, but at least my Pokemon won't have to feel alone when I die" and out of anything associated with the Plasma saga, prequel material included, this one throwaway NPC line hidden in a random hotel hit me the hardest by far.
If I'd had to guess, I would have expected B2W2 to be like "all the Pokemon that were given away found their way back and everything's good now!", but I love that they refused to tie things up so neatly. The Unova games are my favourites because there are lots of subtly mature bits of storytelling like that (which, to give them their due, subsequent games like the XY example cited have continued): sometimes actions have consequences that cannot be fixed, and even worse, sometimes your pain and suffering is entirely down to you!
Okay that last bit might be a bit of a reach, but hey. Believe populist demagogues at your own peril, folks.
And the only one like it in XY, which makes me wonder if there's a behind-the-scenes story concerning it being included.
Though, this does remind me of an exclusion of something which it felt like GF were improving on: giving purpose to all your other Pokemon in the PC. While this was a small side quest in XY, it felt like the beginning of what would later become the Poke Pelago in Sun & Moon and then the PokeJobs in SwSh. I was expecting something similar to the PokeJobs in SV, considering we're attending an elite Trainer Academy I thought that would have given the perfect place for it, having your Pokemon help out the Instructors with lessons and and Staff with work around the Academy. But no, there's nothing for you to have the Pokemon in your PC to help out with so they're once again stuck in stasis with only a faint hope that they could become useful in a Tera Raid.
It's implied that after BW that the group who were loyal to Ghetsis and later formed Neo Team Plasma took a lot of the "surrendered" Pokemon with them (hence Hugh's quest to find his sister's Purrloin). N Loyalists did their best to return all the Pokemon they were able to get but not only did they not have all of them but sounds like there's plenty of Pokemon who's trainers haven't come and got them. I imagine it would have been made public knowledge that a group of reformed Plasma members are giving back taken Pokemon in Driftveil so small chance of no one not knowing, which then only leads to cases where indeed the Pokemon was abandoned. Now maybe in some we have cases like the above where the previous trainer either is gone (passed away or just moved away thinking they're Pokemon is in safe hands) or is old and don't want their Pokemon to be alone when they pass away. But there's probably also cases where the trainer didn't want the Pokemon anymore but felt wrong just releasing it and saw Team Plasma taking Pokemon as a way to give it up with a clear conscious. Which in that case it's the Pokemon who is left alone, wondering why its trainer never came back for it (though at least its in the care of the good members of Team Plasma).
And of course at the end of BW2 there's the hanging question was the N Loyalists ever able to retrieve more of the Pokemon that Neo Plasma took.
NOT to mention, as we've seen with Hugh's sister's Liepard, some Pokemon got indoctrinated by (Neo) Team Plasma and thus are hostile to their original trainers. Eventually we see Hugh's sister is able to reconnect with Liepard and it no longer acts hostile toward them, though how many other Trainers would give up on an indoctrinated Pokemon, possibly leaving the trainer heartbroken if they wanted their Pokemon back but also for the Pokemon which now has been abandoned by both its old and new trainer. As Gen V likes to try showing, there are situations where things aren't clearly black and white.
Aaaaaaaand roll credits!
Anyways, something I like in Gen 9 is how GF apparently went out of their way to make all three starters good, and roughly equally so, to the point they were all OU at one point (albeit the limited metagame contributed to that) They all got well-distributed stats akin to last Gen’s starters, but this time all three have great abilities. Plus, while Meowscarada has arguably gotten some favoritism (likely cuz of Liko), it’s nowhere near as blatant as last Gen giving Cinderace frickin’ two exclusive moves and a unique reskin of Protean.
Incidentally, while Fuecoco will always be My Boi (C), I like the other two fairly equally, which hasn’t really happened since Gen 4.
I think it's quite ironic that while all 3 are viable in singles, none of the 3 has any viability in the actual VGC scenario.
Meowscarada was very strong in the very limited first series, but has since then dropped off to oblivion as well.
"Truly skilled trainers will try to win with their favorites, unless you're playing official tournaments and your favorite is your first Pokemon, in which case LMAO"
Look sir, if some random guy can make top 30 regional with this GIGACHAD team here
https://pokepast.es/a0abfc335f6dfc58
everything is possible
(But nah, we all know that the Pachirisu theorem isnt "you can win with your favourites" but rather "if you can actually find a legitimate niche for your favourite to do something noone else can, then you can win with your favourite")
If you really put your nose to the grindstone you can form a team that can handle competitive threats while still being, we'll say eclectic to be nice. I follow someone on youtube who does this with various teams throughout a generation, it's impressive to see what they can put together and the teams they consistently beat.
But it varies on a bunch of factors (if nothing else, a proper tournament setting will have a very different set of people) and at the end of the day most people will always take the path of least resistance that gets the most consistent results when money et all is on the line
But it varies on a bunch of factors (if nothing else, a proper tournament setting will have a very different set of people) and at the end of the day most people will always take the path of least resistance that gets the most consistent results when money et all is on the line
Looks like Game Freak really got paranoid after the Galar trio was insane in competitive (at least Rillaboom and Cinderace) in the official VGC scene, because this strikes me as the Paldea starters having been toned down in power level compared to how exceptional Rillaboom and Cinderace were in competitive.
The Galar trio is arguably the strongest a starter group has ever been in VGC (and even in our unofficial Smogon singles format) despite their mundane typings and iffy designs, Rillaboom and Cinderace in particular absolutely dominated the VGC format with Grassy Surge+Grassy Glide and Libero+super strong attacks+high Attack and Speed respectively, Inteleon was the loser but still saw occassional VGC use and had its uses.
Seems Game Freak didn't want to do that a second time and thus dialed it back, which is why none of Meowscarada, Skeledirge, or Quaquaval have viability in VGC as it stands.
Even in singles, while we have a case of all three being viable in Smogon standard, their actual influence on our metagame is considerably toned down compared to how Rillaboom and Cinderace were metagame defining threats even in Gen 8 Smogon OU. Meowscarada and Skeledirge are good, but they are merely staples as opposed to basically reshaping the metagame like Cinderace and Rillaboom did (Cinderace in particular being so overpowered it had to be banned from OU twice). Meowscarada is a good fast attacker with Protean and a good U-turn user and Spikes lead, and has plenty of good niches, and Skeledirge is a staple of stall teams thanks to good bulk, Unaware, and Slack Off, but you don't really see anyone making a big fuss about their power level.
Quaquaval is the loser of the three like Inteleon was, but unlike the Galar trio who were on extremes, it's a toned down "loser" member because it has a niche in OU and while it's UU now, it's a good solid staple of UU. Meanwhile Inteleon took being the loser member of its starter trio to a more extreme degree because it was so bland and outclassed that it had absolutely no viability in higher tiers and struggled to find a good niche even in NU.
In essence it seems Paldea's starter trio effectively comes off as a toned down version of Galar's starter trio in terms of competitive viability. They're less extreme, non-viable in VGC, and here the two winners are mere staples with the loser being a niche, but good UU mon, as opposed to Galar's trio having two insanely busted starters in both Smogon and official VGC competitive and one loser who failed to see any semblance of viability even in our lower tiers and was a niche pick at best in VGC.
I wouldnt write off the starters yet completely for vgc (or even bss) though.
Most of Rillaboom and Cinderace's VGC utility actually happened in the dlcs where they got their HAs, the tutor moves, and Gmax forms.
Grassy Glide and Pyro Ball having the versatility to turn in a 140 grass/fire gmax move that also ignored abilities was the big boon that gave them viability, and I doubt cinderace expecially would have seen much usage without Dmax giving it enough hp to actually not die in 1 hit.
I wouldnt excluse the dlcs having some more surprises for the 3 Paldea starters, likely a unique terastal variant and maybe some stronger attacks.
Most of Rillaboom and Cinderace's VGC utility actually happened in the dlcs where they got their HAs, the tutor moves, and Gmax forms.
Grassy Glide and Pyro Ball having the versatility to turn in a 140 grass/fire gmax move that also ignored abilities was the big boon that gave them viability, and I doubt cinderace expecially would have seen much usage without Dmax giving it enough hp to actually not die in 1 hit.
I wouldnt excluse the dlcs having some more surprises for the 3 Paldea starters, likely a unique terastal variant and maybe some stronger attacks.
Bear in mind Meowscarada is about as strong as Cinderace on statline (with a slightly-higher and very relevant Speed advantage), so new moves would definitely get it a lot of mileage vs the other Protean Starters.
The thing I actually like about the Paldea starters is that, by design or coincidence, they highlight the three "flavors" of Tera usage when looking at their HA roles. Meowscarada with Protean already does type shuffling and actually isn't (always) smart to use your Tera on, since it conflicts with the ability and gets a more marginal gain; Skeledirge is an excellent user of different-type Tera for defensive purposes since Unaware combined with recovery and its slower bulky statline gives it a lot more mileage by avoiding SE hits; Quaquaval with Moxie and Aqua Step needs to punch one good hole and then starts trying to snowball, so it benefits from offensive Tera (be it same type nuking or a Surprise Coverage power up).
The approach also just feels more purposeful than the Galarian Starters. Their GMAX moves were pretty generic nukes, and it's partially informed by my bias against DMAX being a "use this or you suck" part of the game rather than a tool in the box. I also find it funny that Cinderace was clearly meant to be the "favorite/popular" starter despite them giving Rillaboom easily the most VGC-relevant kit for Grassy Surge alone (given how often Groudon/Kyogre are dominant Restricteds and Earthquake as a prime Spread move goes, among other benefits).
The thing I actually like about the Paldea starters is that, by design or coincidence, they highlight the three "flavors" of Tera usage when looking at their HA roles. Meowscarada with Protean already does type shuffling and actually isn't (always) smart to use your Tera on, since it conflicts with the ability and gets a more marginal gain; Skeledirge is an excellent user of different-type Tera for defensive purposes since Unaware combined with recovery and its slower bulky statline gives it a lot more mileage by avoiding SE hits; Quaquaval with Moxie and Aqua Step needs to punch one good hole and then starts trying to snowball, so it benefits from offensive Tera (be it same type nuking or a Surprise Coverage power up).
The approach also just feels more purposeful than the Galarian Starters. Their GMAX moves were pretty generic nukes, and it's partially informed by my bias against DMAX being a "use this or you suck" part of the game rather than a tool in the box. I also find it funny that Cinderace was clearly meant to be the "favorite/popular" starter despite them giving Rillaboom easily the most VGC-relevant kit for Grassy Surge alone (given how often Groudon/Kyogre are dominant Restricteds and Earthquake as a prime Spread move goes, among other benefits).