Feel like the "symbol" system to decide battle-ready competitive Pokemon is really dumb. I get pre-6 everyone was hacking or whatever but now its constantly breed over and over unless you play showdown.
Yeah, I think it was a bad idea to make a new "symbol" for Gen VII. Made sense for Gen VI as they wanted to wipe the slate clean and they released Pokemon Bank. But why do it for Gen VII? It should only be done when they want to do another big slate wipe, which itself shouldn't need to be done for a few more generations (if ever again). OR at the very least, if a Pokemon doesn't have the "right" symbol, instead of outright banning it they should be sent through a filter to check to see if it had anything that isn't approved of, if it doesn't then there should be no problem using it (and if there is tell what the problem is so that it can be potentially fixed).
The 3D models in Gen 6 and Gen 7 are awful and a huge step down from the sprites in Gens 3, 4, and 5. The models look super lifeless that in most cases barely move and what animation they do have is further hurt by the reused animation cycles that multiple species share. They do a good job of emulating the official art style, but other than that just absolutely lack any sense of personality at all. They just stand/float there and stare blankly forward.
Entry hazards are broken, but they're broken in a way people like so we keep them.
Gen 6 was a rushed mess that feels like a half finished game that doesn't capitalize on its "Pokefrance" theme by having like, just two vaguely French inspired areas.
"Friendly" rivals are far more interesting than the "Carbon copy of Blue/Green/Gary" rivals that people keep asking for. They fit better in the narrative themes that Pokemon tries to encourage regarding bonds and friendship. One dimensional assholes who only exist for you to hate them so you feel good about yourself are both boring and don't motivate me to beat them. Even back in GSC, Silver was a far more interesting rival because he was actually a character, not a punching bag with a frowny face drawn on it. You still wanted to beat him, but he was also still a person. There's reasons to want to beat people other than you don't like them and it fosters an unhealthy attitude to see anyone who competes with you as just someone to beat down with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Model Pose: I too hope they decide, even if it's only for the Pokemon in the regional dex, to give the models more dynamic poses. I get it for Gen 6, they had to transition all the Pokemon to 3D models, but they should now focus on giving them some life. And even if they recycle certain animations (like I imagine a lot of the quadruped Pokemon sharing a crouched-down-ready-to-pounce pose), as long as it's a dynamic pose I think it would be forgiven.
Broken Hazard: I think only Stealth Rock is that broken, and that's because it can remove 50% HP of a Pokemon quad weak to Rock. I think if they made it so a Pokemon can at most only receive 25% damage from Stealth Rocks it'll be more balanced. Also maybe have more ways to get rid of hazards.
Foreign Point Of View: It was discussed a while ago, but it was pointed out how, despite them basing regions on other locations outside of Japan, GF still has a very Japanese centric view of things. This can be seen in Unova with it being a hodgepodge of cultures (while true New York is a melting pot, they still had locations like the Abundant Shrine which was very Japanese), in Kalos with a lot of Lumiose City being tourist attractions, and in Alola where they HEAVILY leaned on its relation to Kanto. Sure, you do see bits and pieces of those locations culture, but at the same time it does feel you're only seeing it from a tourist point of view rather then from someone who lives in the region. And it feels like this is by choice, like GF doesn't want to really dive into the regions culture besides on a surface level (unless its a Japanese-based region); even though the Pokemon Company has international offices GF itself is still a very Japanese-run company and doesn't really employ non-Japanese people (or at least those who don't speak Japanese).
Middle Rival: Once again, it's not like I don't like the friendly rivals or want a jerk rival specifically, but we've had like 4 gens in a row where the rivals were your best bud and it's kind of getting tiring. And yes they try to make them all different, having their own goals and development, but one aspect that doesn't change is they see you as a best friend. Would just like to see a rival who, while friendly, only considers you as a "friend they know" or even just an acquaintance (not exactly a friend but no one you have any ill will against). Like the rival just meets you as both of your are getting your first Pokemon and they're here with a mission/goal/assignment/dream/etc. that doesn't really involve you but it's nice to have someone to compare their strength against. While this sounds cold, it all depends on the personality given to this rival. For example, recently they finally gave Green her own character in Let's Go... and she's quite the strange one. We only meet her for a short time: she wanted to catch Mewtwo but you beat her to it. You two have a battle, you beat her, and afterwards she takes an "interest" in you, saying she wants to catch you and starts chucking Poke Balls until running away laughing (yes, she does this even if you're playing as the girl). VERY quirky, now imagine if she was the type of rival I described, with her goal being to catch interesting and unique Pokemon and seeing you as a way to test these Pokemon. You're not exactly friends, but you're on friendly terms at least and she has her own story she'll develop through.
Or hey, another interesting rival idea I thought about: what if you could "create" your on rival. Now this could be done in a number of ways, if they want to go all in on the concept you pretty much create your rival as you do creating your character, and that would include their personality (maybe not a binary "jerk" or "friendly" option but maybe have multiple options that'll shape their interactions). A less extreme version is just letting your interactions with a rival determine how their relation to you develops, though this may require more work as they'd need to give you plenty of opportunities for each rival.
I think the games need more anti-villains. In case someone doesn't know, that's someone with "good" goals but the character achieves them in a "bad" way. The character I think of when thinking about anti-villains is N. He fits a lot an anti-villain; in my opinion, he never wanted to liberate Pokemon, he just wanted them to be safe. However, in order for them to be safe, he thought __liberating them__ was the way. It's clear that he's an anti-villain: He doesn't necessarily dislike the protagonist (in fact, he likes them and considers them their friend). He shares his love for Pokemon with the protagonist, but his views are different from his/hers, which makes them enemies by extension. Of course, making Pokemon safe is a good thing. Liberating them from trainers that actually love them is the bad thing here.
Well Archie, Maxie, and Lysandre were sort of anti-villains.
Archie and Maxie saw a problem in the world (though whether it actually existed is up to debate) and sought to change it for the betterment of everyone (or Pokemon in Archie's case and humans in Maxie's case)... however their idea of fixing it was extremist and so made them into environmental terrorists. Archie and Maxie also didn't hate the player, infact they kind of liked the player's spunk though never took them as a serious threat (and eventually saw them as the only one who could save the day).
Lysandre, despite his elitism which he may not be aware of having even, went down a slippery slope of morality where he somehow concluded the world was heading for economic disaster because he saw there were too many people needing things and not enough people sharing. Despite being one of if not the most richest man in Kalos, no matter how much he donated to public relief programs, there was always people suffering and no one else seemingly wanted to do anything about it. He became bitter toward humanity and, afraid this would eventually lead to resources drying up and people fighting over what remains, decided to cull humanity for people who believed worthy of living forever and killing everyone else; betterment for the planet and who remained. Lysandre's relation to the player is also a bit complex, constantly giving the player chances to stop him. I think Lysandre desperately wants to be proven wrong, wants the player character to stop him and show there's hope for everyone and the world isn't heading for ruin... but at this point he's too paranoid to accept the opportunities to give up and so keeps on taking back his word until he's been finally beaten down (and even then he does on last ditch effort by firing the Ultimate Weapon).
I guess you could maybe count Colress here too? He's not here for the villainy, he's here pretty much for unrestrained science to study the potential within Pokemon.
However everyone else was pretty villainous: Giovanni is a mob boss obsessed with power, Cyrus wished to reset the universe and erase it of emotion while he ruled it like a god, Ghetsis is a manipulative and cruel sociopath who wants to take over the world, Guzma is rebelling against Alola's traditions by being violent and disrespectful, and Lusamine is insane (at least in SM, I guess you could say she is sort of an anti-villain in USUM but she's still a terrible person).
Is he a jerk for no real reason, though? He's the player's childhood rival, so I see most of his interactions as knowing what buttons to push to egg his rival on to give chase. Might just be me who thinks this, though.
No, I think that too to an extent. I think Blue feels entitled, being the grandson of the great Professor Oak, so he definitely has an ego and maybe superiority complex. He wants to prove he's the best, but how can you do that without anyone to challenge you on your level? That's where the player comes in, childhood friends, you two have probably been competing with each other since you both were in diapers so he knows what to do to get you motivated to provide him a challenge. Now, there is still selfishness in this and I feel its a disservice to the character to try and push it off as friendly jibing (this would explain his actions in the Pokemon Tower and Silph Co., what was going on isn't his problem (which Let's Go tried to undo SO hard)). However there's no hatred in what he does, and does take it to heart when you finally beat him (or rather when Professor Oak comes in and tells him where he went wrong in his training). And proof of that is when we see him in future games, notably in HGSS where you can get a call from him on your PokeGear where he reminisce about his battle with Red and wonders where he is now, and then in Gen VII where both he and Red are leaders of the Battle Tree and are acting as old friends.
Ice types should have a 1.5x defense boost in hail along with an ice-type healing move similar to synthesis (restores more in hail).
100% accurate blizzard is not enough, imo. Ice types are unpopular defensive types to play because they have so many weaknesses and not enough resistances. This will also help make hail a little more viable and give ice more defensive options.
There should be more ways to get rid of stealth rock and/or a nerf to the move.
Ok so maybe this one is a bit more popular but I think the fact that stealth rock absolutely decimates a lot of pokemon who already didn't have a big chance to begin with (RIP Masquerain) sucks and centralizes the meta too much. I don't mind it being a thing, but I think it's too powerful as it is. Make rock types be able to remove it upon entry or reduce the damage it deals- something.
I think Pokemon could use another game like XD/Colosseum.
The grittiness and mature themes of Colosseum and XD were really unique and interesting. I would definitely like to visit that again especially with the new capabilities of the switch. Shadow Pokemon were challenging to catch at times and it allowed you to play through the game with Pokemon that aren't normally used as well.
There shouldn't be any more remakes, at least for a long while, and future remakes should instead be re-visitations to the region with unique stories.
New regions, new pokemon, new ideas, new everything please. I don't want to play the same game I've played before with minor updates. I think a good model for this would be like how BW and BW2 differed. Same region, different experience with some continuity. I know BW2 was a sequel rather than a remake but in general this model is good to me.
Pokemon games should have difficulty modes unlocked from the start.
I want more of a challenge, please!
Delta Pokemon should be a thing.
I would be so happy to see this, especially in the way that Pokemon Insurgence did. Alola forms were well received, and I think this would be a cool implementation to continue that legacy.
That's all I've post for now, but I'll try and think of some others to add down the line.
Hail Ice: Kind of odd Hail doesn't do something for Ice-types like increasing the power of Ice-type moves. I question if a Defense boost would help, Ice got so many weaknesses at most it'll make the few might glaciers maybe able to take an extra hit. Think a power increase or maybe Speed increase would be a better option (I'd also say maybe making Ice-type moves have a higher chance of Freezing too). Ice-type Synthesis move could be helpful too, though honestly I think Ice-types really need more stronger Physical or utility moves.
Sneaky Pebbles: Talked about it above. I've debated with the idea of Rock-type removing it like Poison-types can do with Poison Spikes, or maybe having it only work a few times before "crumbling to pebbles" and needing Stealth Rock to be used again. However for now I think going slow with a decrease to damage done to quad weaknesses to see how that effects the metagame.
Orre Once More: Would love another Colosseum game too. But sadly chances are getting slimmer and slimmer. Main series games now have 3D models and are heading to home consoles now that the Switch has combined Nintendo's home console and handheld departments. Main series games are also having more and more story elements, some even dark story elements. Think the only way to get a Colosseum game is for them to actually make the next Gen take place in Orre and have its story revolve around starting a League there and the return of Cipher.
ReNew Not ReMake: I'm mixed on that. Now I ABSOLUTELY agree with this when it comes to the third version/second paired games. B2W2 showed us the potential of this and it's mind boggling despite that they went back to their old ways with USUM and, oh, it didn't turn out so good.
But for the remakes? Well for regions that haven't had remakes yet like Sinnoh & Unova I wouldn't mind if they retold the story BUT added onto what's there. However then we come to regions which had their remakes and, yeah, think they should do something new. Looking at you, Let's Go. Okay, sure, remaking Yellow was a more unique idea then base Red & Blue but still we've gone through this story already and the changes they did to it only confounds things (Let's Go has to take place in its own timeline so we know have three timelines, one which we're never going back to so why even have it... GAH!). Would have been neat if the Kanto remake took place at the same time or a bit after Gen II's storyline and let us visit Johto so we'd have two regions in one game again, but alas. Time will only tell if there will be a second Let's Go game and if they do the storyline for Crystal in that one (even though HGSS did combine Crystal story elements into itself so that's not needed... though they would have a case for Hoenn...).
Challenge Modes: Agreed. GF, B2W2's Challenge Modes didn't work not because no one wanted them, but because you first had to complete the game to get them and you made Easy Mode and Hard Mode version exclusives. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! Heck, you can just drop Easy Mode and only have a Hard Mode option we can select at the start of the game (or can switch on and off during the game, so many games letting you switch between difficulty levels nowadays).
Delta Species: I agree, though to an extent. Unless the game is taking place in Holon, I don't think the effect of the electromagnetic energy used that triggered the Delta Species in Holon would be as extreme there. If you look at a lot of Pokemon you can sort of see a "third or fourth" possible Type they could be, and I think that's what should be played upon. I think it would be more balanced and be easier to explain why a Pokemon can't just be any Type. Also, I think they could also potentially use this idea to do some other things, like maybe also actually giving a Pokemon a tertiary Typing or playing around with the Pokemon's color palette...
