Unpopular opinions

[Cobalt Empoleon]

- capsules were a cute feature and honestly i want them back to do dumb shit ingame

I don't understand what you're talking about and the image doesn't help.

Idk if this was meant to come across as brusque as it did haha, but p0ip0le was referring to Gen 4’s ball capsules.

I loved ball capsules too! It was annoying having to remove them before you could deposit a Pokémon, but it’d be cool to see a more convenient version of them in new games, not that it’s a huge priority for me or anything (plus I suspect certain people would be very angry if modelling resources were devoted to optional aesthetic ball capsules instead of more Pokémon)

 

[DreamPrince]

i think it's time to post this again, which is kinda a good reason to start cutting mons

in the vein of actual unpopular opinions though
- oldgen legendaries should definitely be buffed
- conquest deserves a remake
- bring challenge mode BACK
- capsules were a cute feature and honestly i want them back to do dumb shit ingame
- the hat thing mentioned earlier? i love it

I really enjoyed Pokémon Conquest- The turn based format as well as new additions like terrain influencing certain Pokémon ( lava would harm non-fire, Flying types are immune to terrain, but cannot benefit ). I do agree that one move was the worst part though, since it just feels unesscarily restricted. If they just fix that, I will be fine.

I’m surprised that it never got a sequel though. It was a chance meeting between the heads of TPC and Koei and the Ishihara was a fan of Nobunaga’s Ambition was the reason why it was made. The game sold well, and got good reviews; GameStop was sold out of copies when I went to get it. A sequel was even hinted, but no.

Interestingly enough, Tokyo Mirage Sessions was initially proposed as Fire Emblem x Pokémon crossover but was dropped due to Pokémon Conquest existing and the fact that gameplay was too similar to Fire Emblem. Unfortunate, because Fire Emblem and Pokémon are probably closest to each other in gameplay in Nintendo’s franchises, and being both Nintendo franchises could have meant a stronger series, and probably more sales for Fire Emblem. The ironic part of this Koei helped Intelligent System make Fire Emblem: 3 Houses

Regardless, I think a sequel is highly unlikely at this point due to spinoffs being overshadowed by mobile games. GF is not the only one valuing mobile gaming ( I can see why- mobile gaming is the most popular form of gaming in Japan ) but TPC. To give you an example, Tinishihara actually thought that the Switch would fail because “ no one carries video game consoles in an era of mobile gaming “ If this is there mindset, I’m a little worried for the future of Pokémon.

 

[Codraroll]

I'm pretty sure Game Freak has been trying to take the series from this cumulative state for quite some time now.

(...)

It's clear that Game Freak quickly noticed that it's impossible to simply keep adding features without removing previous ones, the games would just be gradatively getting more and more difficult to develop. In virtue of that, they've been trying to be more like other game series, where each game has its own set of unique features and "playable characters" that simply get exchanged by brand new ones in every new instalment.

In one way, it's what they've been trying to do for a while. In another, it seems like they haven't really addressed the root cause. Cutting well-liked features between games is one thing they've been constantly called out for throughout multiple generations. Even though it might be a necessity, it's clearly a thing fans don't like. It clashes with the "It's the same, but more!" thing that forms a very big part of the appeal of the games. So the features they actually add have to be good enough to compensate for the features they take away. I think XY failed a little here. BW2 were full of features that were nowhere to be seen in XY, and the nice graphics weren't quite enough to make up for the loss of all the bells and whistles. And of course, there was never a Pokémon Z that added bells and whistles to Kalos, so the relatively bare-bones base games of Gen VI have to be compared with the feature-stuffed secondary games of Generation V. By contrast, I think BW2 compare favourably with Platinum and HGSS. The former might not have a Battle Frontier, but they have enough other features to make up for it. ORAS and USUM didn't quite do so, and are both remembered as a bit of a dud.

There's also the question of fans never quite forgetting a feature. It's been three full generations since we last had a Battle Frontier, but we're still eagerly waiting for its return. We still call out the Gen VII games for their lack of rematches with route trainers. Fans keep hoping for more Mega Evolutions, something that was always expressively a Gen VI thing. In a sense, each new game isn't just compared to the previous one, it's being evaluated on whether its newly added features make up for the loss of all the cut features from the entire series. This might be completely unreasonable if you think about it, but when the accumulation of features is what the series has always thrived on and identified itself by, the losses stack up just the same as the gains do. Each new game gets a higher bar to jump over.

Going into SwSh territory...

Dexit is the very embodiment of this dilemma. The Pokémon themselves have largely been exempt from the regular culling of features. New abilities have stuck, new moves are always kept, items are carried over with extremely few exceptions, even moveset changes tend to stick between generations (bar stuff like Metal Claw for Charmander). The features related to battling have always been expanded, never reduced. Every new Pokémon and all of their attributes have always been carried over. A loss here hurts badly, since it's unprecedented.

But the same economics apply here as with other features: they can't keep adding stuff forever. At some point, something has to change. It was inevitable, just look at the Tumblr post p0ip0le linked to. Making one change such as migrating engines or adding new animations to all the old Pokémon eventually becomes an insurmountable task.

However, the change they went for wasn't of the fundamental sort that would finally let them transition to the "every game is a separate, self-contained adventure!" model they want to have. Instead, they seem to have kept all of the features from before, but only for half the Pokémon. Essentially copying over what they already had, continuing down the exact same track as before, but stopping short. The model is still one of accumulation, but they've chucked half their content pile out of the window before continuing to pile on new stuff. This is the sort of thing fans will notice. "Hey, you brought over 'mon A from previous games, and it's the same ol' 'mon A as we've known since forever, but why wasn't 'mon B brought back? Last time we saw them, they both looked essentially the same as 'mon A does today, so why wasn't 'mon B transited?"

I think if they really want to successfully become a franchise with self-contained installments, they would have to start with a clean slate. Chuck the entire content pile out the window and build stuff from scratch. Making games that do the "be their own thing" thing so well that they make up for the loss of the entire cumulative content from the old design model.

This was the hope many held out for Sword and Shield. It could have been the perfect opportunity too. Ending the handheld era and going into the era of console power with console-level graphics, console-level animations for the handful of returning Pokémon, and a total overhaul of the gameplay. But instead, they kept relying on the models from the handheld days, with the same old animations, the same old gameplay, graphics that look rather underwhelming compared to those of the other flagship games on the Switch (which in two notable cases were ported over from the previous console generation), and in general it really shows that they've iterated on the Gen VII games. But they did the "handful of returning Pokémon" thing anyway.

So yeah, a comparison with the old games is a rather inevitable part of the release of a new game, and I think Sword and Shield fall short. The stuff they add comes across as yet another gimmick, while it's the lasting accumulation of features that fans love the series for. They continue to follow the same design model while slashing a large part of the existing content and features. No wonder they're sparking outrage. There was always some disappointment in every cut feature, disappointment they had to compensate for somehow, and now they're cutting out a major part of "the game" (that's the issue in a nutshell - to us, the Pokémon core series is all one game) without taking similarly major steps to compensate.

 

[Ironmage]

On the topic of a Conquest 2,

The main reason I would want multiple moves usable is to introduce more status moves, with the current format mostly forgoing them (though given the choice, I still probably would have taken Spikes on Forretress over Gyro Ball). If we go with the standard 4 slots, I would lean towards a format of STAB 1/STAB 2/coverage or secondary STAB/status. For example, Gyarados would have Aqua Tail/Waterfall/Bounce or Ice Fang/Dragon Dance. Given the frequent turns where you can't target anything with an attack, I'd probably also limit the duration of move buffs and prevent self-stacking.

One thing I do definitely want included is megas/Z-moves, due to the game already having a 1/battle boost that could be reconfigured with the appropriate item. Might help with the move diversity as well, even without other increases (e.g. Charizard now has the options of flamethrower (default), Flare Blitz (X), Fire Blast (Y), inferno overdrive, and potentially supersonic skystrike). 'Maxing I'm a lot less sure about, due to the potential map design problems different sizes would entail.

 

[Kanburi]

I'm really glad about "Dexit". There are just way too many Pokemon in one route even as it is.

 

[Codraroll]

I'm really glad about "Dexit". There are just way too many Pokemon in one route even as it is.

I'm sorry to say, but that's a terrible argument. If "too many Pokémon in one route" is a problem, it is best addressed by limiting the encounter tables for that route, or possibly by limiting the size of the regional Pokédex if "too many Pokémon to encounter" is the big problem. Removing the ability to trade Pokémon into the game is completely overkill.

 

[Kanburi]

I'm sorry to say, but that's a terrible argument. If "too many Pokémon in one route" is a problem, it is best addressed by limiting the encounter tables for that route, or possibly by limiting the size of the regional Pokédex if "too many Pokémon to encounter" is the big problem. Removing the ability to trade Pokémon into the game is completely overkill.

And then we'd have the "they spent x years coming up with ~50 new Pokemon #Boycott[insert name of new games]" crowd. I still don't see why Dexit is such a big deal anyway, though that's a discussion for the Dexit thread I suppose.

 

[Magnus0]

Speaking of 'too many pokemon on the same route', I really like the headbutt feature from gen II. It allows the developers to have a good amount of pokemon on each route without putting all of them in the grass.

This has been a problem in the later gens. On the surface, it seems good to have a large variety of pokemon on every route, especially in the early-game areas. It adds replay value and it gives the player more options in general. However, the problem is that it can take very long for any given pokemon to show up if there are 6 or 7 available ones. By relocating 3 of these available pokemon to the trees, every available pokemon has a higher chance to appear. It can also add some emersion. For example, it makes a lot of sense to encounter pokemon like hoothoot or emolga after headbutting a tree rather than finding them in the grass.

It doesn't help that the encounter tables in the last few games have been TERRIBLE. It's especially noticeble in SM because many of the new pokemon like Stufful and Togedemaru have only a 5% chance of appearing, while Wingull can be found everywhere with a much higher encounter rate. The horrible distribution of Wingul and A-Ratatta/Yungoos alone singlehandedly destroys any willingness to go exploring. Not that there is anything to explore in SM, but still. It's so baffling to me how GF can screw this up. They have such a gigantic library of pokemon to work with, so they could make every area unique and interesting with a good selection of pokemon to go with that area, yet they just litter the whole region with only two species of pokemon. It's stupid and I don't get it. DP had this problem as well with Bidoof and Starly being used as filler on nearly every route.

Apart from unskippable cutscenes, horrible distribution of pokemon is the most discouraging thing for replaying imo. It's a much bigger problem than most people realise, at least for people who play through the games more than ones. I onestly get really frustrated by this because it should be so easy to fix.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Speaking of 'too many pokemon on the same route', I really like the headbutt feature from gen II. It allows the developers to have a good amount of pokemon on each route without putting all of them in the grass.

This has been a problem in the later gens. On the surface, it seems good to have a large variety of pokemon on every route, especially in the early-game areas. It adds replay value and it gives the player more options in general. However, the problem is that it can take very long for any given pokemon to show up if there are 6 or 7 available ones. By relocating 3 of these available pokemon to the trees, every available pokemon has a higher chance to appear. It can also add some emersion. For example, it makes a lot of sense to encounter pokemon like hoothoot or emolga after headbutting a tree rather than finding them in the grass.

It doesn't help that the encounter tables in the last few games have been TERRIBLE. It's especially noticeble in SM because many of the new pokemon like Stufful and Togedemaru have only a 5% chance of appearing, while Wingull can be found everywhere with a much higher encounter rate. The horrible distribution of Wingul and A-Ratatta/Yungoos alone singlehandedly destroys any willingness to go exploring. Not that there is anything to explore in SM, but still. It's so baffling to me how GF can screw this up. They have such a gigantic library of pokemon to work with, so they could make every area unique and interesting with a good selection of pokemon to go with that area, yet they just litter the whole region with only two species of pokemon. It's stupid and I don't get it. DP had this problem as well with Bidoof and Starly being used as filler on nearly every route.

Apart from unskippable cutscenes, horrible distribution of pokemon is the most discouraging thing for replaying imo. It's a much bigger problem than most people realise, at least for people who play through the games more than ones. I onestly get really frustrated by this because it should be so easy to fix.

I wonder if this may be because of the games potentially getting rushed out the door to meet the mid-November deadline the past few entries have been released under... or maybe it's almost always been this way and we're only just recently starting to notice and get annoyed by it.

 

[Magnus0]

I wonder if this may be because of the games potentially getting rushed out the door to meet the mid-November deadline the past few entries have been released under... or maybe it's almost always been this way and we're only just recently starting to notice and get annoyed by it.

In Sun and Moon at least, the Wingul and A-ratatta filler almost seems like they were just supposed to be placeholders. It's definitely that bad, though I'm not entirely sure if it was done because they had to meet a deadline. They could have only changed the actual encounter chance for the newer pokemon, which shouldn't have taken much time at all. With how backwards Gamefreak logic can be somtimes, it wouldn't surprise me if the horrible encounter tables are intentional to 'make it rewarding to catch rare pokemon' or some such bullshit.

That said, SM and DP are the exeptions, I think. Some of the other games had some sort of distribution problems, but never to the extend of SM and DP.

 

[DreamPrince]

I'm really glad about "Dexit". There are just way too many Pokemon in one route even as it is.

The problem is that we didn’t gain a whole lot for Dexit. I had high expectations for SwSh, since they basically culled more than half the Dex for a high quality game. So I had high expectations, mind you. Won’t go into the whole details because I’ll post a review.

For starters, the story is completely terrible, with very 0 characters through any change with the exception of Hop. Marnie appears once before your first gym, then vanishes until your 7th challenge. I forgot she existed until the 7th gym. Speaking of characters, Team Yell is honestly the worst villainous team in the game, simply because they don’t have any goal: All they do is cause very minor team. What’s worse, the true villains feel really shoe-horned and their whole arc lasted 20 minutes. Not to mention that their goals don’t make any sense- and they only appear after advancing to the finals of the champion cup. Overall, I thought this team was worse than Team Flare, which is something; at least I can understand their goals, even if their grunts don’t match with their leaders.

So what about gameplay? Unfortunately, this is probably the least interesting and simple game in the series. Routes are so short and their barely any trainers to battle, and are so linear. Galar probably gets the award for the most linear region ever with very little reason to back track other than the Wild area. Every route is so straight forward, with any deviation leading back to the beginning. All split routes are unable to be accessed until you have successfully cleared current goal making this game very linear. Even the bad guy’s headquarters isn’t even a dungeon-only an elevator with trainer battles.

The other problem is that the game holding your hand for all the time. Whether it be someone guiding you to new place, map/loading screen telling you where to go all the time, and people giving you 3 full restores and whole heals all the time. I was so annoyed that people were guiding me where ever I go, giving hardly room for an exploration.

As for visuals, go check my post on the official Sw/Sh discussion thread for my thoughts on that.

The game is laughably easy, with opponents not switching even when my Chandelure Flash Fire completely walled them- making it really trivial as long as you know what you are doing, you won’t find this too difficult. AI is really bad, since I’ve had cases where they use Super Effective Moves only to use a not very super effective move later.

It’s not all bad though. Some QOL changes make it very nice for those getting into competitive play- Nature Mints, multiple daycares passing egg moves without breeding, and the fact that PvP items can be obtained via exploring on routes make it a lot easier. And while the it suffers from freezes and poor graphics, the Wild area has been fun. I’ve done a lot of raid battles, and there actually not that hard as long as you have human allies and aren’t underleveled. The prizes are really good too.

That’s enough for now though, I’ll address some other points later. Overall, though, this is probably the most barebones Pokémon game when it comes to story, characters, dungeons, and I find it infuriating that GF cut the Dex for almost nothing when I find older games have a lot more depth and difficulty to them while still retaining the national Dex.

 

[Hugin]

I wonder if this may be because of the games potentially getting rushed out the door to meet the mid-November deadline the past few entries have been released under... or maybe it's almost always been this way and we're only just recently starting to notice and get annoyed by it.

Nah, compare the encounter tables in XY to it. Those games are very recent, and you’re looking at a whole new encounter list every route.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

I really like overworld Pokémon encounters as a feature, but I’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t really fix the issue I have with huge encounter lists on each route. In fact, they almost make it worse?

On the whole, I love being able to see a Pokémon and choose whether to encounter it or avoid it, especially with the reduced random encounter rate making it easy to zip through grass without running into a million mons. However, the random encounter lists differ from the overworld encounter lists in almost every location, with the rarest (<10%) random encounter mons often not being visible in the overworld. This means that you still have to crawl through the grass to find that one rare mon, and you’ll probably encounter everything else you can find there in the process, saving you no time in the end.

What makes this arguably worse than previous gens is that overworld Pokémon can get in the way (or even pop up right under you) when you’re trying to get random encounters, especially in the Wild Area where the sheer density of overworld mons can be super high [insert screenshot of someone being chased by 15 Bewear].

Idk there’s probably some obvious thing I’m not doing that’d make it easier.

EDIT: wow I thought the two lists for each route were only slightly different but I’m actually looking at the tables now and they’re almost completely different in many cases

 

[stage7_4]

The Sword and Shield animations are neither good nor bad, but fluctuate wildly between the two.

Let me explain, sometimes these games have amazingly detailed animations and gorgeous scenery. But then they pull some really weird, cheap, or lazy stuff on you that gives the entire world a swiss cheese effect where you never know what it's going to do. Which causes friction between both camps on liking and hating this game since technically they're both correct.

For the good animation, this fight against the 8th Gym leader sells a lot to love about the game. Beware spoilers though:

Good animation

Gym leader Raihan is the star here, especially as he takes a selfie before sending out his pokemon and again while Dyanmaxing. And this is true for most fights against important characters, these humans are animated really really well.

Other things to note are Cinderace's signature move - Pyro Ball, which get's a level of detail very few attacks have as he kicks a stone around until it explodes into a fireball. That's lit!

And while this has nothing to do with animation, this gym battle is amazing: a double battle against a dragon-type leader but he actually focuses on a weather themed team instead! It's like someone read my dream journal!

This is just one example but there are many others. Like how Sobble's middle evolution fights with water balloons, how Gigantmax Centiscorch makes an Aztec wave symbol before attacking, how Leon's Charizard dives to protect you when Eternatus goes haywire, half the animations at the Pokemon camp, there really is a lot to love.

Edit: oh shoot, I forgot to mention Cramorant with a Pikachu in it's mouth!

But on the other side we've got some horrendous animations

the ugly

For a highlight reel: the entire world has to stop if you get on a ladder, some backgrounds for regular fights are really lazy and uninspired, there's something weird about the bike in the wild area and I just can't put my foot on it (it's like you're gliding over the ground), despite handshake and pick-up animations existing NPCs don't use them, there's a lot of pop-up errors and not just in the wild area, Cinderace has a kicking animation but uses a lazy hop for double kick, and many more.

And while the new pokemon generally look great, a lot of older mons did not get an animation buff. Like how Xatu is still stuck in it's diagonal T-pose.

 

[Yung Dramps]

The Galar fossils are not only fun mons in their own right, but they are the breath of fresh air the entire fossil mechanic has desperately needed for a long time.

Because really, I personally feel that by the time we got to Gen 5, Fossil Pokemon were becoming little more than Pokedex filler. Every generations has its staples, the starters, the regional birds, the bugs, and yet out of all of these the fossils felt the most stagnant and useless. As time passed, the typical archetypes began experimenting with more creative designs and playstyles, becoming stronger and more memorable. For example, the regional birds went from mediocre picks like Noctowl and Pidgeot to at least serviceable powerhouses like Staraptor, Talonflame, hell even Swellow. Starters stuck to the classic Fire Water Grass triangle, but were able to stand out by virtue of being the first Pokemon a trainer gets on a new adventure, as well as just being plain interesting and fun to train and watch grow.

Fossil Pokemon never got any of these luxuries until now. You had to go out of your way to use a certain item and bring it to a certain location (and not even that early in the game a lot of the time), and the Pokemon themselves were kinda crappy in-game and very crappy competitively a lot of the time, and on top of all that insisted on sticking to the Rock typing for no real good reason. Often one was left thinking "Why is this even a fossil? What's so special about them? Mamoswine is based on an extinct animal, why not make them one?" So when Gen 7 came around and no new fossil pokemon were introduced, my reaction was "Good, no more fossils until GF does something interesting with them."

Now the Zolts and the Vishes? Aside from the whole unintuitive obtainment thing, they fix every problem. They justify their status by using the fossil revival concept in a fun and creative way, they have unique, valuable skillsets and techniques for a playthrough and they finally, FINALLY abandoned the adherence to being partially Rock type.

 

[Gummy]

hop is a really good rival, probably in my top 4 favorites. i started off being really annoyed by him, and when his character arc started i was wary bc i thought it was gonna just get dropped like bede's basically was, but he ended up being one of the best developed and well written characters in the game (which like isn't saying much but still).

 

[DreamPrince]

hop is a really good rival, probably in my top 4 favorites. i started off being really annoyed by him, and when his character arc started i was wary bc i thought it was gonna just get dropped like bede's basically was, but he ended up being one of the best developed and well written characters in the game (which like isn't saying much but still).

I agree. He and Sonia are the only two characters that actually go through any change in SwSh. Everyone else was: Had potential, but was dropped, just existed for the sake of gym challenge, and tried to make a significant impact, but failed.

 

[p0ip0le]

The Sword and Shield animations are neither good nor bad, but fluctuate wildly between the two.

Let me explain, sometimes these games have amazingly detailed animations and gorgeous scenery. But then they pull some really weird, cheap, or lazy stuff on you that gives the entire world a swiss cheese effect where you never know what it's going to do. Which causes friction between both camps on liking and hating this game since technically they're both correct.

For the good animation, this fight against the 8th Gym leader sells a lot to love about the game. Beware spoilers though:

Good animation

Gym leader Raihan is the star here, especially as he takes a selfie before sending out his pokemon and again while Dyanmaxing. And this is true for most fights against important characters, these humans are animated really really well.

Other things to note are Cinderace's signature move - Pyro Ball, which get's a level of detail very few attacks have as he kicks a stone around until it explodes into a fireball. That's lit!

And while this has nothing to do with animation, this gym battle is amazing: a double battle against a dragon-type leader but he actually focuses on a weather themed team instead! It's like someone read my dream journal!

This is just one example but there are many others. Like how Sobble's middle evolution fights with water balloons, how Gigantmax Centiscorch makes an Aztec wave symbol before attacking, how Leon's Charizard dives to protect you when Eternatus goes haywire, half the animations at the Pokemon camp, there really is a lot to love.

Edit: oh shoot, I forgot to mention Cramorant with a Pikachu in it's mouth!

But on the other side we've got some horrendous animations

the ugly

For a highlight reel: the entire world has to stop if you get on a ladder, some backgrounds for regular fights are really lazy and uninspired, there's something weird about the bike in the wild area and I just can't put my foot on it (it's like you're gliding over the ground), despite handshake and pick-up animations existing NPCs don't use them, there's a lot of pop-up errors and not just in the wild area, Cinderace has a kicking animation but uses a lazy hop for double kick, and many more.

And while the new pokemon generally look great, a lot of older mons did not get an animation buff. Like how Xatu is still stuck in it's diagonal T-pose.

hard agree

disclaimer: i havent played swsh and havent looked too closely at playthroughs but it seems like more of the "lazy" animations are the super low-power/shitty moves that you only use at the start of the game, and its. almost like a reward kinda thing? bounce is weird though

feel free to correct me if what im saying is wildly inaccurate though lol

 

[Real PHeal Spheal]

I don't anything legitimately justifies cutting out the data of all the Pokemon not in the game's regional Dex. Since Gen 1 (yeah, that Gen GF loves playing up), we've been able to at least transfer all available Mons in that Gen/game to the appropriate games. And now they cut one of the core principles of the franchise. It's fricking ridiculous. Disclaimer, I don't expect Gamefreak to allow all Pokemon up to that point to be caught in the games. I know that can be easily unreasonable, and was obviously never going to work as the Gens went on. But to not allow you to transfer any available Mon up to that point into the games...well...let's just say that's where I draw the line. It should be core feature in every game, but Gamefreak's laziness and incompetence caught up to them.

Actually, gen3 didn't have transfers either...


Anyways, unpopular opinion of the day: ORAS lacking a battle frontier was perfectly fine, as with the rather sizable online community making it easy to find other players as opponents the competitive urge was satisfied alot better than by facing double team/recover/toxic milotics or minimize chanseys in the battle tower

 

[Worldie]

Actually, gen3 didn't have transfers either...

Gen 3 at least had a actuallyreasonable excuse in the fact there was literally no way to connect a gameboy to a gba :P
Console Internet was not a thing at the time.

 

[stage7_4]

disclaimer: i havent played swsh and havent looked too closely at playthroughs but it seems like more of the "lazy" animations are the super low-power/shitty moves that you only use at the start of the game, and its. almost like a reward kinda thing? bounce is weird though

It's more that the only new moves and new pokemon got the love as Double Kick's animation has been the same for 3 generations now. A few other grumbles are that Blastoise still can't use his cannons for anything (including Hydro Pump, which comes from his mouth). In general returning moves and pokemon reuse a lot of assets from previous games, so if it was bad then it hasn't been fixed (the Double Kick one just stands out more because it's a new pokemon that already has a kicking animation).

I've also heard some complain about Snipe Shot, which is very very tame compared to Pyro Ball and even Drum Beating.

Another nitpicking complaint is that with so many pokemon walking around, a lot of pokemon got re-scaled to smaller sizes despite Pokedex entries and previous appearances (like in XD: Gale of Darkness). Wailord has been the poster boy, it shrunk a lot (and if anybody was wondering about what Dynamaxing will do, prepare for disappointment).

Charizard is in a bizarre situation because it's in-game model is accurate for it's supposed height (5 feet, 7 inches) but people expected it to be taller (probably due to the Anime). So having it dwarfed the Champion Leon in every appearance calls out this fact that's always been true but never fully realized, and I've seen many a let's play claim its supposed to be taller.

 

[Codraroll]

disclaimer: i havent played swsh and havent looked too closely at playthroughs but it seems like more of the "lazy" animations are the super low-power/shitty moves that you only use at the start of the game, and its. almost like a reward kinda thing? bounce is weird though

I think that's part of Game Freak's logic, actually, that comparatively more effort is put into end-game moves because those are the ones you'll be using during the most dramatic parts of the plot, and also in post-game facilities or online battles. Early-game moves like Double Kick are used at the beginning and then never again, which justifies not giving them fancy animations.

However, I'd argue that this is precisely why the early-game moves should have more thought put into them. Sure, they are found early and then forgotten, but at some point almost every player will see them. It's fully possible to create an end-game team without Brave Bird or Megahorn or Fire Blast, but no player will ever get to the first Gym without experiencing Tackle, Pound or Double Kick, either used by their Pokémon or against them. First impressions also matter, so a player who sees low effort at the beginning of the game will probably keep that impression in mind as they play it or discuss it with their friends.

 

[DreamPrince]

You know, if we ever did get a Pokemon version of the Breath of Wild, I'm don't think I'd like it to be the classic Pokemon trope of being the Pokemon Trainer who's goal is to be the ultimate trainer. Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying that the formula is bad for anything, but my problem is that for every game with the exception of BW/XY is that goal overtakes everything- particularly the villains. I find it quite annoying that USM that people recognize me for being the champion, but not for saving the whole world's light from being stolen from Necrozma. This has resulted in lot of stories in which the other plot elements feel really shoehorned- I mean SwSh is the perfect example of that.

Now what would I replace with it? Believe it or not, but I would replace it with Pokemon Ranger. What? Why? Well, the answer quite simple. In the Breath of Wild, you interact with the environment in realistic ways- you lose health while being in the cold and falling off the cliff- and no I'm not suggesting that we put that in Pokemon. My point here is that the Pokemon Ranger featured interaction with the environment - You could use Pokemon to remove obstacles. That is the perfect implementation for an open world and there are so many creative ways to this with Pokemon. Have you read the Pokedex entries ( Or browsers if we are talking about Ranger ) ? They could be tips for how Pokemon interact with the enviorment. For example, you encounter a horde of angry Pokemon, they don't let you pass. So what do you do? Well, Milotic's Pokedex Entry states it calm anyone using its beauty, so you do that to get pass. Of course, you can all this with Pokemon Trainers, so why use Pokemon Rangers instead? Well, for the starters Pokemon Rangers are more flexible than trainers. Their goals is to help people and Pokemon. That's very broad so its could be put in a lot of ways: like for example, in order to find quests to help people, you need to travel further into the area and look for people. In contrast with gyms, which encourage a more linear progression with it being located in towns, which are noticeable, unless you hide the gyms in remote locations. The other reason relates to Celever's post on this page, on how Pokemon Spin-offs were great at using the Pokemon themselves, in contrast to core RPGs, in which only focus on 6 per playthrough. Ranger is great of example of that. The Pokemon you capture are temporary, so once you've used them to clear an obstacle, they'd be released. It allowed the player to expierence several variety of Pokemon. That kind of interaction would be great way to have the players interact with countless Pokemon in the overworld rather than just seated to 6.

I wouldn't have battles be entirely gone though. Once you've beaten the game, the gyms open up, trainers return, and you can catch Pokemon is now. The setting I have in mind is that your in a region where Pokemon battles are not celebrated, but now they are returning slowly to the region. You are told to participate to promote the event. Now you can challenge all the gyms in any order you want. The gyms themselves would be more akin to battle facilities- each gym has a gimmick, with each gym requiring 50 wins to challenge the leader. This challenge would be the post game.

I know this is an extreme drastic change, but keep in mind that Breath of the Wild was designed from the ground up to rebuild the Zelda formula. This is my suggestion for that change.

 

[Codraroll]

You know, if we ever did get a Pokemon version of the Breath of Wild, I'm don't think I'd like it to be the classic Pokemon trope of being the Pokemon Trainer who's goal is to be the ultimate trainer.

Hidden inside Breath of the Wild was the Pokémon Snap sequel we never got. Getting a good photo of a silver-maned Lynel and getting out of there alive afterwards was quite a fun challenge.

 

[adman2]

Hidden inside Breath of the Wild was the Pokémon Snap sequel we never got. Getting a good photo of a silver-maned Lynel and getting out of there alive afterwards was quite a fun challenge.

I wonder if that was actually Baten Kaitos influence. In the first game of that series, you take pictures in combat and sell them to earn money. Monolith Soft developed Baten Kaitos, and was involved with Breath of the Wild. (There's even a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 promotion sidequest.)