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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
For as much as it seems like the fanbase at large has basically given up on it I truly believe that it is not only possible, but likely the Battle Frontier will be brought back for BDSP. I personally don't care whether it makes the cut or not so this isnt a wishlisting post, but lemme explain anyway.
-With the game's artstyle being a simple HD recreation of the DS layout compared to, say, a SWSH-style reimagining it's probably less effort in general to recreate Sinnoh, leaving more time to bring the Frontier back
-The Platinum Frontier is likely easier to code than the Emerald one. Not only are there less facilities but they're all less complex than the Emerald ones (for instance, there is no analogue to the procedural generation of the Battle Pyramid).
-Masuda is co-directing the game. Considering the infamous interview with him this may seem like a point against it, but on the other hand I think it's likely he still remembers the outrage over ORAS not having the Frontier and how that left long-lasting scars on the game's reputationthat it didnt deserve over an overrated filler feature anyway he may very well want to avoid that from happening again, especially considering how volatile the fanbase is post-SWSH
-It's literally the most easy way to win over veterans possible! If ORAS proved anything it's that any and all effort to extensively revitalize an old region for a new generation via story rewrites, new content additions, old content revamps and numerous other little bits and bobs is basically a complete waste of time because the old-timers will get grumpy over not having a Frontier, so why bother? If the Pokemon devs have truly become as cynical and willing to cut corners as online Pokefans accuse them of being then surely they'll have figured out that porting the Battle Frontier is literally all that is needed to get the DS fans to forfeit their wallets. No, I'm not bitter at all, no sir.
-With the game's artstyle being a simple HD recreation of the DS layout compared to, say, a SWSH-style reimagining it's probably less effort in general to recreate Sinnoh, leaving more time to bring the Frontier back
-The Platinum Frontier is likely easier to code than the Emerald one. Not only are there less facilities but they're all less complex than the Emerald ones (for instance, there is no analogue to the procedural generation of the Battle Pyramid).
-Masuda is co-directing the game. Considering the infamous interview with him this may seem like a point against it, but on the other hand I think it's likely he still remembers the outrage over ORAS not having the Frontier and how that left long-lasting scars on the game's reputation
-It's literally the most easy way to win over veterans possible! If ORAS proved anything it's that any and all effort to extensively revitalize an old region for a new generation via story rewrites, new content additions, old content revamps and numerous other little bits and bobs is basically a complete waste of time because the old-timers will get grumpy over not having a Frontier, so why bother? If the Pokemon devs have truly become as cynical and willing to cut corners as online Pokefans accuse them of being then surely they'll have figured out that porting the Battle Frontier is literally all that is needed to get the DS fans to forfeit their wallets. No, I'm not bitter at all, no sir.
For lack of a better place to post this, Poketuber SacredAlmighty had recently posted a video about racism within the Pokemon community (both from toxic fans and even from official staff working for the Pokemon Company). Considering current events (at least in the United States), I feel its worth a watch:
The pokemon fandom is one of those that if you say that something could be considered bad faith or even racist, you get 50000 dudebros calling you a sjw cancel culture or whatever is the new hot slang to call.
The pokémon company having racist cases don't surprise me. Japanese people are known for being extremely racist and xenophobic and even fostering imperialistic views casually. What is a bit surprising is how people try to deny that its a thing. The pokemon company isnt going to give you a rare copy of swsh deluxe version when you defend their racism bro. No ones going to stop you from playing pokemon games either just because they said that lenoras original look was a bit racist, calm down
The pokémon company having racist cases don't surprise me. Japanese people are known for being extremely racist and xenophobic and even fostering imperialistic views casually. What is a bit surprising is how people try to deny that its a thing. The pokemon company isnt going to give you a rare copy of swsh deluxe version when you defend their racism bro. No ones going to stop you from playing pokemon games either just because they said that lenoras original look was a bit racist, calm down
Eh, I think this is a bit sensationalised. For sure, there are racists and homophobes and every other form of bigotry in the Pokémon fanbase, because put simply it’s huge and has very general appeal so bigots are able to like the franchise. But to say that Pokémon specifically has a huge problem with it seems a bit detached from reality. The vast majority of Pokémon fans are not bigots, especially considering older generations are much more represented in other gaming genres than JRPGs, and younger generations trend starkly downwards in regards to how much bigotry is represented.
Now obviously, any bigotry is too much and these conversations are important to have, I completely agree with that. But these conversations are definitely rolling even in Japanese based franchises. I immediately think of Danganronpa V3 where Kaito Momota uses homophobic slurs in the Japanese version but not any international versions, because the developers thought it was normalised enough in Japan to be acceptable, yet Kaito consistently is one of the least popular Danganronpa characters ever in Japan and really really popular elsewhere. Similarly, in Fire Emblem the bisexual characters tend to be extremely popular in Japan and the West. Audience is who guides this, and things are changing.
Albeit racism seems to be different to other forms of bigotry here simply in that Japan has a tiny black population, and so it seems like when creating characters, it’s a very intentional design choice to make one black, and in doing so stereotypes sometimes get involved. When western people make anime-style characters, a lot of the time it seems like the thought that goes into it is nothing more than something like “I want the clothes to be this colour and I think it looks really nice on this skintone”, to where the race of the character doesn’t affect their personality (which is good!), but Japan isn’t quite there yet.
But anyway, basically I’m not sure where your view here comes from. To my knowledge, there is nowhere for Pokémon fans to express bigotry. It’s not acceptable on Smogon, or showdown, or serebii, or Bulbapedia, or even smaller communities like PokéBeach, and people will face the consequences of their actions. If your regress is just with something like YouTube comment sections under PokéTuber videos, then the 8 year olds will learn soon enough.
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Yeah looking at this, you have a really good point in that racism is everywhere. Not in just Pokemon, but every franchise. And yes, with newer generations there is a lot less racism and other such things, which again is good.
I dont know how you even came to this conclusion because it sure wasn't from my post.
I also don't know why you're mentioning lgbt when racism and lgbt are two completely different issues and have different levels of progress in Japan, and the original video was about racism
I dont even know where to start because nothing you said relates to my post. Am I missing something
Speaking of Seabreak Path, can we talk about Navel Rock too?
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I actually loved contests they were fun.
I liked the Hoenn contests in both R/S/E and OR/AS, but the Sinnoh contests are my least favorite minigame in the entire series. Not sure if that's an unpopular opinion, but that's how I feel about them.
I never played the Sinnoh games, but after a quick google I definitely agree with that. The RSE contests were interesting, which reminds me of the battle tents. Those were interesting as well, and I miss them quite a bit actually.
Sinnoh contests are cool in theory but I dont like the new minigames they added. The dressing one means you need to keep getting good items to get a good score on it (matters a lot in the harder difficulties) and the dancing one is... ?????
Hoenn contests are super fun though. I loved making strategies for the harder levels to get the spot that gives you the most appeal
Honestly, the dancing minigame in Sinnoh contests was pretty fun. It was always at least a good way to pass time at school trying to trick your friends with your rhythm.
But it definitely should have been a separate minigame to contests. The overlap between people who want the strategy of contests and a basic rhythm game is pretty small (as in, just me from the sounds of it lol) so I can see why having to do one in order to do the other gets tiresome.
But it definitely should have been a separate minigame to contests. The overlap between people who want the strategy of contests and a basic rhythm game is pretty small (as in, just me from the sounds of it lol) so I can see why having to do one in order to do the other gets tiresome.
The dancing part was fun, but the dressing one is very random and you cannot tell how good each prop is, you just have to know. The appeal part was essentially the same, but now moves are different, and after getting used to contests in gen 3, having to learn everything again in gen 4 is tiring and not worth the effort. Unless they lock something good behind these super contest in BDSP, I ain't going to bother. (if I get the games, that is)
I think my issue is just that it felt very disconnected. Maybe if there were stuff like cool/cute/smart etc moves or combos you could do. I know it was the ds with a 2d pixel game but you could just make it have very simple animations, or even just something like a "COOL!" bubble whenever you do a cool move. So you had to balance getting the most fitting moves while also tripping your opponents.
Who is this in response too? More specifically the second sentence, the first sentence I'm guessing are to the so called "dudebros". I guess I can sort of see how the second sentence is also targeted toward them, though its written in a way that throws me off a bit, I can't quite explain.
SacredAlmighty said when Pokemon posted on Twitter a post supporting Black Lives Matter which was Ash & Kiawe sharing a fist bump, he said the responses to the post had a lot of bigotry (most being "Pokemon shouldn't be political" because apparently not being racist is a political statement...).
One thing in SacredAlmighty's video that stood out to me was he mentioned how, while he's glad there's finally a black skin color, he still struggles making the player character's hair (and to an extent exact skin color) to his preference. It is still one place Pokemon needs improvement in, while it's fine they want to have the default portraits for those who don't care, I do think they should also have a more indepth character creator at the start. Not saying it should be something like Western RPGs where you can adjust every single facial bone and muscle, but I think something like this would help players be able to more put themselves in the game:
- Gender: Male, Female, Non-binary (default appearance kept androgynous)
* If they want to go the extra mile, they can include an option where the player is asked what pronouns they identify with: Male (he/him/his), Female (she/her/hers), or Genderless (they/them/their). - Skin Color: Use Von Luschan's Chromatic Scale. Maybe even use the console's camera to take a picture of yourself and pinpoint your skin color that way.
- Hair:
* Color: Just let the player pick the hair color they want from a color wheel (maybe let them enter a hex/RGB code).
* Style: And let the player choose the hair they want to start with. - Eyes: Like with Hair Color, can pick from a color wheel with option for hex/RGB code.
Also, once they have a more complex character creator, they can use it to also adjust the NPCs so that not all people in the same Trainer Class look alike. I mean, heck, it was just learned that Nintendo actually used the Mii Creator to generate all the NPCs in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, why can't GF do the same?
That said, should also address his complaint that they need to have more variety for each hairstyle, his specific example being cornrows. While I'll admit I'm a bit confused about his "white people hairstyles" since hairstyles are divided by gender (which is a whole other topic we won't get into) and "White people" usually have generic hairstyles, I do agree GF should still look into more types of hairstyles and variations of them. Obviously they can't put in every type but a quick look through Wikipedia and Google should give them enough variations that should satisfy most people (heck, maybe they can even have someplace people can give feedback and requests for customization like hair styles and clothes and add them in via DLC).
Yes they're different but they both have social troubles that can be comparable. Heck, you can say both are facing problems from different sides, racism is more coming from the "justice" side of things while LGBT have politicians & bigot celebrities aimed toward them as of late.
Let me ask you this, would this video be any different if it was a LGBT person saying there was homophobia/LGBT discriminations instead of it being a person of African descent saying there was racism? Not really, so while both issues aren't the same they do share similar struggles. I think that was more Celever was getting at (especially in Japan where I think there's more LGBT discrimination than racism).
Speaking of Seabreak Path, can we talk about Navel Rock too?
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Don't worry, it feels shorter than it looks.
Of all the "side content" I think Contests are the ones that either should have stayed or been more active coming back more often. Like I think Kalos and Galar should have had Contests, Kalos major theme was beauty and Galar was competition, so where is the beauty competition?
The same dudebros who defend anything TPC/Nintendo does, even when it borderlines on discriminatory/racist. Makes it seem like they're being bribed to do so
The main thing really is that racism and LGBT topics are in very different developments, and while they're both social troubles, lumping them isn't that useful.
Japan's prefectures are slowly (very slowly, like snail pace) removing things like discrimination of marriage, and while the country def has a lot of issues, there's feasible progress happening. Of course, homophobia and transphobia are still rampant there, but we've seen movements to change it
Meanwhile, Japan has barely tried to stop the ethnocide against the Ainu, only approved the law that recognized them as indigenous people in 2019 and god knows when they're going to crack down on discrimination laws. There's also a lot of imperialist racism that might be a little too much to talk about here. All of this goes ignored by the Japanese population, most don't care about it, find it "too political to talk about".
Both issues are important to speak about, I think it's not my place to say which is worse since I'm Japanese but not from Japan, but I find they both deserve separate discussions to focus on if it makes sense.
Gamefreak hates me in specific and doesn't want to see me have fun
My experience with bigotry in the Pokémon fandom begins and ends with a certain horrible video about Bulbapedia that I gave up watching after two minutes.
On a lighter note, what was the point of Kalos Route 1? Why couldn't they have given you a starter in the first town?
On a lighter note, what was the point of Kalos Route 1? Why couldn't they have given you a starter in the first town?
Going 2 be honest this comment fills me with dread.
Flexing the 3d camera, obviously
Didn't that Temtem game did with the pronoun? I don't think that's not the Nintendo way. For games with selectable gender, Nintendo used to ask "what gender are you?. Now they ask "which one you want to be like?", that's the Nintendo style (see Animal Crossing New Horizon and Splatoon 3 recently. Looks like Nintendo want to compromise with gender identity thing with more subtle way.[/hide]
Rescue Team DX asks the gender question exactly that way.
Not that these aren’t good ideas in isolation (which they are), but with all the complaints throughout recent generations about lack of content (especially postgame), and based on GF’s track record in general, is this really what needs focusing on specifically right now? I mean sure in an ideal world I could create a perfect avatar of myself in every video game I wanted but I’d rather they focus on creating actually more stimulating game content rather than perfectly customizable player characters (and lets face it, you know if they improve one thing another will suffer). I mean, most of us play Pokemon for the actual gameplay, the collecting, trading and battling aspects, not for the graphics (which have never been a major selling point). Anyway I thought the character customisation options in SwSh were more than adequate for a Pokemon game[/hide]
A lot of things in Pokemon needs focusing in on, you can honestly say that about any wanted feature.
- More dynamic idle & battle animations during battle. "Aren't there other more important things to focus like content?"
- Including post game content on a level at least equal to previous games. "Aren't there issues with the main game we should be focusing on?"
- Writing a better story, character arcs, & interactions. "Not everyone plays Pokemon for the story we need to focus on the visuals"
- Improving the graphics so they don't look like they're from the PS2/XBox era. "Improving the graphics isn't going to help the stilted battle animations which need focusing on!"
- (And the cycle repeats)
This I definitely agree with. I myself have always thought that they should spend more time on the games, even if it takes longer (obviously). The problem with that is that a large amount of the fanbase would never be happy with any improvements. People need to realize that they cannot always have everything they want. I think the main problem is that the fanbase is so divided, therefore making it harder to get what the majority of people actually want. I think most everyone could agree that the battle animations and idle poses could use some work, so instead of making Game Freak ignore everyone because they are technically the minority, we really need to agree on something to somewhat "campaign" for, therefore giving them a solid and clear view of what we as a fanbase want.
sorry if this sounds jumbled and weird