Unpopular opinions

[Siggu]

Characters tend to repeat stuff we already know several times, everyone has Mojo Jojo syndrome.

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

But the insufferably slow text of Gates to Infinity's cutscenes is certainly noticeable. It doesn't get much attention because most criticism is towards the game's very existence.

 

[bdt2002]

Some hot takes based on recent topics:

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

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

3. Cutscenes are not a bad thing in Pokémon games, and the Alola games in particular are helped by them more than they’re hurt

 

[mertyville]

I actually liked cutscenes in Generation 5. They were used sparingly and didn't drag for too long.
Still love watching Kyurem fight Zekrom/Reshiram.
(Except the How-To-Catch tutorial in every game if we count that as a cutscene)

Not sure if I can say it about the Generation 7 games.

 

[Sonikku A]

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

But the insufferably slow text of Gates to Infinity's cutscenes is certainly noticeable. It doesn't get much attention because most criticism is towards the game's very existence.

The issue is they expect the player to save and stop playing after each dungeon, so the repeat info to compensate. That and the absolute lack of pronouns and names hurts the MD series dialogue

 

[SpiritGuy]

Speaking of PDM, I've really hated PSMD, the only Pokemon game I've really disliked btw.

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Ironmage]

Getting stuck is an issue all of the PMD games can run into, since they all have sections where you are unable to back out to get useful items or EXP while the dungeon is designed around having them. I'm pretty sure the original/DX is the only one of the four I haven't needed to level grind in a one-dungeon space, since its just a single short locked-in section and I knew it was coming after having accidentally overleveled in my first playthrough (I just never entered the town to trigger the cutscene to start the section until I was like level 33 or something). Final sections for GTI/Super, Spacial Rift for Explorers. Super does have several long locked sections, which is one of its main flaws.

 

[Siggu]

Speaking of PDM, I've really hated PSMD, the only Pokemon game I've really disliked btw.

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

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

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

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

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

It's funny. I really liked it due to pretty much the same reasons you disliked it.

 

[The Mind Electric]

On the topic of cutscenes, I haven't actually played much of gen 7 yet so I can't speak to how annoying/tedious they are in that game, but any game that doesn't give you the option to skip cutscenes for repeat playthroughs and such automatically loses points for me, and I imagine a lot of other people are in the same boat.

 

[Hugin]

"Too much water" is 100% correct and mocking it was just because it was phrased in a funny way. The water routes of the game are monotonous, boring or just straight up annoying. Diving is a cool mechanic but you use it 1% of the game and the rest is just water routes everywhere until you reach the league

The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.

Hide

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

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

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".

I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.

 

[Millky95]

The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.

Hide

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

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

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".

I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.

Add in that you go Water Route -> Gym -> Water Route -> Water Evil Team (one game only)/Evil Team -> Water Route -> Water Gym Leader -> Water Route -> Victory Road

And in Emerald, you have a Water Champion at the end of it all with a longer water route to find Ray before the Water Gym Leader

 

[The Mind Electric]

The issue isn't the amount of water, exactly. It's that water routes in Pokemon games are always bad, and RS just made those issues blatantly obvious.

Hide

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

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

Plus, water routes are just boring. It's hard to justify obstacles, different color palettes, elevation changes, puzzles, or the like on the open ocean, while much more reasonable to do those things in a cave. RS were better at this than most, with Pacifidlog town, Dive, and non-linear routes, but it's still mostly "point your char in a cardinal direction and learn to hate the color blue".

I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past few regions, water routes have generally been either extremely short, entirely optional, and/or a blend of land and water. I think GF decided with the rules they set up for how water works, there's no way to keep it interesting, so they have mostly gotten rid of it.

Don't forget the frequency of wild encounters. If you don't bring repels, you're gonna be mashing the run button for a long time. Here's Mixeli getting four random encounters in B/W while trying to surf to shore from an Abyssal Ruins Dive spot.

 

[TheRealEGR]

Unpopular opinions #2:

1. I hate the trailer of Sinnoh Adventures. I prefer the official chibi remakes.
2. I'm tired of people who think they can do better Pokemon games than Gamefreak (the mayority of romhackers).
3. I liked the Gen VII cutscenes. It looked like it I was on a adventure with real people. Also I enjoed more Gen VII than V.
4.There should be more champions like Leon.

 

[The Mind Electric]

2. I'm tired of people who think they can do better Pokemon games than Gamefreak (the mayority of romhackers).

I'm curious about this one. Yeah, a lot of ROM hacks are attempts to improve upon actual Pokémon games, but why are you tired of that?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

4.There should be more champions like Leon.

In what sense? Young? Bearded? Bad at directions? Cape-wearing? Charizard-using? Related to the rival?

It might help to... actually expand on points like this.

 

[TheRealEGR]

I'm curious about this one. Yeah, a lot of ROM hacks are attempts to improve upon actual Pokémon games, but why are you tired of that?

Because I'm tired of the romhacks, they offer all the same. They only offer DS graphics(on GBA), mega evolutions and other evolutionary phenoms, Pokemon from further generations , and stories that involve more the evil team (even more than BW) than "Get 8 badges and beat the league" that pretend to be dark and edgy. And sometimes, they put you to battle NPC's with Smogon sets vs your shitmons. There is enough reasons to be tired of romhacks.

EDIT: The worst part is that people actually like these romhacks.

 

[TheRealEGR]

In what sense? Young? Bearded? Bad at directions? Cape-wearing? Charizard-using? Related to the rival?

It might help to... actually expand on points like this.

A champion that isn't only sitting on the Pokemon League and he is interested in making his region better.

 

[Pikachu315111]

A champion that isn't only sitting on the Pokemon League and he is interested in making his region better.

But most of them do that to an extent. Leon is just more direct because he's Hop's older brother so is more involved with his and the player's participation in the Champion Cup.

 

[TheRealEGR]

But most of them do that to an extent. Leon is just more direct because he's Hop's older brother so is more involved with his and the player's participation in the Champion Cup.

Maybe I have not explained well. I was refering as a champion that tries to solve the problems in his region (like a Legendary being mad), being responsible to the problem and does not only stays on the Pokemon League. EDIT: Have you ever seen another Champion doing that?

 

[Pikachu315111]

Maybe I have not explained well. I was refering as a champion that tries to solve the problems in his region (like a Legendary being mad), being responsible to the problem and does not only stays on the Pokemon League. EDIT: Have you ever seen another Champion doing that?

• Lance's involvement at the Lake of Rage.
• Steven & Wallace getting involved during the Cave of Origin/Sky Pillar.
• Cynthia coming with you into the Distortion World in Platinum.
• Alder being on the plan to face Team Plasma, heading to the League to be ready to face N.

Also you're acting as if all Leon did was going around solving problems. While he did do battle the Dynanax Pokemon on the Route 9 Tunnel and was the first to confront Eternatus, all he did otherwise was just wandering around keeping an eye on Hop and the player. He certainly didn't stop Team Yell from causing trouble for the participants of the Champion Cup, the player and Hop had to do that.

 

[Worldie]

He certainly didn't stop Team Yell from causing trouble for the participants of the Champion Cup, the player and Hop had to do that.

To be fair he probably would have, if they didn't exagerate a bit on the recurring gag that he gets lost all the time and gets to places too late.

I do think Leon is one of the more "active" Champions, but also this is due to the way Galar lore itself is built, where the Champion isnt "that one guy who beat the League and sits there", but rather a actual sport celebrity that constantly shows up around and meets/helps people (also facilitated by Rose's campaigns).

Personally I'd like more of those "Champions of the people" rather than the archetype of "person who beats the league and sits there".
Even Lance & the others aren't exactly celebrities to this caliber.
The XY girl of which I always forget the name had the potential to be same as Leon, but we know that XY kinda has some problems with the way the story develops.

 

[Albatross]

Maybe I have not explained well. I was refering as a champion that tries to solve the problems in his region (like a Legendary being mad), being responsible to the problem and does not only stays on the Pokemon League. EDIT: Have you ever seen another Champion doing that?

Maybe this would make sense logically speaking, but plot-wise it would just make the game far more boring. I'll admit I haven't played SWSH, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but Leon just coming in and solving all the drama (like the thing with the Dynamaxed Perrserker(?) rampaging that you only see a news article about) does make him a more proactive character, but it also takes away from the player's experience since you're now relegated to being told "Oh yeah there's a big ol' dynamaxed Pokemon freaking out just to the left of the camera, but don't worry about that cause Leon's fixing it, just go back to collecting the badges," Instead of actually battling it and being a part of the overarching plot about Eternatus or whatever SWSH's story was about

Imagine how dull the Distortion World would be if Cynthia just showed up, beat Cyrus' ass, caught Giratina then buggered off back to the Pokemon League. She could've swept up everything without the player's involvement at all, but for the plot's sake she didn't. Because what's more fun; fighting a madman who wants to create his own universe and catching what is essentially the Anti-Christ of Pokemon, or a wall of text explaining how Cynthia popped up and shut it all down off camera?

 

[Bakugames]

we can have the champion be proactive AND have the player have an active role. Gamefreak just isn't good with consistency in making good plots

 

[TheRealEGR]

we can have the champion be proactive AND have the player have an active role. Gamefreak just isn't good with consistency in making good plots

That is what I wanted to try to explain

 

[Siggu]

I actually liked how Sword and Shield mostly ignored the major concern that was happening while we played.

It let the story focus on the Gym Challenge for what was pretty much the first time in the entire series. Even if it was not great by any means, it was refreshing. Unfortunately this execution was botched at the very end, which makes the story end up being bad - I insist that the Eternatus crisis should have been part of the post-game, and have the main story solely focused on you, your rivals, and the road to become a champion.

I know that having the main story be about saving the region/world is a staple of the series (and the RPG genre as a whole), but it's not required.

 

[The Mind Electric]

Because I'm tired of the romhacks, they offer all the same. They only offer DS graphics(on GBA), mega evolutions and other evolutionary phenoms, Pokemon from further generations , and stories that involve more the evil team (even more than BW) than "Get 8 badges and beat the league" that pretend to be dark and edgy. And sometimes, they put you to battle NPC's with Smogon sets vs your shitmons. There is enough reasons to be tired of romhacks.

EDIT: The worst part is that people actually like these romhacks.

I...fail to see how most of this is a bad thing? I appreciate more Pokémon and I don't mind more story as long as it's well-written. About difficulty, I avoid hacks like Radical Red because vanilla Pokémon games on Set mode with no items in battle are generally the right level of difficulty for me, but there's clearly an audience for really hard Pokémon games and I don't see anything wrong with making hacks for that audience. If it's not your thing then that's fine, but getting mad that other people enjoy these hacks is weird to me. I also don't really get why you're "tired" of them. Is it really that hard to avoid them if you're not interested?