Unpopular opinions

The old Pokemon have their place - many of them are my favourites - but they're so over-exposed that they're just boring to me now. I just don't think there's much left to do with the species from Gen I and II any more save regional variants, but we've got enough from the first two gens that I don't think more are needed: Hoenn only has one, and Sinnoh none at all, so future regional variants should make use of those regions.
Problem: Playing part of the gimmick of the generation isn’t going to stop them from gainin access to the next one, even if it would not make any sense. Gengar and and the Kanto starters (not just Charizard mind you) got each one Gigantamax form despite already having Mega Evolution previously, hot helping is that Gengar’s Gigantamax form felt too similar in terms of design and how it make use of it.

Thankfully for G-Max Gengar’s case you can only trap non-Normal opponent by not existing but by using G-Max Terror, which Normal-type Pokémon are immune due to Ghost-typing the G-Max move have, making it a lot less painful to deal with. Still, it raised many eyebrows when first revealed.

I won’t be surprised if Pikachu and Eevee get a taste of “exclusive” versions of the next gimmick for Scarlet and Violet, whatever that would be. I do hope we won’t get too many repeats for who gets the “exclusive” version.
 
I think Green meant that they should apply the Gimmick of the Year to more 21st century Pokémon. Which reminds me, I noticed that people complained about the Kanto starters having megas because they overshadowed the Kalos starters, but in subsequent generations, the fully-evolved starters have a signature aspect of that gimmick: the exclusive Z-moves for Alola and Gigantamax forms for Galar. Was this an intentional response to criticism?

(Also, pet peeve: when people conflate "generation" with "region". Seriously, the Bulbapedia articles for generations are just overviews of the main series games and nothing else. Let me make a Venn diagram...)
 
I think Green meant that they should apply the Gimmick of the Year to more 21st century Pokémon.

This, but they don't *have* to make a gimmick. Just include them more. I feel like newer mons tend to be the first to be excluded in Dexit scenarios but I'd rather we had more time with recently-introduced mons, not less.

In the "breakdown of regional Pokedexes" thread Kanto basically always dominates. It'll never happen, but my ideal regional dex would be about 15% Kanto, 85% everyone else.
 
Which reminds me, I noticed that people complained about the Kanto starters having megas because they overshadowed the Kalos starters, but in subsequent generations, the fully-evolved starters have a signature aspect of that gimmick: the exclusive Z-moves for Alola and Gigantamax forms for Galar. Was this an intentional response to criticism?
Considering there was a mix of Megas mostly between Generations 1-4, while Z-Moves and Gigantmaxes got only Kanto+New Region with exception of G-Max Garbador and Melmetal, I don't think the criticisms were fully addressed. Even then, the Alolan Legendary Duo and the Galarian Starters had to wait until an expansion to receive their region's gimmick.
 
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I have a whopper. Put down the pitchforks! I'm *not* condoning the Dexit disaster.

Right from the beginning I, in all honesty disagreed with keeping everything. I won't undersell the historical significance. GS was unique. Yeah RPG character import/migration was old hat (Wizardry etc), but maintaining a whole party lineup on a large scale had never been done before - or since (all these years no other non-Pokemon game has tried). It was also instrumental to reinforce loyalty. Players got to cherish their favorite team over generations.

The downside is being in some ways too inflexible. Traditional games were obliged to include every monster, along with their moves, abilities, and assorted elements (like species-specific items). Even if compromises elsewhere had to be made. An approaching production deadline? Something else was scrapped to ensure the Pokemon were ready. The developers bored of revisiting the same critters? Too bad. A big idea time-consuming to implement on hundreds of Pokemon (imagine a Metronome user getting individualize animations for every move)? Don't count on it.
 
I have a whopper. Put down the pitchforks! I'm *not* condoning the Dexit disaster.

Right from the beginning I, in all honesty disagreed with keeping everything. I won't undersell the historical significance. GS was unique. Yeah RPG character import/migration was old hat (Wizardry etc), but maintaining a whole party lineup on a large scale had never been done before - or since (all these years no other non-Pokemon game has tried). It was also instrumental to reinforce loyalty. Players got to cherish their favorite team over generations.

The downside is being in some ways too inflexible. Traditional games were obliged to include every monster, along with their moves, abilities, and assorted elements (like species-specific items). Even if compromises elsewhere had to be made. An approaching production deadline? Something else was scrapped to ensure the Pokemon were ready. The developers bored of revisiting the same critters? Too bad. A big idea time-consuming to implement on hundreds of Pokemon (imagine a Metronome user getting individualize animations for every move)? Don't count on it.
I honestly feel the same way. I was kind of bummed that some of the Pokemon were missing, but it's nothing to be too sad about. As I stated somewhere on here, I hate Sinnoh Pokemon and that's kind of all PLA has to offer. So I learned to like some of them, at least until I could get new Pokemon to replace them, and eventually came to appreciate the small selection that it has. Dexit may have been very controversial in the SwSh days, but I for one didn't really care much. Even if they weren't using all new models, having 880(?) or so Pokemon in the game all at once is kind of ridiculous.
 
Well yeah, people today with basic programming skills can rebuild the original games better than ever. There's plenty of Rom hacks that prove this. Technology is wonderful and makes a mockery of the original games.

But that's like saying the Wright Brothers aircraft is shit. I mean yeah, by today's standards it is. But that isn't really fair. I could go to Walmart / Cabellas and buy the cheapest gun they sell and immediately become the deadliest warrior on the planet in the year 1400. But that says nothing about my skills or abilities, just that technology makes things outdated.

SwSh were, almost objectively speaking, the worst Pokemon games of all time accounting for technology. They have fewer Pokemon than games released a DECADE ago, no real story mode outside of "fight gym, walk 10 minutes, tap A as characters talk, repeat until game ends", cut moves / Pokemon that is unprecedented in the series, Online play that makes Starcraft 1998 look more advanced, countless terrible unpopular gameplay decisions like mandatory battle time, mandatory XP share, and dexit, paid DLC that takes 30 minutes to beat, cut Megas, and arguably the worst gimmick ever Dynamax. The only good thing I can say about them is they're graphically better than any game before them but given the hardware difference it would be hard not to. It's an insult to the fans that this is the crap the world's most profitable franchise gives us.

The games were clearly rushed and trash. Yeah by 20 YEAR technology standards they're better than the original games but that's a really low bar to clear.
I agree with a lot of this, but I notably disagree with quite a few things. The SWSH DLC isn't that short, and Crown Tundra is pretty meaty, with an entire multiplayer Roguelike mode which is super fun.

Controversially, I like Dynamax. I've always seen it as not "worse" than usual Pokemon, but just *different*. It shifts the game in a way that is fun in certain formats, especially Doubles. I know some Doubles players always tell me "nah dmax ruined vgc!!!" but the fact is, many top players in VGC have talked about how Dmax shifted the meta in a good way. It basically countered a lot of measures that made VGC more annoying, particularly weakening Fake Out. I'd argue that VGC was very fun before the DLC.

I also don't take issue with cut Pokemon or moves as long as it's done smartly. This is controversial, but yes, I'm down with even competitively relevant moves being removed as long as it's bad for the meta. In my opinion, Pursuit is not good for competitive Pokemon, and I'm glad it's gone from the game.

Another thing, I think SWSH displays an issue Smogon has in how we operate. No matter what the games do, they cannot really change how a Pokemon plays without effecting others.

I think Clefable is a perfect example. It doesn't make sense that a Gen 3 event move is the only way to have a competitive Clefable in-game, and it's part of what makes Clefable pretty insane unless you have specific counters. It's a good thing that... Clefable didn't get it until Home, while still having healing. Unfortunately, due to how Smogon operates, as long as we have transferring and moves not being removed, Game Freak cannot nerf individual Pokemon by removing specific moves from their movepool.

Clefable with Soft-boiled is banned in official ranked formats, clearly they don't balance around now 20 year old event moves, but it remains a core thing to Clefable's play in Smogon, to the point where it's really frustrating. Especially in the casual official formats where it, and Minimize, are allowed.

I also have never agreed that Dex Cuts are a bad idea for competitive. Again, just needs to be responsible. Gliscor would arguably make current meta very toxic for instance (Lando-T but with recovery, no meaningful status and basically the same utility), or Greninja, etc.

Issue is that the DLC brought back like all of the legends.

this was ranty, I know, A
 
I agree with a lot of this, but I notably disagree with quite a few things. The SWSH DLC isn't that short, and Crown Tundra is pretty meaty, with an entire multiplayer Roguelike mode which is super fun.

Isle of Armor literally takes like 30 minutes to beat. There's IIRC like 6 trainers and only one of them has more than a single Pokemon. All the "gameplay" is just fetch quests. Neither DLC is in any way level balanced to be on par with a team that beat the story so unless you're using new Pokemon you're going to just one-shot everything. The DLC would have been fine if they didn't charge THIRTY dollars for it. Considering how bare bones SwSh and the DLC was it should have just been free. Locking VGC viable move tutors and Pokemon (yes I know you can trade, but still) is a dick move that makes the game a bit more P2W than it should be.

Controversially, I like Dynamax. I've always seen it as not "worse" than usual Pokemon, but just *different*. It shifts the game in a way that is fun in certain formats, especially Doubles. I know some Doubles players always tell me "nah dmax ruined vgc!!!" but the fact is, many top players in VGC have talked about how Dmax shifted the meta in a good way. It basically countered a lot of measures that made VGC more annoying, particularly weakening Fake Out. I'd argue that VGC was very fun before the DLC.

Dynamax had some interesting effects on VGC. However it made singles utterly unplayable. Not just Smogon, but even Battle Spot singles is terrible now. All they had to do is add an option to disable it and the battle timer so we could play without those things, but they're shoved in our faces. I used to enjoy playing occasional 6v6 Smogon OU on cartridge in previous gens but now it's basically impossible.

I also don't take issue with cut Pokemon or moves as long as it's done smartly. This is controversial, but yes, I'm down with even competitively relevant moves being removed as long as it's bad for the meta.

Pokémon being cut from the game's code is a first in the series. Having a rotating competitive roster is interesting, locking Pokémon forever in a paid Home service that I can't even use because Gamefreak arbitrarily decided Beedrill isn't a Pokémon anymore is not.

In my opinion, Pursuit is not good for competitive Pokemon, and I'm glad it's gone from the game.

How many ghosts were banned or suspected this gen? I miss Tyranitar having the ability to make Blacephalon regret being alive.

Another thing, I think SWSH displays an issue Smogon has in how we operate. No matter what the games do, they cannot really change how a Pokemon plays without effecting others.

Smogon has "balance patches" done via bans or clauses. There's absolutely nothing stopping Gamefreak from doing what every other competitive game does by introducing buffs and nerfs. Right now Zacian and Incineroar are on 60% or more of teams. That isn't healthy, so why can't they change buff stats a little to shake the meta up?

I think Clefable is a perfect example. It doesn't make sense that a Gen 3 event move is the only way to have a competitive Clefable in-game, and it's part of what makes Clefable pretty insane unless you have specific counters. It's a good thing that... Clefable didn't get it until Home, while still having healing. Unfortunately, due to how Smogon operates, as long as we have transferring and moves not being removed, Game Freak cannot nerf individual Pokemon by removing specific moves from their movepool.

Softboiled isn't an event move, it's a tutor move. It learns it in three games.

Clefable with Soft-boiled is banned in official ranked formats, clearly they don't balance around now 20 year old event moves, but it remains a core thing to Clefable's play in Smogon, to the point where it's really frustrating. Especially in the casual official formats where it, and Minimize, are allowed.

Which is fine, but again there's no reason to restrict players from using them in casual 6v6 singles games with no mandatory timer. Gamefreak loses nothing by offering player choice.

I also have never agreed that Dex Cuts are a bad idea for competitive. Again, just needs to be responsible. Gliscor would arguably make current meta very toxic for instance (Lando-T but with recovery, no meaningful status and basically the same utility), or Greninja, etc.

Sure but there's no evidence dex cuts were done for balance. Gamefreak ran out of time and had to cut features. Sure Incineroar / Groudon get through but not Gumshoos or Swanna? Also not Greninja, one of the most popular Pokémon in the game? Oh and they gave that fish dinosaur a 255 base power STAB move that gets buffed by rain. If Gamefreak is truly making attempts at balancing the game through dex cuts then they should just find a third party to do it for them, because they are incompetent.

Honestly the only reason I have any interest in this franchise at all any more is because Smogon exists and can keep things somewhat orderly.
 
I'm going to reiterate an earlier point I made: Gamefreak clearly did not make the Dex cuts in the interest of achieving balance, at least not to the extent that they actually evaluated the effects or actually selected for what was removed rather than just kind of arbitrarily excluding things and hoping less things = less threats = less imbalance. Some people think that it was GF throwing Competitive (Singles or VGC) under the bus for an unpopular decision, but I think less (personal perspective) cynically that it was just paying lip-service to the roster-rotation idea and hoping (not without justification) that the casual consumer would take their word for it rather than dissecting how balance was or was not improved by the Dexit removals.

I don't ever claim that balancing the ballooning Pokemon roster is anything less than a Herculean (if not Sisyphean) task, but that also does not change or absolve the fact that they claimed it as a reason when it failed spectacularly and/or was evidently not the case when put under any scrutiny.

Eh? Didn't Landorus Therian outclass Gliscor since its introduction?
I assume they're referring to Landorus-Therian's increasingly popular SpD oriented Set in OU, though this still isn't an apt comparison because Lando is a Soft-Check that has retaliatory power, whereas Gliscor can stallbreak but is otherwise passive in exchange for its other longevity aspects.
 
Don't overthink this boyos, the state of affairs is really quite simple

>SWSH development sucked ass (see prototype leaks)
>Something had to be done to get the damn thing shipped, they chose dexit (also probably because they realized natdex was a mistake anyway but that's a convo for another time)
>Excuses made up cuz not like they're gonna admit bulletpoint 1
>Now they're tryna live up to said excuses with (presumably) healthier conditions due to their choice

PLA has vindicated the "high quality animations" meme, it's just the whole competitive balancing thing that's still up in the air because they kinda haven't made a game designed for comp since SWSH launched. For this among other reasons SV's gonna be a really fascinating competitive generation now ain't it
 
Ttar is overrated comp wise honestly
The only reason it lasted was cuz Sand Stream. Otherwise it's a worse Hippowdon, and even Clef is more interesting
Shame cuz I like its design
 
I'm going to reiterate an earlier point I made: Gamefreak clearly did not make the Dex cuts in the interest of achieving balance, at least not to the extent that they actually evaluated the effects or actually selected for what was removed rather than just kind of arbitrarily excluding things and hoping less things = less threats = less imbalance. Some people think that it was GF throwing Competitive (Singles or VGC) under the bus for an unpopular decision, but I think less (personal perspective) cynically that it was just paying lip-service to the roster-rotation idea and hoping (not without justification) that the casual consumer would take their word for it rather than dissecting how balance was or was not improved by the Dexit removals.

I don't ever claim that balancing the ballooning Pokemon roster is anything less than a Herculean (if not Sisyphean) task, but that also does not change or absolve the fact that they claimed it as a reason when it failed spectacularly and/or was evidently not the case when put under any scrutiny.


I assume they're referring to Landorus-Therian's increasingly popular SpD oriented Set in OU, though this still isn't an apt comparison because Lando is a Soft-Check that has retaliatory power, whereas Gliscor can stallbreak but is otherwise passive in exchange for its other longevity aspects.

The distinction is paramount. Dex cuts don't improve the balance, it only makes balancing the game easier. GF is hopeless to manage that. Gaining control over the roster to shape the metagame at their whim, achieved nothing.
 
Ttar is overrated comp wise honestly
The only reason it lasted was cuz Sand Stream. Otherwise it's a worse Hippowdon, and even Clef is more interesting
Shame cuz I like its design

It has probably the worst defensive typing in the game yet somehow managed to be OU for 20 straight years. It might be overrated in some ways but it's still really good for so many reasons that it would take a 4 hour BKC video to list them all.
 
Ttar is overrated comp wise honestly
The only reason it lasted was cuz Sand Stream. Otherwise it's a worse Hippowdon, and even Clef is more interesting
Shame cuz I like its design
Really the main reason I like it is because its stats are legendary-tier under Sandstorm. I believe w/ max investment, its special defensive is about the same as a Pokemon w/ base 174 Special Defense (that is also fully invested). In some ways, it feels kinda bad to use. Its typing is straight up garbage, probably one of the worst typings in the game. Its got good utility moves, but no recovery sucks. Also it got massive nerfs in both gen 6 & gen 8. Even with these issues, its still ok and much better in practice than it is on paper. Its sheer bulk and coverage options makes its matchup spread better than what its typing would suggest.

I would still much rather use Tar over Hippo 99% of the time. Hippo is just such a do-nothing Pokemon that's extremely boring to use since its set variety compared to Tar is way worse. Tar at least has a lot more options since its viably able to run both Defensive and Offensive sets and has a lot of different options to use due to its gigantic movepool, like Foul Play, Thunder Wave, Ice Beam, etc. Hippo meanwhile plays a much slower game, which may be more effective, but is also more boring and waste more of the sand turns that it should be providing to Excadrill / Dracozolt.
 
Tyranitar is a case where despite its incredibly exploitable defensive typing, for the longest time it has been, in many ways, the ideal competitive Pokemon. Yes, it has a very exploitable typing and is quite slow, but it has the perfect combination of bulk, power, and movepool combined with Sand Stream upping its special bulk and its utility that made it an incredibly versatile and useful Pokemon who could be a valuable asset to almost any team for many generations, as it had so many uses that it could fulfill magnificently. It could be a Pursuit trapper with its access to STAB Pursuit, and by virtue of its sheer bulk especially with the Special Defense boost from Sand Stream in Gens 4-7, this means Tyranitar was an excellent check to a myriad of Psychic and Ghost-types, and several other Pokemon in general, and could "trap" them with Pursuit. Tyranitar could function as a tank and wallbreaker with its incredibly high Attack, powerful STABs with Stone Edge and Crunch, and good coverage moves to work with especially when equipped with a Choice Band as well as its strong natural bulk giving it an edge. It could also be a mixed attacker, as it has a decent Special Attack and a wide array of coverage moves such as Fire Blast and Ice Beam to cover against physically bulky threats and act as a mixed attacking lure. It could also sweep with Dragon Dance, as despite being slow, it has so much power and bulk that it can set up and take a hit then plow through a team. Its Mega Evolution in Gens 6-7 had use with this set in particular. Its high bulk and utility also makes it a good Stealth Rock setter, and for Sand Teams it also complements Excadrill quite well because it can cover against some Pokemon Excadrill cannot deal with. You cannot compare it to Hippowdon directly as outside of summoning sandstorm, they function a lot differently and bring different things: Tyranitar checks a lot of specially oriented threats like the Latis back in the Gen 4-6 days, and whatnot, and had utility with mixed attacking coverage and/or Pursuit trapping, while Hippowdon was more of a physical tank that walled physical threats and could also phaze with Whirlwind.

I could go on and on, but really Tyranitar has been pretty much the perfect competitive Pokemon. It has high Attack, good Special Attack, great bulk on both sides, sandstorm to give it utility and also make it a summoner for Sand teams while giving it amazing special bulk that helps it a lot, and a wide movepool that could allow it to perform just about any role: Stealth Rock setter, mixed attacker, Dragon Dance sweeper, SubPunch user, Choice Band wallbreaker, Pursuit trapper, revenge killer with Choice Scarf, you name it. Granted, all of these aforementioned sets have had varying degrees of viability over the generations, but the point stands: Tyranitar's versatility in its stats and movepool have allowed it to adapt to the changing OU metagames over the generations, ever since its debut in Gen 2, and it has always managed to be a staple. Granted, the loss of Pursuit hurts it now, and power creep hasn't been favorable to it in recent years, but there's a reason it's managed to stay firmly OU since its debut. Sure, the days where it was an S Rank titan of OU, back in the days of Gens 2-5 in particular, and an A Rank metagame staple in Gens 6-7, are all long gone, and Tyranitar isn't as good now as it used to be, but for the aforementioned reasons, it's been a competitive staple because it is so versatile that it is essentially the ideal competitive Pokemon. Its slow speed and its myriad of exploitable weaknesses have also been its Achilles heel, but mainly those were merely the things that kept Tyranitar in check to keep it from being truly broken in spite of the many positive traits it has that have made it an ideal competitive Pokemon for many years.

It's true that power creep has hurt it a lot, but Tyranitar still has its place in OU today because of its positive qualities, even if the days of it being a top tier metagame defining threat and/or metagame staple are long gone now.
 
Tyranitar is a case where despite its incredibly exploitable defensive typing
To be fair, despite having several glaring issues, Tyranitar's typing actually has some very important key resistances that generally will always give him a place in the meta. Notably being arguably the best ghost switchin that isnt a normal type (was even more important back when Pursuit was a thing), as well as giving a rough time to 2 of the most popular fire types as far as singles go (Volcarona / Heatran) by eating one of their stabs and forcing them to run a suboptimal 2nd stab they'd rather not use if they want to threaten it.

Though, Tyranitar is really carried by its BST and Sand Stream. Without Sand Stream somewhat patching its typing by giving it enough spdef to facetank certain hits as well as making it the best Sand Rush enabler, it'd probably have never reached the viability it has.

All in all, Tyranitar is a good case for "a bunch of things make a pokemon" and not just their type.
(Which is something I often bring up when people complain that "Fairy type is broken", when in reality the issue is that fairy-type pokemon tend to be overloaded with both good typing, good movepool AND good stats)
 
(Which is something I often bring up when people complain that "Fairy type is broken", when in reality the issue is that fairy-type pokemon tend to be overloaded with both good typing, good movepool AND good stats)
Please could you elaborate? I assume you mean things like the Tapus, and I know that Play Rough increased Azumarill's viability dramatically, but what else?
 
Please could you elaborate? I assume you mean things like the Tapus, and I know that Play Rough increased Azumarill's viability dramatically, but what else?
Tapus, Xerneas, (mega)Mawile, Zacian, Clefable, Magearna come to mind.

All of these aren't strong/broken "because they're fairy types". They are because of a combination of things.
For example, Xerneas itself wouldn't be anywhere as insane without Geomancy (it's in fact unviable in VGC because it's very easy to wipe out Geomancy buffs or nuke him via Dynamax while it sets up). Zacian would be busted even if it was Bug type. Magearna's and Mega Mawile's steel/fairy type surely helped by giving them bulk, but it was respectively the sheer power both could muster via high BST and impactful abilities (as well as insanely versatile movepool) that pushes them over the edge.
(Case in point, Mawile is irrelevant without the mega despite still being a fairy type, and Magearna was fine in gen 7 until it actually got recovery in gen 8)
Similar point can be made for the other.

Basically point being, lot of people QQ that "fairy type is broken it needs a nerf", when in reality, it's just a case that several of the recently released fairy types also had a ton of good traits at same time that pushes over the edge. But several of these would still be strong without the fairy type. The only one I can think that *really* needs its fairy type to function would be Clefable and even then i'm not sure it'd not still do what it does if it was still Normal type.
 
Isle of Armor literally takes like 30 minutes to beat. There's IIRC like 6 trainers and only one of them has more than a single Pokemon. All the "gameplay" is just fetch quests. Neither DLC is in any way level balanced to be on par with a team that beat the story so unless you're using new Pokemon you're going to just one-shot everything. The DLC would have been fine if they didn't charge THIRTY dollars for it. Considering how bare bones SwSh and the DLC was it should have just been free. Locking VGC viable move tutors and Pokemon (yes I know you can trade, but still) is a dick move that makes the game a bit more P2W than it should be.



Dynamax had some interesting effects on VGC. However it made singles utterly unplayable. Not just Smogon, but even Battle Spot singles is terrible now. All they had to do is add an option to disable it and the battle timer so we could play without those things, but they're shoved in our faces. I used to enjoy playing occasional 6v6 Smogon OU on cartridge in previous gens but now it's basically impossible.



Pokémon being cut from the game's code is a first in the series. Having a rotating competitive roster is interesting, locking Pokémon forever in a paid Home service that I can't even use because Gamefreak arbitrarily decided Beedrill isn't a Pokémon anymore is not.



How many ghosts were banned or suspected this gen? I miss Tyranitar having the ability to make Blacephalon regret being alive.



Smogon has "balance patches" done via bans or clauses. There's absolutely nothing stopping Gamefreak from doing what every other competitive game does by introducing buffs and nerfs. Right now Zacian and Incineroar are on 60% or more of teams. That isn't healthy, so why can't they change buff stats a little to shake the meta up?



Softboiled isn't an event move, it's a tutor move. It learns it in three games.



Which is fine, but again there's no reason to restrict players from using them in casual 6v6 singles games with no mandatory timer. Gamefreak loses nothing by offering player choice.



Sure but there's no evidence dex cuts were done for balance. Gamefreak ran out of time and had to cut features. Sure Incineroar / Groudon get through but not Gumshoos or Swanna? Also not Greninja, one of the most popular Pokémon in the game? Oh and they gave that fish dinosaur a 255 base power STAB move that gets buffed by rain. If Gamefreak is truly making attempts at balancing the game through dex cuts then they should just find a third party to do it for them, because they are incompetent.

Honestly the only reason I have any interest in this franchise at all any more is because Smogon exists and can keep things somewhat orderly.
Your reactions to what I said have many, many flaws. I will go one-by-one:

You only mentioned one of the DLCs, the one K said kinda sucks. You didn't talk about Crown Tundra, which is an endearing longer campaign with great characters. Isle of Armor is also actually level changed depending on when you face it. Crown Tundra is Level 60 because it's basically a Good post-game legendary quest.

It didn't "ruin" anything. Finding a game of Casual/Ranked Battle Spot Singles is still quick and easy, with an active playerbase. So clearly, it's not "unplayable", because people do play it even competitively. Yes, options would be nice, but this is purely a Smogon 6v6 perspective instead of the playerbase as a whole.

You can use Beedrill. In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. That's the point, a rotating roster, Home to keep them until ready. I don't see your point here, you say it's interesting but also try to make a potential fix to the downside of it sound stupid, when it really isn't.

Not many, at least in SWSH OU. I mean, Calyrex-Shadow? But that thing is obviously broken, even with a potential Tyranitar. Actually, The Horse itself would be banned likely due to this:

252+ Atk Choice Band burned Tyranitar Pursuit (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Spectrier: 168-198 (41.5 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery

Which is a common set people used to run, and Choice Band isn't likely either. At best, Tyranitar is perma burned. Or it uses Lum, and still doesn't kill without Burn. Also, if we had Pursuit, we'd also have HP Fighting. Acting like having Tyranitar = no OP Ghost is just wrong.

And if it is true, THAT'S A BAD THING! Imagine if people justified Pokemon not being broken by saying "Dugtrio can 1v1 it", people would go crazy nowadays. If trapping is what you need to beat a Pokemon, that's not a good thing! Pursuit's role was arbitrarily weakening entire types and making it so that against teams with Pursuit they're pretty mediocre, or really great against others. I don't see the value in Pyrsuit.

TLDR: "broke check broke" is a common fallacy in these conversations, and I feel you used it.

Smogon's "balance patches" aren't what I'm talking about, and you know it, and you're being disingenuous. Pokemon shouldn't have this thing where when they get something once, they have it forever, even if they aren't even balancing the Pokemon with it in mind. You literally just ignored my point. Game Freak did buff and nerf Pokemon in Gen 8. Movepools. Look at them. If you cannot argue against this, don't even respond. The value of their choices are debatable, but I'd argue it made early SWSH VGC extremely strong.

Repeat that last sentence for the next thing.

It's telling that Smogon is the only thing you care about anymore because, as someone who has played thousands of hours of Smogon and thousands of hours of actual Pokemon, a lot of this screams that you haven't paid full attention to the actual games
 
You can use Beedrill. In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. That's the point, a rotating roster, Home to keep them until ready. I don't see your point here

Okay, they may have made a mistake for Beedrill. But there are still around 60 Pokémon that are not available to use in ANY mainline Switch Pokémon game yet, including certain starters and even the winner of the most popular Pokémon poll.

If you transferred them to HOME hoping that the DLCs (or possible third versions as initially expected) would make them available, we are talking about Pokémon that will have spent two years locked in the app, with no way to get out of it, by the time Scarlet and Violet are released. And who's to say they'll become available in those games? They might as well not be there.
 
No, let's keep the focus on Beedrill a little longer.

Let's talk about it's signature move, which isn't in gen 8.
Let's talk about it getting a new form that made it somewhat competitive, which isn't in gen 8.
Let's talk about how it has a high-crit move to go with it's HA being Sniper, and how it doesn't in gen 8.

Please explain why a fan of beedrill would be accepting of this position.
 
If the remakes fail to improve upon the originals, and you get the same gameplay flaws no matter which one you play, why bother with the remakes? Then I'd rather stick to the originals. Plus I have a positive nostalgic attachment to G/S/C which I don't have for HG/SS.

Well, from someone who doesn't have that close of a connection to the originals, if they have the same flaws I would rather the more modern version that, at the very least, looks prettier and at least has more details like actual identities to the Rocket Admins. Oh, and even if in-game they don't end up offering much difference, I do prefer having the mechanics like Abilities, the Physical/Special Split, and just the more Moves available.

... OF COURSE, if the only version of Gen II you have available are the original games for some reason then, due to the lack of QoL improvements, there's also no reason not to play that and just watch a playthrough of HGSS to know what changes at that point of the game they did.

If several cross-gen evos are blocked until the post-game, I consider that a big negative since there's no good reason for it.

Hey, I agree! They could have included some more with these simple changes:

Magnezone: Add a magnetic field to/around Mt. Mortar.
Leafeon: Add a Moss Rock in Ilex Forest.
Glaceon: Add Icy Rock in Whirl Islands. EDIT: Union Cave would be better.
Togekiss: Add a Shiny Stone in Glitter Lighthouse.
Gliscor: Add a Razor Fang on Route 45.

And that's just for the Johto main game, Kanto post game could have made similar changes (like adding a magnetic field to Mt. Moon, a Moss Rock in Viridian Forest, and Icy Rock in Seafoam Islands).

No. They. Have. Not. See the post I linked to earlier for a summary of everything HG/SS didn't keep from Crystal (or changed for the worse in some cases).

Once again I was talking in terms of broad strokes. Like when I think of Crystal inclusions I think of the ongoing side quest with Eusine & Suicune. In your list the only ones I would say are major misses is the Odd Egg, decorating your room, & making Route 23 more interesting (though there was just as much of a chance it would just be like how it was in the Gen I games). For the subjective stuff I would mainly just agree with replacing Kris with Lyra was a strange idea, like if you're going to do that at the very least make Kris an NPC which would explain why she isn't selectable!

Sun and Moon/Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were arguably the best games in the series.

Sun & Moon I liked, but I'm sorry USUM did a botch of a job being an advanced version of those games. Yes, they added some more features, but they either fun distraction (Mantine Surf & Ultra Space Ride), never fully thought out (the new locations added were pretty shallow, especially for Ultra Megalopolis; they also missed opportunities adding locations like the golf course and the ruins of the Lake of the Sunne/Moone), and worse they ruined the story by, instead of expanding upon it, they tried wedging in new elements not allowing the never elements to be fully explore (Ultra Recon Squad) or randomly changing parts just for the sake of changing it which kind of ruined the impact of certain scenes (Lillie going with you to Exeggutor Island, Hau burning Faba, Lillie's confrontation with her mom happening OFF SCREEN, Lillie going to Kanto with to find a cure for Lusamine (and then not doing ANYTHING with Lillie's character now that she didn't leave), not doing anything with Looker & Anabel, etc.). Being one of the themes of Gen VII was parallel dimensions, they could have REALLY gone some interesting direction.

With Dexit appearing to be the state of play for new games for the foreseeable future, I would actually really dig a Pokemon game composed entirely of newer Pokemon, by which I mean those from gens III, IV and later.

Hm, that certainly would be a fun experiment, heck if you just do the com mons from Gens 6, 7, & 8 you might scrape enough Pokemon together to get a dex as big as the original/Unova. :psysly: Though of course adding in the "forgettable" Pokemon from other gens like III and IV would help get it up there. Of course if they did that I would also suggest GF doing a major re-review of these Pokemon and seeing if they can't make them better via increased/redistributed stats, Abilities, and moveset.

Though on a similar note, one idea I've had for a duel version was one game would only have Pokemon that were mono-type and the other version would only have Pokemon that were duel-type (but no family shared a Type combination, all families had to be unique duel-types).

I have a whopper. Put down the pitchforks! I'm *not* condoning the Dexit disaster.

(...)

The downside is being in some ways too inflexible. Traditional games were obliged to include every monster, along with their moves, abilities, and assorted elements (like species-specific items). Even if compromises elsewhere had to be made.

I have said it plenty of times: Dexit itself was not a bad idea. It could have been used as a chance to go back to older Pokemon and give them an uplift: increasing/moving around their stats to make them more in-line with modern Pokemon, reconsidering what Abilities they have, adjust or maybe even redo with movesets. This even extends into Abilities and Moves themselves, some could really be made better or rebalanced. In addition to this, you make it clear to the players that this is happening; you make this a big announcement in a Direct, assuring fans that though their favorite Pokemon aren't in they aren't forgotten, and not having to implement them is giving them chance to give each Pokemon a lookover and possibly improve them. And then maybe go a step further by every few days or week you reveal a Pokemon that's in the game and not in the game, explaining why it was included/excluded, maybe even tossing in some additional factoids about the Pokemon or GF staff's thoughts on it.

BUT NOPE! NONE of that happened cause we got to push this game out for no other reason to show that we can and it'll sell no matter what! Oh, and letting everyone know about we're doing Dexit? Let's just have Masuda, who at this point is completely out of touch with the players yet still wants to be their PR guy, just meekly reveal that as a side note at an E3 Treehouse presentation; showing that instead of treating it like the big deal that it was GF wanted people not to notice. We noticed. Oh, and to compound the error, have Masuda then quickly announce that Mega Evo and Z-Moves weren't returning in a Famitsu interview trying to also bury that disappointment. We noticed that too.

No, let's keep the focus on Beedrill a little longer.

Let's talk about it's signature move, which isn't in gen 8.
Let's talk about it getting a new form that made it somewhat competitive, which isn't in gen 8.
Let's talk about how it has a high-crit move to go with it's HA being Sniper, and how it doesn't in gen 8.

Please explain why a fan of beedrill would be accepting of this position.

Well because the only Gen 8 game to have Beedrill was BDSP and back in Gen IV it sucked so for nostalgia sake we gotta recreate that experience. :psywoke:
 
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