Unpopular opinions

[KalosianPorygon]

So, about the Psychic type.

Dark and Steel types overaddressed the Psychic-type problem in Gen 1.

Steel and Dark were created in Gen II to balance the Psychic type, but in practice? In-game, Psychic-type Pokémon, or at least the Abra line, are still good in GSC:

1. The elemental punches are great coverage moves for special attackers. Electric + Ice in particular is amazing neutral coverage.
2. Existing Steel-type Pokémon have meh Special Defense. haha fire punch go brrr I also don't think any NPC uses Skarmory or Scizor.
3. Dark-type Pokémon are too uncommon to be an issue in a playthrough until endgame. Silver's Sneasel is weak haha fire punch go brrr, you only have to worry about Karen's Umbreon and Houndoom. You know, Karen from the Elite 4.

Bug and Ghost had next to no viable STAB moves in Gen 1 (even if Lick was super effective). Gen 2 tried to address this with Megahorn and Shadow Ball, but only one of the Pokemon with STAB on these moves isn't weak to Psychic, so they kinda failed there.

Oh yeah, and no NPC to my knowledge uses Heracross. Misdreavus is bad and used by nobody IIRC, and the other new bugs are not great overall and used by no noteworthy Trainer except Elite 4's Koga and even then, Forretress had to somehow survive a Fire Punch, then explode on Alakazam to beat you.

 

[Samtendo09]

Amongst smogoners, maybe.

As ScraftyIsTheBest said, Glastrier has however had pretty solid success in VGC, and Caly-Ice also has been having success recently. After the "new toy syndrome" for everyone running calyS+zacian expired, Trick room teams with Caly-Ice + Palkia or Necrozma have eventually been showing up, so the reception for the "slow bulky ice type" hasnt been that bad.
If it learned a priority move it'd definitely have been MUCH stronger but alas, that isnt the case.

That didn’t stopped Zacian + Kyogre cores from running rampant iirc, but with Palkia around, both are easily countered if the player is willing to Dynamax Palkia for three important factors.

1. Water and Dragon typing allows it to double resist Water, which is vital to tank Water Spout. While the Dragon typing leaves it disadvantageous against Zacian in theory, Crowned Zacian rarely uses Fairy STAB.
2. Water typing also helps it to resist Behemoth Blade, a Steel-type move, making the move less of a concern even when Dynamaxed.
3. Dynamaxing turns Palkia’s Earth Power into Max Quake, which not only rises Special Defense for it and Glastrier or other ally, but also heavily dent Crowned Zacian if not outright OHKO the sword wolf. It also makes it harder for Kyogre to KO Palkia or their ally without being Dynamaxed to counter it. A switcheroo can happen by Dynamaxing Glastrier instead and uses Max Quake via High Horsepower instead, and the benefit stays the same, if not better if Glastrier’s Weakness Policy is procced.

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

my unpopular opinion is that this thread is a carbon copy of (Little) things that annoy you in Pokemon.

 

[Worldie]

my unpopular opinion is that this thread is a carbon copy of (Little) things that annoy you in Pokemon.

Nah. Mainly cause amongst unpopular opinions there's also actually liking stuff people don't like.

Like me not thinking that Pokemon is dead as a series for example, or that GameFreak is the moneyhungering capitalist disaster smogoners picture it to be :P

 

[DreamPrince]

Like me not thinking that Pokemon is dead as a series for example, or that GameFreak is the moneyhungering capitalist disaster smogoners picture it to be :P

Perhaps not GF, but TPC is definitely a “ money hungry capitalist disaster “. I mean, why else would they side and make a product with a shady company who has close ties to a government that rules like a dictatorship and is willing to harm lives of its people and purposefully censor information deemed “ harmful “ ?

 

[KalosianPorygon]

I thought the Rotom Pokédex being able to talk to the player was cute, and I am still saddened by the Rotom Phone's and Masters EX' Porygonphone's shared inability to talk.

 

[Bakugames]

I thought the Rotom Pokédex being able to talk to the player was cute, and I am still saddened by the Rotom Phone's and Masters EX' Porygonphone's shared inability to talk.

MY MAN!!! Honestly the only issue was that you couldnt cut the dialogue when going to use it, but if they fixed that, itd be peak pokedex. I love the rascal

 

[NaturalTropius]

I was playing through some Galarian Star Tournaments for money grinding today, and I was pretty struck by how much characterization they could fit into the characters' dialogue. Makes me really feel like these characters deserved a better plot haha

 

[Magcargo]

Dark and Steel types overaddressed the Psychic-type problem in Gen 1.

The biggest problem with Psychic (the move) are that it had a 33% chance to lower special. No other Psychic move was anywhere near problematic. Splitting up the special stats and lowering the effect rate made the move much easier to deal with.

The problem with Psychic (the type) isn't its resists, especially when they don't have a ridiculously spamable move anymore (Gen 1 Psychic is probably as spamable as Scald). The problem is that its weaknesses never had a chance to combat it. Bug and Ghost had next to no viable STAB moves in Gen 1 (even if Lick was super effective). Gen 2 tried to address this with Megahorn and Shadow Ball, but only one of the Pokemon with STAB on these moves isn't weak to Psychic, so they kinda failed there.

If they really wanted more defensive counterplay to it, adding another resist is probably fine if they did the first step and make more Bug/Ghosts not weak to Psychic. Dark being resistant to Psychic instead of immune isn't that different from where we are now, and leaves them from trying to create the optimal defensive type in Steel that I should probably complain about in another unpopular opinion.

To add on to this point with another unpopular opinion, Gen 6 arguably nerfed Psychic-types harder than Gen 2 (and it probably got nerfed harder than Dragon in gen 6 too).

Dark and Ghost moves were previously far less spammable due to being resisted by Steel. However, once Steel lost its resistance to Ghost and Dark, a lot more Pokemon began running Ghost and Dark moves as coverage moves to at least dent Steel-types they wouldn't otherwise be able to damage (which only got worse in Gen 8 due to Hidden Power being removed). Additionally, Knock Off being massively buffed made it a far more spammable attack that many Pokemon (both offensive and defensive) would run on most sets. This drastically hampered most Psychic-types defensively, since they are threatened by one of the most spammable attacks in the game, further compounding their existing weakness to another spammable attack, U-turn.

In addition, the introduction of Fairy-types hindered the limited defensive utility that Psychic-types had. Faries still resist Fighting, and are resistant to Dark and Bug rather than being weak to those moves. One could argue there is synergy between the two-types, but really I would argue that Fairy has much better synergy with Steel-types (a synergy that Psychic previously had).

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

addition, the introduction of Fairy-types hindered the limited defensive utility that Psychic-types had. Faries still resist Fighting, and are resistant to Dark and Bug rather than being weak to those moves.

This.

Psychic is all but irrelevant nowadays because Fairy straight up covers what it's supposed to do but better.

Which brings me to a new point.

Types need more unique attacks. They need more of an identity associated with their type instead of their go-to moves being the TMs most mons run for coverage.

For example, moves like Freeze-Dry and Ice-types. Iirc, no mons that aren't Ice learn it and it got an effect unique to it. Something that sets it apart.

Close Combat used to be a way better example of what I mean, but SwSh made it a TR and messed it all up.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

Speaking of moves, I made a spreadsheet with all currently existing moves, and noticed that Psychic has only five Physical moves. Ever.
Psycho Cut, Zen Headbutt, Heart Stamp, Psychic Fangs, and Psyshield Bash. This includes one signature move from PLA, two former signature moves, and the only one you would see in competitive.
Only Fairy has less Physical moves, but unlike Fairy, I saw nobody clamoring for a new Psychic-type Physical move.
(I would like to suggest some ideas but there's apparently a "no wishlisting" rule in this forum.)

 

[Samtendo09]

Speaking of moves, I made a spreadsheet with all currently existing moves, and noticed that Psychic has only five Physical moves. Ever.
Psycho Cut, Zen Headbutt, Heart Stamp, Psychic Fangs, and Psyshield Bash. This includes one signature move from PLA, two former signature moves, and the only one you would see in competitive.
Only Fairy has less Physical moves, but unlike Fairy, I saw nobody clamoring for a new Psychic-type Physical move.
(I would like to suggest some ideas but there's apparently a "no wishlisting" rule in this forum.)

Psychic was primarily supposed to be special oriented oriented like how Fighting is supposed to be physical oriented. Same deal with Fairy as Special focused

It can cause both types to be rigid if we were to completely follow the “guidelines” of these types page-by-page.

 

[Sonikku A]

Unpopular wishful thinking, GF should do this

No fairy for a reason...

Rip Skarm though

 

[KalosianPorygon]

No fairy for a reason...

Why would you remove Fire's resistance to Fairy?

 

[Bakugames]

if we're going to play with deleting types, delete bug and dragon ez. very irrelevant teams on a "what does this type allows you to design" because it's not like there needs a mammal or bird type for them to design birds and mammals (which they realized with birds and changed it to flying but not with bugs... lol).

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Unpopular wishful thinking, GF should do thisView attachment 448401

No fairy for a reason...

Rip Skarm though

Common pitfall.

Having either Steel or Ice be immune to Dragon doesn't stop a dragon with a Fire move to run rampant.

Welcome back to competitive Gen 4.

Fairy was quite literally a balance patch type. The more you look at it, the more obvious it is. It wound up overtuned, but if you try to fix the old issues with the type chart, you'll eventually recreate the Fairy-type.

 

[Sonikku A]

Common pitfall.

Having either Steel or Ice be immune to Dragon doesn't stop a dragon with a Fire move to run rampant.

Welcome back to competitive Gen 4.

Fairy was quite literally a balance patch type. The more you look at it, the more obvious it is. It wound up overtuned, but if you try to fix the old issues with the type chart, you'll eventually recreate the Fairy-type.

Yeah, coverage screws many things

Which is why I had it so Ice had a passive weather, Snow, which slows dragon and water types, and increases ice type speed
A bit much of an overcorrection, but Water is like the best starter type, and Draco Meteor is a nuke, so eh

 

[KalosianPorygon]

Water is like the best starter type

*imitates Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent*

What killed the Grass type?
THE ICE BEAM!
*super effective sound*

 

[KymaTheDragon]

I don't how popular the gens are, but my favourite gen is 8 and I think it's pretty underrated. In my opinion, Sword & Shield has the best designs out of all gens, both Pokémon and characters, or even the region itself.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

^ Yeah, Gen 8 has a lot of interesting concepts. Undead fighter jet salamander! Slowbro with an arm cannon! An army of round boys who collectively look like a caterpillar! In that last case, Falinks feels a lot more thematically coherent than Exeggcute.

 

[Arkm]

Ultra beasts are not legendaries

Scizor, Eleectivire and Lucario needs buffs.

Charizard was the worst gen 1 starter.

Truly hate Arceus. Fuck that goat.

There are two many physical attackers. Need more mixed and special attackers.

GF hates rock, bug and ice type.

Mega Sableye should have been a regular evolution instead of a mega evolution.

Starters should the strongest mons outside of legendaries and pseudos. Maybe couple more pokemon who cold be stronger but stop making weak starters.

Also all fully evolved starters should have a BST of 535.

 

[Arkm]

^ Yeah, Gen 8 has a lot of interesting concepts. Undead fighter jet salamander! Slowbro with an arm cannon! An army of round boys who collectively look like a caterpillar! In that last case, Falinks feels a lot more thematically coherent than Exeggcute.

which pokemon?

 

[KymaTheDragon]

which pokemon?

Yeah I wondered too…

 

[KymaTheDragon]

Another thing I loved in gen 8 is that you can have your Pokémon follow you around in the wild area!

 

[Coronis]

Ultra beasts are not legendaries

Yeah I think this is widely accepted, they’re more a related group that is not the same, similar to Legends/Mythicals

There are two many physical attackers. Need more mixed and special attackers.

Which two?

Starters should the strongest mons outside of legendaries and pseudos. Maybe couple more pokemon who cold be stronger but stop making weak starters.

Also all fully evolved starters should have a BST of 535.

I don’t think we should really be trying to restrict the stats of mons and limiting other good designs to being weaker mons. I would prefer all starters to have the same BST tho.