Unpopular opinions

[Pikachu315111]

BW's Failing:
While I like Black & White's story, it does have failings. They didn't really put the right kind of grunts forward because if you go out of your way to talk with them you'll find they're a mixed batch. Yeah we have the jerks who say they want to help Pokemon before they start kicking a Munna, but then there are ones like in N's Castle who had bonded with the Pokemon they were given and is torn about having to release it even though that's Team Plasma's goal. In BW2 you see even the more evil Neo Team Plasma still have members dedicated to freeing Pokemon. There's a doctor on the Plasma Frigate who, despite working for Team Plasma, will heal your Pokemon. Why? Because though he wants you to be stopped he just can't stand by and let a Pokemon remained injured, even if its ones being used to stop them. Actually BW2 probably did a bit better showing the various grunts by having that sort of civil war between the two Plasma teams. One of the moments there that stick out is the Old Plasma member trying to get his friend to quit Neo Plasma but gets turned down and beaten up for his troubles. THOSE are the type of Plasma grunt interactions they should have put forward, not the "We're for Pokemon right! NOW GIVE ME THE DREAM SMOKE YOU PINK BLOB" *start kicking the Munna*.

As for the actual issue of the "Pokemon Cockfighting", yeah they really didn't fully answer that. At most I remember is Iris saying if Pokemon didn't like us they can just walk away... which never really sat right with me. In my own headcanon I always thought Pokemon fought because they were seeking to gain more power for both themselves and for the species as a whole. And the fastest way to gain power is by forming strong bonds with a human (which one gen later is told exist since that's the exact energy Mega Evolution uses), hence why trained Pokemon are stronger then wild Pokemon. And let's face it, a Pokemon doesn't really get hurt from battling (or at least not battling competitively like its usually doing). Despite all the injuries a Pokemon takes it just needs a good rest and it's back at full strength. A human would take days, weeks, or even months to heal the kind of fighting Pokemon get into it. Pokemon are mythical creatures seeing power and thus were made to be able to do whatever it takes to gain that power. Saying we're making Pokemon fight against their will is like saying we make dogs guard their owners against their will.

And yeah, Cheren needed some more work as it felt like the writers were stuck between wanting to make him stuck up but at the same time wanting to make him friendly. Either go all the way of making him egotistic or choose a different personality if you wanted him to be more friendly, trying to combine the two don't work. Though I did like where the character led him to, eventually making him a rookie Gym Leader.

Black & White was GameFreak's first attempt to put a plot into Pokemon so sadly there were going to be road bumps. Story in games have to balance out letting the player have control but also getting out what they want to say. I would say Pokemon have a hard time with that since they like characters waxing poetically WHICH DOESN'T WORK. Have the characters say what needs to be said and move on, no one wants to sit around and here a dozen characters spout out their philosophies for several minutes. Real people don't do that. If you want them to share their thoughts and ideas, have it be extra content the players seeks out on the side. And no, I'm not saying don't give characters personality, there's way to sum up a person's personality without having them need to "explain" it. I felt Alder was pretty good with that, I got who he was and never felt scenes with him dragged on too long (maybe ones that also had Cheren in it, but Alder by himself showed he was a content and laid back character without him taking a few minutes to explicitly say it).

 

[BraveTamerMicko]

I feel the same way, I just wish they were more explicit in the story with this. I mean there's an entire "fighting" type where almost every pokedex entry depicts how much they love to spar. Still doesn't explain other habits like removing animals from their natural habitat or the more heartless and clinical approaches to competitive battling (hands up if you chain breed and release the ones with imperfect natures/IV's/abilities) but that's reading into the game too much.

I felt without the story directly referencing why pokemon fights are okay, Black and White was a lot like watching an episode of Captain Planet with the roles reversed, where complex moral and ethical debates are saturated by bombastic stupid villainy. I get that the games are aimed at kids, but so was Earthbound/Mother 3. Give kids some credit, they're smarter than you think.

Well, yeah. But that's exactly why Pokémon doesn't need to have a complex story. The morals are clear and well-presented all things considered; it comes down to the player, who got to see the story, to think about it for themselves. Outside of that, it's a simple Pokémon game just like any other, and that's what it should be. The franchise operates entirely on 'Rule of Cool', so it's better to not think about certain aspects too much.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I feel the same way, I just wish they were more explicit in the story with this. I mean there's an entire "fighting" type where almost every pokedex entry depicts how much they love to spar. Still doesn't explain other habits like removing animals from their natural habitat or the more heartless and clinical approaches to competitive battling (hands up if you chain breed and release the ones with imperfect natures/IV's/abilities) but that's reading into the game too much.

I personally don't think the entire breeding thing it to be taken into account... BUT if you must you can think of it that you're actually strengthening the wild Pokemon population. Think about it, while not "perfect" all those Pokemon you released are stronger than a Pokemon who was hatched from two wild Pokemon. They're more likely to survive, grow up, and eventually breed thus pass on their stronger traits to the next generation of wild Pokemon. Whether you know if or not, you're strengthening the wild Pokemon population.

jordanthejq12:
Mega Kanto & Johto: Well now that we're in the Mega Timeline all regions except Kalos and Hoenn technically need a story update...

 

[stage7_4]

Well, yeah. But that's exactly why Pokémon doesn't need to have a complex story. The morals are clear and well-presented all things considered; it comes down to the player, who got to see the story, to think about it for themselves. Outside of that, it's a simple Pokémon game just like any other, and that's what it should be. The franchise operates entirely on 'Rule of Cool', so it's better to not think about certain aspects too much.

That's pretty much hitting the nail on the head of why I didn't like Black and White's story. For me it exists in this gray area where it did too much to still be considered a simple story but too little to take seriously. It tried to be complex, it just didn't work out and might not be appropriate in the first place for this genre. It wanted you to think about certain aspects but never offered insight into them, violating it's protection granted by the Rule of Cool. It's the 13-year kid trying to be an adult but failing at both.

But this is just my unpopular opinion.

 

[Lady Vader]

The problem with Black and White's story is that it doesn't answer the question of is it wrong to have Pokémon battles.
Personally, I've headcanoned this Nuzlocke comic's explanation without me even realizing it. It did such a good job that I became convinced that it originated from the games!

I despise "nuker" moves like CC, Superpower, Draco, etc. They rob you of momentum and force your sweeper to act as more of a pivot, and God help you if you have a Choice item.

Never liked Choice items anyway. Great for late-game cleanup, but I prefer flexibility, thank you very much.

I agree with the exception of Close Combat. Since it doesn't affect Attack or Speed, a fast Pokémon can just keep hitting hard and the defensive drops aren't really an issue. That's a lot better than other moves.
I also agree with not liking Choice items for very much the same reason.

 

[Jimmyus]

Unpopular opinions:

1) I think gamefreak should have finished designing regions based on areas of Japan, such that they could have a cohesive map. The way it works in-game now, it the game refers to the expanded dex as a "national" dex, which seems incongruous with the topology of each successive region. Having games based in other places in the world feels really jarring and leaves each of these new regions feeling disconnected.

2) They should remove fly and just make soaring the new fly. Fly as an HM is never needed to pass anything in game and feels like Flash used to be, why not just make it function like bikes except needing a flying pokemon.

3) Fairy in its current form causes more problems than it solves, I would have rather seen 2-3 more types resist dragon than introduce this abomination.

4) Shiny pokemon might have been a good idea if it was alternate colors for different regions at a much higher rate; the way it works now half of them look terrible, seem unnecessarily ultra rare (as evidenced by the fact that they have buffed the incidence of shiny rate significantly every generation), and really just feel like an under utilized concept.

5) If they didn't make a single new pokemon or region in "gen VII", but rather just updated all the old games into lumoise-city style areas (i.e. over the shoulder 3rd person with a rotating camera) the pokemon series would be way better off. They already have like 700 pokemon and are running into problems making sense of having all pokemon between 1-2 region.

 

[stage7_4]

Mewtwo was awful in Melee and I'm glad they got rid of him for the much better Lucario.

(although I am looking forward to his return, it saddens me that Snake, Lucas, or Wolf aren't returning).

 

[Pikachu315111]

One more On BW:
Before I move on from BW, all I'd like to say that I do hope in the future Pokemon keeps experimenting with the concept of adding a plot to the games. They just need to do a better job at answering questions they bring up and keeping the cutscenes short and to the point.

The Choice To Nuke:
While in a short battle that these tactics would be alright, I agree that for a full battle these Pokemon would be a one trick pony. Now they're probably meant to knock out at least two of your opponent's Pokemon thus giving you an advantage before exhausting their use but I imagine the Pokemon that'll survive in the long term are ones with non-negative effect moves and aren't restricted to a single move. Of course we must also remember you can switch which removes stat decreases and resets the Choice item so there are ways to preserve these Pokemon if you're willing to send one Pokemon out to take the fall (since it wouldn't be a good idea to then switch out to these Pokemon again where the opponent can get a free hit on them).

Jimmyus:
PokeJapan: I actually think it was a good decision for them to expand out to other countries. Yeah, the "National Dex" probably should be called the "International Dex" since we're no longer in a single nation (though they never mention nations), but then again it could also be referring to regions who have entered the Pokedex Project thus sort of creating their own "nation".
And while the regions now do feel further apart, it does make the Pokemon World itself feel bigger, and there's plenty of references to the other regions to assure you they still exist. Also basing a region on other countries allows them to create Pokemon they'll probably never have made (do you think we would have gotten the Goomy family which is based on a French myth of a Snail Dragon if they didn't make a French-based region?). There will always be pros and cons, but in the long run the pros have to outweigh the cons and starting to base regions on other countries have much more pros then cons.
Soaring Flight: Actually, here's a new unpopular opinion: While soaring is fun, I don't think it's any better then flying and woudn't miss it that much if removed. Sorry, while it's awesome to finally be flying over the region, thinking about it the only additional thing Soaring brought was the Mirage Spots and Air Battles. Everything else you could do much quicker with Fly, especially now that we're allowed to fly to routes. I say include it maybe for every game they decide to include the Eon Duo in, but otherwise I don't think its necessary.
Fairy Solution: In addition to that I also think we need another type that's weak to Dark since what type are weak to it are also weak to Ghost who have the additional niche or being unable to be trapped.
Shiny Update: While I think that's a bit much, as I said I do think they should at least go over the Shiny Pokemon who don't look much different from their original color and change it.
Region Redo: Once again a bit much, but I wouldn't mind if they experimented with that idea for a Kanto/Johto remake being it needs something innovative to really justify remaking those regions a third time.

stage7_4:
Missing Fighter: I'm more sad the Ice Climbers are gone since they were the most unique of the gone fighters and are a Nintendo property. But them bringing in Mewtwo as DLC hopefully means they won't be opposed to the idea of bringing those characters back as DLC.

 

[Jimmyus]

One more On BW:
Before I move on from BW, all I'd like to say that I do hope in the future Pokemon keeps experimenting with the concept of adding a plot to the games. They just need to do a better job at answering questions they bring up and keeping the cutscenes short and to the point.

The Choice To Nuke:
While in a short battle that these tactics would be alright, I agree that for a full battle these Pokemon would be a one trick pony. Now they're probably meant to knock out at least two of your opponent's Pokemon thus giving you an advantage before exhausting their use but I imagine the Pokemon that'll survive in the long term are ones with non-negative effect moves and aren't restricted to a single move. Of course we must also remember you can switch which removes stat decreases and resets the Choice item so there are ways to preserve these Pokemon if you're willing to send one Pokemon out to take the fall (since it wouldn't be a good idea to then switch out to these Pokemon again where the opponent can get a free hit on them).

Jimmyus:
PokeJapan: I actually think it was a good decision for them to expand out to other countries. Yeah, the "National Dex" probably should be called the "International Dex" since we're no longer in a single nation (though they never mention nations), but then again it could also be referring to regions who have entered the Pokedex Project thus sort of creating their own "nation".
And while the regions now do feel further apart, it does make the Pokemon World itself feel bigger, and there's plenty of references to the other regions to assure you they still exist. Also basing a region on other countries allows them to create Pokemon they'll probably never have made (do you think we would have gotten the Goomy family which is based on a French myth of a Snail Dragon if they didn't make a French-based region?). There will always be pros and cons, but in the long run the pros have to outweigh the cons and starting to base regions on other countries have much more pros then cons.
Soaring Flight: Actually, here's a new unpopular opinion: While soaring is fun, I don't think it's any better then flying and woudn't miss it that much if removed. Sorry, while it's awesome to finally be flying over the region, thinking about it the only additional thing Soaring brought was the Mirage Spots and Air Battles. Everything else you could do much quicker with Fly, especially now that we're allowed to fly to routes. I say include it maybe for every game they decide to include the Eon Duo in, but otherwise I don't think its necessary.
Fairy Solution: In addition to that I also think we need another type that's weak to Dark since what type are weak to it are also weak to Ghost who have the additional niche or being unable to be trapped.
Shiny Update: While I think that's a bit much, as I said I do think they should at least go over the Shiny Pokemon who don't look much different from their original color and change it.
Region Redo: Once again a bit much, but I wouldn't mind if they experimented with that idea for a Kanto/Johto remake being it needs something innovative to really justify remaking those regions a third time.

stage7_4:
Missing Fighter: I'm more sad the Ice Climbers are gone since they were the most unique of the gone fighters and are a Nintendo property. But them bringing in Mewtwo as DLC hopefully means they won't be opposed to the idea of bringing those characters back as DLC.

PokeJapan: I just don't like that the games are physically disconnected from each other, because even though they reference each other it just feels like they've begun to exist in a bubble. I'm sure this could be solved by having games with multiple regions to demonstrate that it's a connected world, but as it is the new regions alienate me as an older fan slightly.

Soaring Flight: I think we'll just have to disagree. I think Soaring is what flying should be, and that flying was absurdly powerful from the beginning and needs to be replaced by soar to not make the game world feel hopelessly small.

Fairy Solution: frankly I just wish they had spread some of the resistances and strengths to otherwise weaker types like ice and poison, instead of just making what is almost a Psychic 2.0 type (as much as those punks in the OU metagame thread might disagree, the type clearly is incredibly strong and displaced ice types even further, and poison types and poison-type moves are just generally too rare on "viable" pokemon for it to be considered a serious impediment).

Shiny Update: I'm one of those guys who likes to breed pokemon in specific pokeballs to be thematic (net ball for charizard x, but pokeball for charizard y, etc.), and I feel like being able to breed your pokemon into a specific hue or regional coloring is sorely missing (but at this point that's not an unpopular opinion). I feel like shiny pokemon distracted from this goal and should never have become as prominent as they are.

Agreed on the region redo. Maybe it is a bit drastic, but really I'd rather they focus on the core game and making sure that they have room for growth in the system before they try to grow any further. I mean, once you've introduced mega-evolutions, where do you even expand competitive battling into? I'm hoping they totally redo the arena moves (grassy terrain, etc) to make them a part of battling in the same way weather has become part of the battle system, instead of the weird gimmicks they currently are.

 

[Codraroll]

Mega Kanto & Johto: Well now that we're in the Mega Timeline all regions except Kalos and Hoenn technically need a story update...

Forgive me for being unpopular here, but I think GameFreak doesn't give a rat's tail about "timelines". The games are way, way more loosely connected than that. The story is written for one game at a time, and any throwbacks to other games are mostly there for flavour. It's always annoyed me when people demand everything to make sense in a "grand picture", even when it requires alternate timelines and alternate dimensions, and... you know, at that point, it's pretty obvious that GameFreak doesn't care particularly much about consistency and coherence, and neither should the fans.

 

[Gokuzbu]

Okay, let's begin.

Gen III nearly killed the series as in "nearly killed it in my opinion". And to be honest, it wasn't just in my opinion. It was fairly common for Pokemon fans to stop playing when Gen III was released. I started with Gen I and so did all of my friends back then. Everyone played Pokemon, it was the height of the hype, it was awesome. Along came Gen II and it just got better. I actually played Gen II even more than Gen I and that was when I got into trading and battling and all that. Then came Gen III, and literally every single one of my friends stopped playing Pokemon. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. And from what I've heard later on, something like this was quite common in many places. Some people claim that it was the original audience growing up and thus losing interest to Pokemon, but I very clearly remember that I didn't like RSE back then and I don't like them now. The fact that there was no backwards compatibility (RIP Time Capsule ;_;7) was also a huge turn-off for many players, including me. Gen III was essentially a new beginning and many original fans decided to stop playing there. In my opinion Gen III is extremely poorly executed and the absolute low point of the series.

You didn't really give a reason of why the actual games are so bad. The players growing up and loss of compatibility are separate issues. Did you hate the region, the Pokemon, the story, or what was so bad that it "ruined the series"?

4) Shiny pokemon might have been a good idea if it was alternate colors for different regions at a much higher rate; the way it works now half of them look terrible, seem unnecessarily ultra rare (as evidenced by the fact that they have buffed the incidence of shiny rate significantly every generation), and really just feel like an under utilized concept.

Honestly I feel the more shinies are given away and the lower the rate is the less special they are. It just makes them watered down. To misquote The Incredibles, "If everyone is shiny, no one is shiny".

 

[VaporeonIce]

Honestly I feel the more shinies are given away and the lower the rate is the less special they are. It just makes them watered down. To misquote The Incredibles, "If everyone is shiny, no one is shiny".

I'm not bothered by this. It might have bothered me if everyone and their mother hadn't RNG'd or hacked all the shinies they could ever want in earlier gens. I think they found a pretty good balance between making shinies still challenging to get while making them still attainable to people who put in a reasonable amount of time. The fact that I was able to get a shiny Honedge with mostly perfect IVs after a lot of breeding somewhat lightens the sting that other people who are willing to RNG have boxes full of actually perfect shinies.

That's my unpopular opinion: I don't agree with RNG manipulation, and see it as a form of cheating. If the DS system had automatically connected to a clock on the internet, it wouldn't have been possible. I have cloned Pokemon once or twice (the old GTS trick), but I still see that as a form of cheating as well. These opinions are why I don't have one of the innumerable 6IV foreign language Dittos floating around out there and why Manaphy is still missing from my Pokedex; I really want all of my Pokemon to be uncloned and not a product of RNG abuse. I get why people do it (getting good IVs in past gens was stupidly hard), and I don't see people who do it in a negative light. I just choose not to do it myself, because it goes against the principles of how I want to play the games.

Also, this isn't an unpopular opinion at all, but what the hell, Manaphy? They seriously haven't released one since like, 2010. I'm pretty sure it's all but impossible to trade for one that isn't cloned.

 

[Kurona]

I likely would have quit playing Pokémon by now if it weren't for the competitive side of things. By now the games are starting to feel a little stale and it's dumb to argue against Mega Evolution because that's the one thing keeping it fresh.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Also, this isn't an unpopular opinion at all, but what the hell, Manaphy? They seriously haven't released one since like, 2010. I'm pretty sure it's all but impossible to trade for one that isn't cloned.

You could always play through one of the Pokemon Ranger games. All have had a way to obtain a Manaphy Egg and put it in a main series game. Of course you'll have to find an unused copy since Manaphy were once per cartridge.

 

[Phione]

I'm not bothered by this. It might have bothered me if everyone and their mother hadn't RNG'd or hacked all the shinies they could ever want in earlier gens. I think they found a pretty good balance between making shinies still challenging to get while making them still attainable to people who put in a reasonable amount of time. The fact that I was able to get a shiny Honedge with mostly perfect IVs after a lot of breeding somewhat lightens the sting that other people who are willing to RNG have boxes full of actually perfect shinies.

That's my unpopular opinion: I don't agree with RNG manipulation, and see it as a form of cheating. If the DS system had automatically connected to a clock on the internet, it wouldn't have been possible. I have cloned Pokemon once or twice (the old GTS trick), but I still see that as a form of cheating as well. These opinions are why I don't have one of the innumerable 6IV foreign language Dittos floating around out there and why Manaphy is still missing from my Pokedex; I really want all of my Pokemon to be uncloned and not a product of RNG abuse. I get why people do it (getting good IVs in past gens was stupidly hard), and I don't see people who do it in a negative light. I just choose not to do it myself, because it goes against the principles of how I want to play the games.

Also, this isn't an unpopular opinion at all, but what the hell, Manaphy? They seriously haven't released one since like, 2010. I'm pretty sure it's all but impossible to trade for one that isn't cloned.

You know what's an even more uncommon legend?

Mew. Who they haven't released since early HGSS, I'm pretty sure. That severely annoys me.

 

[DoomOvDoom]

Oh damn, lot's of discussion going on. Where do I begin...

I understand that you dislike Gen 3 and I respect that, but your argumentation is quite flawed.

Your first reason is that many players of Gens 1 and 2 stopped playing when RS came out. While this is true, there are two things you need to know.
1. A lot of older fans may've stopped playing, but just as many continued playing the games and were extremely happy with RS. The games attracted a huge slew of new fans to the series, a lot of which who grew up with RSE. Most of these fans got their chance to play Kanto in a format they were used to, in the form of FRLG. Sure, they're not the same as the old games, but it's self-explanatory for remakes to show some differences to the original.
2. Speaking of FRLG, your plea about the lack of backwards compatibility between GSC and Gen 3 is partially rendered moot by FRLG, Colosseum and XD granting players the opportunity to get all Pokémon in their own Generations. Yes, it must suck to not send your old favorites over, but you could still obtain all Pokémon in one Generation. This brings me to another point: were it not for this lack of backwards compatibility, the programmers could never have rewritten the statistical structure for Pokémon and bestow upon us the clear, defined, easy-to-use values system. We would not have had natures. The games would lack the combined statistical complexity and utility that they currently have if GSC and RS/FRLG/E were compatible.

Your summary of Gen 5's story could be done for pretty much any game ever. Here, let me give you summaries for all of them.
Gen 1: Fight gang crook. Become best Trainer.
Gen 2: Fight remainder of gang crook. (Get Bell and fight Legend.) Become bestest Trainer.
Gen 3: Two idiots endanger the world without thinking of consequences. Climb a miles-high tower and summon Jesus Dragon. Also, become best Trainer.
Gen 4: Misanthropic psycho awakens two gods, disturbs third. You beat him, he QQs. Become best Trainer.
Gen 5: You're on a journey with your friends and find a definite rival. You fight his mooks and keep facing him. You put your beliefs on the line to save the world. Turns out your rival's foster father is the biggest scumbag ever and you kick his sorry ass.
Gen 6: Nothing to say here. This game has no contingent story.

See, I can do this for all Pokémon games. They all have the same goal of beating Gym Leaders and becoming the Champ, just with different events going on to immerse you more. Pokémon games aren't known for story, but rather for the satisfaction of beating monsters with your own monsters. It's one of the most basic JRPGs, but because of its lack of superficial complexity, it is very accessible to a wide audience. This is Pokémon, man, not Xenoblade Chronicles. If you want to play a great game with an amazingly immersive story, go play that. If you want a Pokémon game with a great storyline, then give the Mystery Dungeon games a try (especially the second series is really story-heavy).

As I have stated, I fully respect your opinion. You should always prepare for disagreements and counterarguments, however, since that's basically the point of an opinion. Anyway, have a fine day.

I never denied the fact that many players still liked Gen III and kept going with the series. I was just talking about my personal experience and how I saw all of my old friends lose interest in Pokemon. I stopped playing Pokemon for like... almost ten years after playing RSE and got back into the series when I decided to pick up Gen IV much later for whatever reason.

I know that the lack of backwards compatibility was caused by many new game mechanics like the new EV system and natures and so on, but I didn't know it back then. I just remember that it was the best shit ever to transport Mewtwo and the Kanto legendary birds from my Blue version to Gold and I was extremely salty that my Sapphire wasn't compatible with the older games. Also, FRLG weren't yet released at that point so I had just lost access to many Pokemon. This was one of the many reasons why I didn't like Gen III back then.

Yes, I understand that my tl;dr version of BW was a bit exaggerated, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I don't want "deep" story in my Pokemon games. At no point did I say that I even want a proper story in Pokemon games. Whenever these games (main series or spin-off) try out some sort of storyline, it ends up failing horribly. Mystery Dungeon games are no exceptions. The character writing was absolutely AWFUL in those games and there's way too much pointless text and flashbacks reminding you what happened literally two minutes ago. I've played both Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Darkness and I wish I could get versions of those games without the storyline. Guildmaster Wigglytuff was the only good character in those games, and in fact he's the best character in any Pokemon game. If you disagree, I'll YOOM-TAH your ass. This is not an opinion.

You didn't really give a reason of why the actual games are so bad. The players growing up and loss of compatibility are separate issues. Did you hate the region, the Pokemon, the story, or what was so bad that it "ruined the series"?
Honestly I feel the more shinies are given away and the lower the rate is the less special they are. It just makes them watered down. To misquote The Incredibles, "If everyone is shiny, no one is shiny".

There are many reasons why I don't like Gen III. The main issue is of course the Pokemon, that's what I look for first. There are hardly any Gen III Pokemon that I even like aside from Camerupt. The soundtrack is bad and the overall atmosphere of the games just isn't what I was hoping, although I can't really say why. And maybe the story too, as in Gen III the games shifted their focus more on legendary Pokemon and stopping villainous teams who want to destroy/rule the entire world, and I've never really been a fan of that.

In FRLG I hate almost all the little changes. Lots of forced tutorials that are absent in the original games, that annoying animation every time you use a TM/HM (thank God we've never seen this again), TMs changed for worse (Shock Wave instead of Thunderbolt from Lt. Surge, status moves instead of Ice Beam / Rock Slide / Tri Attack from the thirsty girl, etc.). I know this is nitpicking, but I've played the Gen I games so many times that all these annoying and bad little changes really piss me off and keep me away from FRLG.

After all this I do have to say that Gen III not COMPLETE garbage, it's just... I don't know, 70% garbage. Back when the games came out, I remember being completely blown away by the fact that you could see the player character's reflection in the water. Trick House has always been one of my favorite places in the entire series (only the original though, I think ORAS kind of blew it) and Sevii Island was a great addition in FRLG. Nevertheless, these are not enough to save Gen III from being the worst Pokemon Generation.

In my opinion of course you dumb dumb

 

[Kurona]

Mystery Dungeon games are no exceptions. The character writing was absolutely AWFUL in those games and there's way too much pointless text and flashbacks reminding you what happened literally two minutes ago. I've played both Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Darkness and I wish I could get versions of those games without the storyline. Guildmaster Wigglytuff was the only good character in those games, and in fact he's the best character in any Pokemon game. If you disagree, I'll YOOM-TAH your ass. This is not an opinion.

Oh wow; you summed up my thoughts better than me :U

 

[Lord Wallace]

My unpopular opinions:

1) I don't think all event legendaries should be banned in VGC. Idk I just can't help but think that Keldeo would be a godsend for the VGC15 meta.

2) I don't think GSC is even close to the best in-game experience. A lot of people dickride Gen 2 because of there being 2 regions and 16 gyms and nostalgia and all of that, but the early game is just plain awful. There's nothing to catch and a lot of what you can catch can't fully evolve without trading or a stone that you can't get until Kanto, and most everything else is shit. The level pacing throughout the game is really wonky too. In most of Johto, it's really easy to get underleveled but then in Kanto it slows down dramatically to the point of you being easily overleveled for many of the gyms, but then Blue and Red jack the levels up once again.

3) I actually really like Delphox's design. I feel like a lot of people were disappointed because it didn't turn out to be a goddamn gijinka after seeing Braixen.

4) While Infernape is currently my favorite Sinnoh starter coming from a competitive viewpoint, back when DPP first came out I was among the minority that chose Turtwig and liked Torterra more than the other two.

5) I thought Koga in GSC and more so HGSS was much more brutal than NPCs that are typically more notorious for being hard, like Whitney, Sabrina, and even Misty.
Lorelei is another hard NPC that I feel is really underrated, her Lapras and Slowbro were fat as fuck ngl

6) I despise Eevee and most of it's evolutions

 

[VaporeonIce]

You could always play through one of the Pokemon Ranger games. All have had a way to obtain a Manaphy Egg and put it in a main series game. Of course you'll have to find an unused copy since Manaphy were once per cartridge.

Bulbapedia says that the Manaphy egg mission for Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia stopped working in 2009, while the one for Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs apparently ended in January 2011. It seems like the original Pokemon Ranger didn't require you to connect to the internet and would always work, but that game costs $132 new.

You know what's an even more uncommon legend?

Mew. Who they haven't released since early HGSS, I'm pretty sure. That severely annoys me.

I got Mew sometime last year through My Pokemon Ranch for the Wii. It involved catching a lot of Pokemon in Pearl version, but I learned how to chain the Pokeradar for shinies in the process (which is WAY easier there than in Gen VI; I got something like 4 shiny Eevees, 4 shiny Shinx, and 8 shiny Gastlies), and of course, I got a Mew out of it. You can still download it and use Diamond/Pearl version, but it requires having a Wii (I assume it also works on Wii U) and Diamond or Pearl.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Bulbapedia says that the Manaphy egg mission for Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia stopped working in 2009, while the one for Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs apparently ended in January 2011. It seems like the original Pokemon Ranger didn't require you to connect to the internet and would always work, but that game costs $132 new.

$132?! Geez, well Pokemon Ranger was a pretty successful spinoff so maybe in the future they'll release another one.

 

[Kyuzeth]

I'm probably one of the only people to prefer Platinum over HGSS. I don't like many of the remastered tracks in HGSS, while Sinnoh's music was pretty atmospheric and nice to listen to most of the time. Boring Gym Leader theme in DPPt, but then you got the Legendary themes and Cyrus's theme. Platinum had a nice pace, a good level curve and a nice selection of Pokémon, especially the 59 additions to the Sinnoh Dex.
The level curve is a general gripe I have with Johto and I don't know why they left it unchanged in HGSS. The curve between wild Pokémon & Trainers VS. Gym Leaders and important NPCs is just too major, I feel; grinding my whole team felt like it took a fucking eternity (fortunately I caught Raikou in SS after my 8th Badge). I haven't had this issue with other Pokémon games. The Johto games gave you a second region to explore (and fortunately Kanto's Trainers were majorly buffed), which was definitely fun and worthwhile, but I just felt more hooked to Platinum overall. Perhaps it's because I started in Gen 3, but I remember Platinum more fondly than HGSS.
Something I have against Gen 4 in general is the ridiculously slow pace, which DP are the shining examples of. PtHGSS are still guilty of it, though, and that's why I'd rather play a Gen 3 or Gen 5 game.

Torterra is also my favorite Sinnoh Starter and I've used it in all of my runs (except Pearl, where I used Empoleon, since everyone was using Infernape).

Speaking of Sinnoh, still: I'm likely the only person to have watched the Sinnoh anime arc and it was far better than Kanto, IMO. I know nostalgia plays a big part, but I liked mid- and late Johto a lot more than Kanto and I actually liked most of the Hoenn arc, too. Sinnoh was fantastic, though; a lot of the characters in said arc were really compelling and underwent interesting development. The best example I can give is Ash's Infernape, who is IMO the biggest badass the Pokémon anime has ever seen. The whole thing with Blaze that Paul triggered and wanted to activate all the time, learning to cope with his Ability and this improving with each evolution, leading up to some spectacular moments late-Sinnoh, notably Infernape VS. Volkner's last Pokémon and especially Infernape VS. Electivire. Best battle the Pokémon anime has seen, I must say.
Dawn was also a much more intriguing character than Misty. Sure, Misty had her great moments at times, but she didn't really change as much as May or Dawn. She did become much more badass after overcoming her fear of Gyarados by taming one in the one Special Episode, but other than that, I find May and especially Dawn to be better as characters. It almost feels like Dawn was the second main protagonist of the Sinnoh arc; I have a hard time deciding if it was Ash, Dawn or Infernape. Either way, it's pretty clear by now that the Sinnoh arc has been absolutely great.

 

[Norne]

My unpopular opinions:

1) I don't think all event legendaries should be banned in VGC. Idk I just can't help but think that Keldeo would be a godsend for the VGC15 meta.

2) I don't think GSC is even close to the best in-game experience. A lot of people dickride Gen 2 because of there being 2 regions and 16 gyms and nostalgia and all of that, but the early game is just plain awful. There's nothing to catch and a lot of what you can catch can't fully evolve without trading or a stone that you can't get until Kanto, and most everything else is shit. The level pacing throughout the game is really wonky too. In most of Johto, it's really easy to get underleveled but then in Kanto it slows down dramatically to the point of you being easily overleveled for many of the gyms, but then Blue and Red jack the levels up once again.

3) I actually really like Delphox's design. I feel like a lot of people were disappointed because it didn't turn out to be a goddamn gijinka after seeing Braixen.

4) While Infernape is currently my favorite Sinnoh starter coming from a competitive viewpoint, back when DPP first came out I was among the minority that chose Turtwig and liked Torterra more than the other two.

5) I thought Koga in GSC and more so HGSS was much more brutal than NPCs that are typically more notorious for being hard, like Whitney, Sabrina, and even Misty.
Lorelei is another hard NPC that I feel is really underrated, her Lapras and Slowbro were fat as fuck ngl

6) I despise Eevee and most of it's evolutions

Man I can't agree more, I'm not sure if it's unpopular anymore XD. BUT yep I agree vgc would benefit from the events blocking some garbage, GSC just had the casual appeal and some fanservice platinum was the gem of that gen. Eevee and fenekin suffer from the furry curse, seriously the fandom run on those and made me despise the little fox/cat thingy with batton pass and wish XD, the only ones I can actually use without feeling like a blasted furry are vaporeon when I'm not into Alomomola mood, or umbreon coz foulplay wish XD. Espeon is there to do BP stuff, I honestly preffer Xatu key resistances over Espeon to be honest XD.

And finnally Delphox... Screw the furries and role players this thing is beautiful, take gandalf like western mages, sinto priest, a Japanese fertility and harvest festival, combine the colors of autumn in both folklores and give it a freaking inukami mask to make the most badass cross cultural fire-breathing sinto priest Fox masked wizard... The design reeks awesomeness despite its lackluster typing and stats for competitive that make it overshadowed as fuck outside of some gimmicks... And freaking furries hate it coz it's not fapable enough... Or other end of the fandom says it isn't waifu material... Well the foxguy is badass not a fetishfuel attendant in my humble opinion.

And yes infernal design is great and it's relevant on competitive... But outside of its terrible sprites I always had a soft spot for torterra XD.

 

[Kurona]

I actually enjoy that Delibird is, in battle, a complete piece of shit.
It's literally the Pokémon equivalent of Santa; a being that goes around spreading joy and love and presents to everyone. It's a good-natured being, not something that wants to fuck you up in battle. Hell, Vital Spirit and Insomnia just show how it's doubly willing to persevere for this task.

The Anime has always been the absolute definition of horrendous since Day 1 and hasn't got any better since, aside from battles starting to get enjoyable in Gen 4. The only enjoyable characters were Team Rocket and maybe Paul if you stretch things.

 

[Gokuzbu]

Speaking of Sinnoh, still: I'm likely the only person to have watched the Sinnoh anime arc and it was far better than Kanto, IMO. I know nostalgia plays a big part, but I liked mid- and late Johto a lot more than Kanto and I actually liked most of the Hoenn arc, too. Sinnoh was fantastic, though; a lot of the characters in said arc were really compelling and underwent interesting development. The best example I can give is Ash's Infernape, who is IMO the biggest badass the Pokémon anime has ever seen. The whole thing with Blaze that Paul triggered and wanted to activate all the time, learning to cope with his Ability and this improving with each evolution, leading up to some spectacular moments late-Sinnoh, notably Infernape VS. Volkner's last Pokémon and especially Infernape VS. Electivire. Best battle the Pokémon anime has seen, I must say.
Dawn was also a much more intriguing character than Misty. Sure, Misty had her great moments at times, but she didn't really change as much as May or Dawn. She did become much more badass after overcoming her fear of Gyarados by taming one in the one Special Episode, but other than that, I find May and especially Dawn to be better as characters. It almost feels like Dawn was the second main protagonist of the Sinnoh arc; I have a hard time deciding if it was Ash, Dawn or Infernape. Either way, it's pretty clear by now that the Sinnoh arc has been absolutely great.

Yeah I completely agree and I've seen lots of other people say Sinnoh was the best anime series. For me Paul was just an awesome rival, he actually uses strategy and had character development! He felt like a Smogon battler lol. The battles in Sinnoh were really exciting too. Agree with you on Misty. She is the original Ketchum girl but that doesn't mean she's the best.

 

[SapphSabre777]

And finnally Delphox... Screw the furries and role players this thing is beautiful, take gandalf like western makes, sinto priest, a Japanese fertility and harvest festival, combine the colors of autumn in both folklores and give it a freaking inukami mask to make the most badass cross cultural fire-breathing sinto priest Fox masked wizard... The design reeks awesomeness despite its lackluster typing and stats for competitive that make it overshadowed as fuck outside of some gimmicks... And freaking furries hate it coz it's not fapable enough... Or other end of the fandom says it isn't waifu material... Well the foxguy is badass not a fetishfuel attendant in my humble opinion.

And yes infernal design is great and it's relevant on competitive... But outside of its terrible sprites I always had a soft spot for torterra XD.

Yeah, I had a soft spot for Delphox and Torterra as well. Delphox being that fluffy, yet majestic...er...magician that literally had a permanent match with its stick (boring, but practical?), and it is so cute to play in Amie (that canine-like face probably did it, plus the fluff. Did I mention fluff enough?). And with Torterra, who wouldn't want to ride on a huge, powerful tortoise that loved and cared for you and also provided shade and such during the seasons? Perhaps I'm overselling them with my imagination, but whatever. They deserve the praise.

The Anime has always been the absolute definition of horrendous since Day 1 and hasn't got any better since, aside from battles starting to get enjoyable in Gen 4. The only enjoyable characters were Team Rocket and maybe Paul if you stretch things.

Agreed, in fact I'd argue that it has gotten gradually worse over the years. Between the downright one-dimensional characters and their so-called "development," some of the worst writing I have ever seen (thanks to lazy writers and flat-out sh*t story writing), and how predictable the anime has become in terms of Pokemon and trainer stereotypes, I've been completely shut down from watching that side of Pokemon from here-on out.