Unpopular opinions

[jordanthejq12]

New Unpopular Opinion: Not sure how unpopular it is, but I do think some Pokemon that got a Mega Evolution still deserve a normal evolution. So I don't think Mega Evolutions should be the be-all-end-all for certain Pokemon and if said Pokemon do get a new evolution they should retire the Mega Evolution and give the new evolution a Mega. Not going to name any specific examples but I don't think a Pokemon having a Mega Evolution should restrict them to getting a new evolution if decided they could use one.

*Cough* Glalie, Audino, probably most of the one-stage Megas *Cough*

Too late now, it's established that only final stages get megas, and Pokemon retcons are very sparse, very limited, and never concern the mons themselves except for typing changes and small stat boosts.

 

[pika pal]

pika pal: I liked how they handled the cover Legendaries in Gen V. In BW there's a story reason why you needed to catch the Legendary since N had the other dragon while in BW2 they kept the Legendary as a boss which you could catch later (though they did make the Musketeer Trio required encounters). If written with them in mind I'd like the cover Legendaries to be involved with the story but for gameplay purposes I would rather have them be a tough boss battle rather than the difficulty being trying to catch them.

The Musketeers are encountered in story, but they are stronger without being game breaking compared to other instances. Also, I THINK you can at least ignore them on the field and continue, and they'll simply be waiting there later.

 

[Norne]

The Musketeers are encountered in story, but they are stronger without being game breaking compared to other instances. Also, I THINK you can at least ignore them on the field and continue, and they'll simply be waiting there later.

On b2/w2 they pop up yet they are optimal. You can skip the to soft reset and can be respawned if you defeat the league in case you defeat them.

 

[stage7_4]

Too late now, it's established that only final stages get megas, and Pokemon retcons are very sparse, very limited, and never concern the mons themselves except for typing changes and small stat boosts.

While I hate the "anything can happen" mentality, I want to mention that all your examples came from Gen6 with the exception of the Magnemite line that just gained a second type in Gen2. Gamefreak can do what they want (and I can see some developer chomping at the bit to make Mega-Pikachu in the face of all current canon).

stage7_4: Actually I think putting more thought into the Pokemon World would be a good compromise to less story (especially if you can connect it back to the main mechanics somehow). Like take Sea Mauville, its fill with SO MUCH atmosphere and story yet doesn't really have to do much with Pokemon. Yet it doesn't feel out of place, probably because there's trainers around who battle you and you got to use your Pokemon to navigate around.

You must not have paid too much attention because I said all that. Sea Mauville didn't feel out of place because it was an environmental/atmospheric story told through exploring the place, matching with the developer goals in pokemon: exploring.

The point I was trying to make was that pokemon main-series plots are weak because they try to make traditional character narratives that go against the gameplay, meaning for one half to succeed the other half suffers. You can't have a character narrative with 700+ variables, and you can't write a 3-act plot without roadblocking the player everywhere they go.

To make a decent pokemon main-series story they need to work with the gameplay, not against it. Which is why Sea Mauville or N's room worked for me.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Okay, why don't people talk about Amie as a factor in making the games so easy? I would argue that it's more important than the EXP Share.

In some cases in this game, even being fifteen or twenty levels higher won't help you at a type disadvantage. Now, spend some time--admittedly it is a commitment--in Amie. Watch as your mon gets an XP boost on top of the new experience mechanics and the EXP Share. Meanwhile, you've given it the equivalent of a Bright Powder, Scope Lens, Focus Band, and the ability Shed Skin all in one.

 

[DHR-107]

To be fair though a lot of people don't bother with amie to that level. I've only really done amie "balls to the wall" once and it was ridiculous so I never bothered again

 

[Lady Vader]

Okay, why don't people talk about Amie as a factor in making the games so easy? I would argue that it's more important than the EXP Share.

In some cases in this game, even being fifteen or twenty levels higher won't help you at a type disadvantage. Now, spend some time--admittedly it is a commitment--in Amie. Watch as your mon gets an XP boost on top of the new experience mechanics and the EXP Share. Meanwhile, you've given it the equivalent of a Bright Powder, Scope Lens, Focus Band, and the ability Shed Skin all in one.

Well, unlike the Exp. Share, Amie takes time and has to be done for each 'mon. Also, it comes with the double-edged sword of increased crit chance if you go beyond Affection Level 2. Losing a wild Pokémon I was trying to catch once meant I rarely use Amie, even while I am training competitive
'mons and I like getting them to Level 100.

And now for something completely different:

I'm amazed I didn't talk about this before, but I don't like Milotic. I really don't. For starters, I don't think it is so beautiful. It's kinda meh. It has attack eyebrows that the Twelfth Doctor can only dream about, for Pete's sake! Another thing I don't like is how stupidly difficult it is to kill. One time, I battled someone who was using a Sleep Talk Milotic with Marvel Scale and Dragon Tail. I couldn't knock it out. You know what I had to do? I had to intentionally sacrifice FOUR POKÉMON just so my Mega Slowbro could set up Calm Minds without being Dragon Tailed away*! It is annoying and unattractive.

*At the time Milotic came out, one of my 'mons had already been knocked out. Also, those four did help make it so my opponent only had three 'mons left, so it isn't like I just let them die, but I did consciously play a little more carelessly so that Slowbro could do its job as it was the only 'mon on my team who could beat Milotic. I did manage to win thanks to Mega Slowbro.

 

[Raravian]

YES, regarding Pokemon Amie, I think it is horribly overrated. It was cute when it felt new, but the novelty soon wears off. I'm incredibly annoyed by that hype on Tumblr (don't know if it's still there, but it used to be very heavy at least) to record your Pokemon in Amie. For some reason the interaction with my Pokemon actually feels less personal instead of more after using Amie. I don't know exactly why though. Perhaps because you're treating them like pets in Amie instead of friends on an equal level? Or the fact that every Pokemon acts alike? It was somewhat satisfying to play Berry Picker at maximum level and to see that whole pile of berries falling down at the end though. But too easy regardless.

I'm amazed I didn't talk about this before, but I don't like Milotic. I really don't. For starters, I don't think it is so beautiful. It's kinda meh. It has attack eyebrows that the Twelfth Doctor can only dream about, for Pete's sake!

I never really understood why Milotic of all Pokemon was considered the 'most beautiful'. The eyebrows are weird, the pink 'hair'-like things on the side of its head are weird, but the part where its head goes into a spike is particularly off-putting for me. The rest is just eel. Overrated as fuck. I'm glad Lisia uses an Altaria for her contests, that Pokemon's beauty is something I can fully agree with.

 

[SteelEdges]

I genuinely believe Mega Evolutions are a mistake in every possible way, and I hope they are retconned like the type gems were.

 

[D_what]

I genuinely believe Mega Evolutions are a mistake in every possible way, and I hope they are retconned like the type gems were.

Wow, EVERY way? That's gotta be an unpopular opinion if ever I've heard one.

 

[Oriolous]

I genuinely believe Mega Evolutions are a mistake in every possible way, and I hope they are retconned like the type gems were.

I'm actually okay with Mega Evolution. My only hope is that Mega Evolutions don't overwhelm the chances for new cross-gen evos. I mean, we KNOW Megas are not going to be for every Pokemon, since that defeats the whole purpose.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

It has attack eyebrows that the Twelfth Doctor can only dream about, for Pete's sake!

Sorry. I just find the unintentional pun here to be just amazing.

 

[Norne]

I'm actually okay with Mega Evolution. My only hope is that Mega Evolutions don't overwhelm the chances for new cross-gen evos. I mean, we KNOW Megas are not going to be for every Pokemon, since that defeats the whole purpose.

Pretty much, the only people I heard whining about the implementation of a burst mode that offers opportunity cost instead of staple big bst fan favorite on every team all the time...are the guys who wanted cross gen evolutions to their old time favorites.

Let's be honest here mega evolution is all about opportunity costs, instead of having an actual mega khanga and mega Luke on every team we are presented with the choice of one of them and then to remove their checks or support their game breaking value, balance wise this was a big improvement while not breaking the rpg 1 time per battle burst mode mechanics other games have.

Mega Evo was a genius move game and marketing wise since it allowed the franchise to be revitalized by renewing old designs without rendering them useless by a +1 version, instead we got a chance to use the base form plus optional mega.

 

[Lady Vader]

Sorry. I just find the unintentional pun here to be just amazing.

Wow, it WAS unintentional! Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Pretty much, the only people I heard whining about the implementation of a burst mode that offers opportunity cost instead of staple big bst fan favorite on every team all the time...are the guys who wanted cross gen evolutions to their old time favorites.

Let's be honest here mega evolution is all about opportunity costs, instead of having an actual mega khanga and mega Luke on every team we are presented with the choice of one of them and then to remove their checks or support their game breaking value, balance wise this was a big improvement while not breaking the rpg 1 time per battle burst mode mechanics other games have.

Mega Evo was a genius move game and marketing wise since it allowed the franchise to be revitalized by renewing old designs without rendering them useless by a +1 version, instead we got a chance to use the base form plus optional mega.

I agree.
Honestly, Megas are among the most well thought out base concept in the series. A boost of +100 to BST is great, but comes at two costs: you can only have one and no real hold item. The only problem is on an individual basis where Game Freak didn't consider all the variables and/or Single Battles...as well as the Primals and Mega Rayquaza breaking those two main rules that kept the basic concept from becoming broken.

 

[noobcubed]

I genuinely believe Mega Evolutions are a mistake in every possible way, and I hope they are retconned like the type gems were.

I think you might be waiting quite a long time for that wish to come true ;)

Incidentally, I used to think, like you, that megas were overpowered, fan-pandering Digimon lookalikes, but they've since grown on me.

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

Incidentally, I used to think, like you, that megas were overpowered, fan-pandering Digimon lookalikes, but they've since grown on me.

Seeing "mega evolutions" and thinking Digimon is a reasonable knee-jerk reaction, but it all works out in the end. Damn what wouldn't I give to get a Mega Houndoom, pity I only have ORAS.

To sidetrack, my opinions:
- Hoenn is by FAR the very best region. I can't believe this isn't a more popular opinion; must be the "too much water" thing going on.

For me, what makes a great region to explore is a highly interconnected map. Having "loops" or circled paths in a map ensures that there's more than one path between cities, and so more exploration to be had.
Look at Hoenn. It contains 5 loops, not counting the loops that form when two loops are conjoined (e.g. the Rustboro, Slateport, Fallarbor, Mauville megaloop). SO much to explore. The Meteor Falls stretch that connects Fallarbor to Rustboro, the lower path from Lilycove to Mauville (with the "welcome to the world of Pokemon" BGM), the entire Pacifidlog town stretch - everything contributes to a rich experience.

And then they came up with THIS piece of junk.....why!?!?!?

 

[D_what]

Seeing "mega evolutions" and thinking Digimon is a reasonable knee-jerk reaction, but it all works out in the end. Damn what wouldn't I give to get a Mega Houndoom, pity I only have ORAS.

To sidetrack, my opinions:
- Hoenn is by FAR the very best region. I can't believe this isn't a more popular opinion; must be the "too much water" thing going on.

For me, what makes a great region to explore is a highly interconnected map. Having "loops" or circled paths in a map ensures that there's more than one path between cities, and so more exploration to be had.
Look at Hoenn. It contains 5 loops, not counting the loops that form when two loops are conjoined (e.g. the Rustboro, Slateport, Fallarbor, Mauville megaloop). SO much to explore. The Meteor Falls stretch that connects Fallarbor to Rustboro, the lower path from Lilycove to Mauville (with the "welcome to the world of Pokemon" BGM), the entire Pacifidlog town stretch - everything contributes to a rich experience.

And then they came up with THIS piece of junk.....why!?!?!?

Hmm. I dunno how unpopular that opinion is. I mean, I've always felt Hoenn was a great region, bar the expanses of water, for broadly similar reasons - it's very explorable. Likewise Sinnoh, which also had little nooks and crannies to delve into (never mind the underground) with the added advantage of sheer scale. (so for me it's less about loops than it is sidetracks.) Looking at maps of Sinnoh and Hoenn, in comparison to BW, it's no wonder I didn't like Unova... I didn't like it when the map was first leaked, and I don't like it now. It's SO. LINEAR.

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

Hmm. I dunno how unpopular that opinion is. I mean, I've always felt Hoenn was a great region, bar the expanses of water, for broadly similar reasons - it's very explorable. Likewise Sinnoh, which also had little nooks and crannies to delve into (never mind the underground) with the added advantage of sheer scale. (so for me it's less about loops than it is sidetracks.) Looking at maps of Sinnoh and Hoenn, in comparison to BW, it's no wonder I didn't like Unova... I didn't like it when the map was first leaked, and I don't like it now. It's SO. LINEAR.

Hahah it is!

I quite liked Sinnoh, Mt Coronet served as a fantastic point of convergence for every single loop in the region. And then got you venturing high up into the unknown with the snowy mountain routes. Loved that part.

This is the other thing about loops, when you leave a megaloop into a brand new route you really get the sense of adventure, like you're leaving everything behind. It's the same feeling I got when surfing off Lilycove to the water routes, which is why I....(REALLY UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT) actually enjoyed surfing in Hoenn.

Also, another one:
Kanto had the whole "wrap all your routes around Saffron City" gimmick, plus the coming-to-full-circle thing with the last gym in the first city (Viridian). Great idea....if only Viridian wasn't boring as hell. I mean geez....Old Man Weedle is (was?) probably the most interesting thing about that place.

For that matter, I find the entire Kanto really boring, despite all the wacky quests like SS Anne, waking Snorlax etc. It goes like land, forest...mountain cave...tunnel cave...island cave...victory road CAVE...postgame dungeon CAVE(!!)...

Oh well, there's always Lavender Tower. And the Sevii Islands (which I loved to bits).

 

[Mova]

Surfing in Hoenn has always been fun for me, probably more in ORAS because of the post-National diversity after the Super-Ancient Pokémon (Kyogre or Groudon, depending on your version) indicent.

I think the only two things Unova has going for it are the story and the Pokémon themselves. The monster designs of their world's equivalent of New York are great, but the actual region is quite linear. It and Kalos also have a bunch of stereotypes to their respective regions. I hope to see more legitimate research done for whatever comes next. Not sure how unpopular that opinion that is, though.

 

[Hyper Cutter]

Pretty much, the only people I heard whining about the implementation of a burst mode that offers opportunity cost instead of staple big bst fan favorite on every team all the time...are the guys who wanted cross gen evolutions to their old time favorites.

Let's be honest here mega evolution is all about opportunity costs, instead of having an actual mega khanga and mega Luke on every team we are presented with the choice of one of them and then to remove their checks or support their game breaking value, balance wise this was a big improvement while not breaking the rpg 1 time per battle burst mode mechanics other games have.

Mega Evo was a genius move game and marketing wise since it allowed the franchise to be revitalized by renewing old designs without rendering them useless by a +1 version, instead we got a chance to use the base form plus optional mega.

I feel like mega evolution should have been restricted to Pokemon with no room left to evolve (like the starters), legendaries, and gimmicks (like mega Kanghaskhan). The rest could, and should, have been regular evolutions.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I feel like mega evolution should have been restricted to Pokemon with no room left to evolve (like the starters), legendaries, and gimmicks (like mega Kanghaskhan). The rest could, and should, have been regular evolutions.

I think Megas should be only for Pokemon that have already evolved twice, or a legendary.
Other Pokemon that hasn't evolved twice needs a legit evolution first, otherwise it's just saying "we're done with you, you aren't evolving anymore than that!"

 

[D_what]

I feel like mega evolution should have been restricted to Pokemon with no room left to evolve (like the starters), legendaries, and gimmicks (like mega Kanghaskhan). The rest could, and should, have been regular evolutions.

I'm never sure whether to like posts in this forum that I agree with, or ones that I disagree with, since it's for unpopular opinions and all... so I do both! But I'll take this.

I'm 100% okay with most of the megas that a lot of people complain about, in terms of "this should have had an actual evolution!!". But, that said, I totally support more evos in general and I love what 4th gen did for older ones. BUT speaking from an artistic point of view... The Mega Evolutions, very largely, are design-wise half way between an undramatic forme-change and an actual evolution. Few of them are to their original form what, say, Electivire is to Electabuzz, and that's what a lot of Evos would end up being. And honestly, several Pokemon already have a very tidily finished, complete design - Mawile was small and weak, yes, but given what it represented there wasn't a whole lot of ways it could have been improved upon without verging very heavily into "this design is a headwrecker" fakemons. (At that, Mawile is still pretty evolution-y, following the "add a head" pattern that GF likes.) Sableye, Absol, Lucario; all of these guys have a very classy, fan-favourite, generally quite simple designs, and an evolution would replace those designs. Mega-Evolution enhances the designs (albeit often at the cost of simplicity!). Altaria, Pinsir, Houndoom, Medicham are all Pokemon whose mega evolutions are clearly directly inspired by and heavily based on the original. Yanmega/Electivire/Frosslass/Mamoswine... are great designs, but they're new ones, and only vestigially based on the originals.

tl;dr Megas are an improvement on good designs, evolutions replace unfinished ones

 

[Norne]

I feel like mega evolution should have been restricted to Pokemon with no room left to evolve (like the starters), legendaries, and gimmicks (like mega Kanghaskhan). The rest could, and should, have been regular evolutions.

Nope, as other stated, complete designs like those of Sableye, heracross, pinsir and Mawile don't need a third stage ruining their design with a random bunch of bullocks.

Mega is an improvement design(MMawile) and lore wise(MHeracross) even in non 3rd stage mons some are partially overdone and refuge on fridge brilliance like Maerodactyl without ruining or overdoing their concept nor balance to an extreme.

MMawile deserved it's ban on singles as an example but picture this thing being selectable without risk reward or allowing normal Mawile/Sableye with eviolite.

Point and case it's not about "muh crossevos" but about getting the work done with a previous design and allowing it's base form plus the improvement version to be used under a new light.

People are praising roadblock the region and we cornered ourself as designers the region as good? And just because they spin you around and around?

I gotta say the nostalgia gogoggles are strong here, hoenn was filled with dead ends exploration wise that forces team changes and hindered themselves for the second half of the game as well as hindering the early part distribution badly.

Then there is freaking Sinnoh with even more dead ends and uneventful roadblocks or ways of hindering party creation or slowing the player to appreciate the beauty of a faulted concept. Let's not get into the dex issues this entailed and the huge experience sink after their convulted climax of revisiting the same zone...

Then we have unova streamlined design with rewards for party restrictions in the form of different grass patches, TM or in general different angles to view the place within their routes. The bridges were partially repetitive yet each route had their bonus zones that didn't slow you down nor forced party retardation. This was reflected on the variety of the dex that allowed us to try the "new" toys in a less restricted way than any other Pokémon game did.

Unova lame, my magmar head.

 

[Karxrida]

I think we can agree that M-Aero has the laziest design that best showcases the negatives of Megas (aesthetically).

 

[Norne]

I think we can agree that M-Aero has the laziest design that best showcases the negatives of Megas (aesthetically).

To a degree, spikes on everything is lame, yet it's back sprite hunch and talons have a degree of brilliance regarding paleontology recent findings on winged reptiles.