Unpopular opinions

[Codraroll]

Not quite; we often forget because it's bad but Dugtrio can also have Sand Veil -- so it's more a 60% chance. Still really atrocious tho.

Looking it up, it's actually 40 since Trapinch can have Hyper Cutter. So the situation really isn't that dire. Then again, Dugtrio have very high Speed, so it's possible you won't be able to escape the battle regardless of ability. Nevertheless, being thrown into battles isn't very fun even if you can escape them. Also, thankfully the Badlands don't have Sandstorm weather, it just really looks that way.

Still a pretty botched implementation, though. And I agree it makes no sense that named Routes and background objects were dropped after XY. I know Game Freak tries the old excuse of "We want every game to feel unique", but the rest of their business model suggests a game is completely obsolete each time the next one is released. There is no need to make concessions to previous games, to not implement their popular features in any future games just to keep their gimmicks unique. For instance, there's no reason for dynamic background music to be unique to the Gen V games, it's not like Nintendo depends on those games retaining it as a sales gimmick eigth years and two console generations after their release. It could easily have been a mainstay of the Pokémon games by now, but Game Freak apparently didn't want to bother with the hassle for longer than they had to. It doesn't give a very flattering impression of the studio, as if they refuse to take any lessons and begin every generation with the fresh Gen I template, instead of actually building on the innovations they have presented over the years to make every game a bit better than the previous one.

 

[Kurona]

I completely missed the thing about background objects. That was something kinda fun I liked; nothing terribly important was staked on it so it was fun in the aftergame to just go back and get them all.

 

[Hugin]

Yeah, background objects needed a touch of refinement(make it so that any spread move of a specific type can trigger them), but they were a really cool thing to include. GF really needs to learn how to iterate on an idea.

 

[PageofSwords]

I wonder if the Route 13 Arena Trappers are meant to be some sort of trainer substitute. Team Flare aside, there aren't any regular trainers for you to fight, which is rather unusual (maybe the only one time it happens outside of Route 1? even the ride Pokemon routes have sky battles). So instead of having humans stand in the way of your progress, the idea might've been to create a sort of natural obstacle by combining encounters you have a hard time escaping from with the wind that makes it more difficult to circumvent them in the first place.

 

[Pikachu315111]

The Master Ball is worthless (and I ain't talking about you not being able to sell it).

A new event had been announced in Japan where you get a serial code for USUM that'll give you 100 Poke Balls... BUT some rare cards would give you 99 Poke Balls and 1 Master Ball instead! Oooooh~~... Who cares!

Sure, it has a 100% chance of catching any Pokemon and that's great and all... but you'll only ever get ONE (maybe you'll get another through lottery or an event but I doubt you'll ever get enough to catch a whole team with in one game). Now, in Gen I that was alright as there was only four Legendaries so you use it on the one you have the most problem with. But as the generations went on they added more and more Legendaries that just making one an easier catcher won't save you much frustration. Infact, this has probably led to players to using the Master Ball less as if they're going to catch a majority of Legendaries in another kind of Poke Ball they might as well catch all of them in anything other than the Master Ball. When Poke Ball matching became a thing it made it even less special as now people weren't using it to catch tough Pokemon but rather on Pokemon it matches with, most who wouldn't have been tough to catch in another kind of Poke Ball. Maybe it'll make that Pokemon feel a bit more valuable as you used your one Master Ball on it, but in the grand scheme of things it's being used not as powerful tool to catch Legendaries but instead a decoration accessory; no more special than the other Poke Balls used in that same way.

If anything, the Apricron Poke Balls are more highly prized than a Master Ball is nowadays. Like, if they said that the rare serial code would give a player ten sets of the Apricorn Poke Balls I would actually think more highly of that event. But a Master Ball? Who cares, I already got one and it's only collecting dust and so would any others I got.

The only interesting thing that has been done with Master Balls recently was having the villain leaders in the Rainbow Rocket Episode have all their Pokemon in Master Balls. That was kind of neat.

 

[Hugin]

Master Balls are good for one thing though, shineys. Especially ones with Self-Destruct or Teleport. You get that random one-in-65,000 shot, you don’t want to risk critting it, so yeah, then you use the Master Ball. Otherwise yeah, it’s mostly useless unless you want to save some time with a roaming legend.

 

[Worldie]

Be positive, at least you can use the Master Ball on purple things for matching ball / pokemon color ;)

 

[yourDeadGrandad]

My main problem with the Master Ball is that it looks stupid.

Also using it makes me feel like I've cheated somehow. 'Oh, what's wrong, can't catch a legendary in a regular pokéball, loser?' :D

 

[Kurona]

I feel it's fitting for Mewtwo and Rayquaza. It just feels right.

... not much else, though.

 

[Tapu Koko Loko]

I feel it's fitting for Mewtwo and Rayquaza. It just feels right.

... not much else, though.

FEAR Rattata

 

[Pikachu315111]

FEAR Rattata

 

[Kurona]

FEAR Rattata

If only Master Balls could be passed down

 

[Demoness]

Blue is a terrible rival, and the main reason people like him so much is just nostalgia. Also, people constantly asking for purely just jackass "rivals" and not good ones like Cheren and Hau are incredibly annoying and almost always older people trying to make a children's game into what they would want

 

[Detective Barricade]

Blue is a terrible rival, and the main reason people like him so much is just nostalgia. Also, people constantly asking for purely just jackass "rivals" and not good ones like Cheren and Hau are incredibly annoying and almost always older people trying to make a children's game into what they would want

I've never seen Blue as necessarily a jackass. He's more of the sort who knows what buttons to push to egg the player character on to keep trying to catch up to him. Silver starts out as a total asshole, but after getting trashed and chewed out by Lance, he starts to change for the better.

Granted, nearly anything is better than the group of friends in X/Y. They don't really grow or develop as characters, even by Pokemon standards, and it's especially apparent after Cheren and Bianca.

 

[ZettaiRyouiki]

Blue is a terrible rival, and the main reason people like him so much is just nostalgia. Also, people constantly asking for purely just jackass "rivals" and not good ones like Cheren and Hau are incredibly annoying and almost always older people trying to make a children's game into what they would want

Hau is a good rival? Since when?

Also I don't particularly like Blue and Silver, but think people want jerk rivals for a change after FIVE consecutive generations of nice rivals. Even the freaking Let's Go games have retconned Blue out and replaced him with a nice rival. It's like GameFreak thinks we can't handle someone mean.

 

[Tapu Koko Loko]

Hau is a good rival? Since when?

Also I don't particularly like Blue and Silver, but think people want jerk rivals for a change after FIVE consecutive generations of nice rivals. Even the freaking Let's Go games have retconned Blue out and replaced him with a nice rival. It's like GameFreak thinks we can't handle someone mean.

I agree. They at least motivate you to kick their butts. Hau is just some weirdo more interested in stuffing his face than actually challenging you.

 

[Kurona]

It depends on the purpose, really -- Cheren and Bianca are better as characters who develop and change, but Blue isn't meant to be that. He's supposed to be someone you really, REALLY want to beat. And he works pretty well for that role.
We shouldn't necessarily judge things on the basis of 'how much development does this character have', but 'how well does this character fulfill their role'. Cheren, Bianca, Hau, Silver and Blue are all valid choices to make for a game and all work well. No point in trying to force a comparison just because they technically fit into a similar category.

 

[Worldie]

I agree. They at least motivate you to kick their butts. Hau is just some weirdo more interested in stuffing his face than actually challenging you.

I really like the theory that in SM/USUM *you* are the Rival and Hau is the "protagonist".

(I still do hate Hau character design, though)

 

[Altissimo]

Blue isn't even a jerk rival and I don't really understand where that comes from

 

[Hugin]

Blue isn't even a jerk rival and I don't really understand where that comes from

The anime.

And yeah, anything other than all the “nice” rivals. It doesn’t need to be Silver levels of “kick his ass”, but more motivation for the actual battles would be good.

 

[Altissimo]

And yeah, anything other than all the “nice” rivals. It doesn’t need to be Silver levels of “kick his ass”, but more motivation for the actual battles would be good.

I was just discussing this with a friend last night, we were talking about how in our opinion Blue was actually peak rival because he was perfect levels of Not A Jerk but competitively-oriented, what we think a "rival" should really be. We both like Silver's character development a lot but he is a real ass to you for the first half of the game.

Then we went down the list: May/Brendan has no real presence (and Brendan is ambiguously sexist) - we both forgot about Wally (even though we both like him) because he isn't the rival with a starter
Barry is obnoxious
Cheren and Bianca are good but too friendly for our ideal "rival"
Hugh was also obnoxious
X/Y had the Swarm of Friends and they were all cardboard
Hau was fun but doesn't even really seem to count as a rival, Lillie isn't someone you battle, Gladion is too occasional

so our pick for best rival was Blue lmao. (and I say this as someone with a huge dislike for gen 1 lol)

 

[Worldie]

The anime.

While Gary is indeed assholish in the anime (or rather, Ash is just terrible), one has to remind that tecnically the anime is not canon for the game and other way around.

The "Blue" in game isn't the "Gary" of the anime, and Ash DEFINITELY is not Red.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Rivals:
I think the best way to formulate my thoughts if just going down the list of rivals:

Blue (Gen I)

I think the issue with Blue isn't that he's a bad rival. On the contrary, he serves his purpose perfectly well by showing up frequently and just being jerky enough you want to show you're better then him (and he is a jerk, he not only pushes the player buttons ("Smell ya later!") but when you encountered him in Silph Co. he's not their to help defeat Team Rocket but there to battle you (after having been worn down by Rocket Grunts) and then upon defeat leaves you to face Giovanni alone as he wants to get to the Pokemon League. Oak even calls him out after you defeat him for the Champion title). If anything that's the driving force for the player; why should they care about becoming Champion that much? Well because that's what their rival who thinks they're better than them wants to do, and this motivation keeps you going all the way till the end of the game where you beat him as Champion.
The issue with Blue is that, outside his "me over you" attitude, there's really nothing else, at least in Gen I. In Gen II you see how the experience has changed him, but in Gen I you're told you're childhood friends (of sorts) yet at no point does he show this. Throughout the journey he's a bully. He can still be prideful and push your buttons, but maybe when you're about to enter Silph Co. he stops you and says "(Player), I saw you rush into Silph Co. to take on Team Rocket. Are you nuts? These guys are dangerous! We should call the police. I'm not letting you battle them". (Battle commences and you defeat him). "Man, you're serious about this? Well fine, if you're going in I'm going in too. Watch my back". (Vanishes until top floor). "What took you so long? I defeated all the grunts up here, but my Pokemon are tired out. Their boss is up ahead. I'm going to head to the Pokemon League now, I expect to see you there. Good luck". (Leaves). While he still battles you and lets you face Giovanni alone, it would at least show him in a better light and that he does care.
So Blue serves his purpose to motivate you, but he has no depth to him aside being someone you'd want to overcome cause he's mean.

Silver (Gen II)

You could say Silver is Blue pushed to the extreme but also given more depth. While Blue was a jerk, Silver is an outright thief and hostile. At first he's letting nothing get in the way of his revenge against Team Rocket, stealing whatever Pokemon he needs to do so and considering the player as a pest that gets in his way or a punching bag he can strengthen his team against. While he's not aiming to be the Champion and you're more on your journey for yourself, he still motivates you to become stronger as you want to beat him because of his attitude and actions. In that way he serves Blue's role... up until Team Rocket's HQ in Mahogany Town. Being defeated and scolded by Lance shakes up his character and he begins questioning his beliefs, mainly about not trusting and loving his Pokemon thus why he can't beat the player nor Lance in a one-on-one battle. By the time of his final battle he's no longer hostile (still on edge, though more out of frustration with himself than angry at the player) and is trying to become a better trainer and thus a better person.
Silver is the last "mean" rival , though he was a pretty good one to go out on. Starting out as being a thief with a chip on his shoulder, after his defeat by Lance near the end of the game you see his character change for the better for the last few battles you have with him.

Brendan/May & Wally (Gen III)

The start of the friendly rivals. Heck, you can barely call them rivals in my opinion, more like friends you occasionally battle. Brendan/May stop being your "rival" halfway through the game where Wally then picks up being the now standard "rival" battle you have at the Pokemon League before facing the Elite Four & Champion.
Because of this, Brendan/May are the most forgettable rivals. They exist solely because they wanted to do something with the other gender playable character so was a good way to provide some early on rival battles while they built up the "true rival". They started out as assistants to their father, Professor Birch, and after a few battles decided they were better off remaining as research assistants.
Wally is much more easily remembered because of this, he has his own backstory and we see his character development from sick kid to trainer strong enough to challenge the Pokemon League. But even then is Wally a "rival" in how we know it or, once again, just a friends who we occasionally battle since he wasn't our rival until the latter half of our journey.
It felt like they wanted to experiment with the rival concept a bit but also downplayed it as they wanted to also more focus on the story with the villain team. Your rivals aren't their to motivate you, they're their to provide you experience to take on the villain team who are going to cause the end of the world that you got to stop. Wally story is great and you do play a small part in it, but it's something that mostly goes on in the background (if anything, you're the motivation for him to get stronger).

Barry (Gen IV)

The true first "friendly rival". It seems like they tried combining him being rash while also being a friend, though this just turned him into being annoying with his running joke of charging you for being late. Now this certainly made him memorable, but still his importance in the story always felt is fluctuated between required to just being there.
Now he was the driving force for you starting your journey, causing you to get into the trouble that resulted in you getting your Starter. And he is going for the Pokemon League so there is that angle too. But aside his annoying quirk there's no motivation beside this friendly competition. Then through most of the game he only pops up here and there for a battle until the plot then requires you, him, and Lucas/Dawn & Rowan to go to the three Lakes of Sinnoh to stop Team Galactic. But this is where they do develop his character a little as him losing to Jupiter at Lake Acuity and Uxie getting captured made him realize there was more important things going on and vows to become stronger. But this doesn't really affect him that much as he still loudly boasts he'll one day be the stronger trainer and he's still rushing everywhere. So in the end, Barry was just kind of "meh".

Cheren & Bianca (& N)(BW)

Just like how I think Silver is the better "mean rival", I think that the Cheren & Bianca are so far the best "friendly rivals". The main reason for this is that you see them throughout your journey instead of just popping in and out a few select moments. No, they're right there with you from the start and do so for most of the journey. This provides a different kind of motivation than just wanting to be better than your rivals. You're all on this journey together and you want to see how they'll grow and change as you keep up with each other. That's another thing in Cheren and Bianca's favor, they are characters with depth and story arcs. Cheren wants to be the best trainer like we all do, but he's then asked by Alder "then what?". Originally Cheren thought there was nothing else, but much like Silver he began questioning his motivations that by the end he's more focused on improving himself and his Pokemon that trying for the Pokemon League in the post game. Bianca originally just saw this journey as an excuse to get away from her overbearing father, but on the way grew more confident and began seeing potential paths she could take. She may not be a strong trainer (in-story) but she cares deeply for people and Pokemon thus why she went to get the Gym Leaders during Team Plasma's invasion instead of charging in like Cheren and in the post game decided to become Juniper's assistant.
N may normally not be considered a rival though does fill this purpose time to time. N is neither a mean nor friendly rival, but sort of an "antagonist rival". He sees a purpose within the player character thus is nice to them, but any one else he has no problem belittling or mocking them which include Cheren, Bianca, Juniper, and Alder. For most of the game you can consider him the main antagonist and his story is essentially the game's story thus giving him deeper depth and a character arc.
Cheren and Bianca may motivate you to go on the journey, but it's N who motivates you to become stronger. All their stories constantly involve the player but they have full story arcs to flesh them out as their own characters.

Hugh (B2W2)

Hugh is a player character who was misplaced as the rival. I don't know what the player character's goal is, at the beginning it was to get a Starter Pokemon to help his friend find his little sister's stolen Purrloin but at some point he just goes off on his own adventure while you just go on auto pilot and occasionally catching up to him (usually letting his rage out on someone). While Hugh battle you the usually amount of times as other rivals, he also most notably tags battle with you a lot too. It certainly separates him from other rivals. And like the other Gen V rivals he goes through his own full character arc, at first unwilling to forgive anyone part of Team Plasma but starts to realize everything isn't as black and white. After getting help from the former Team Plasma members and finally gets is sister's Pokemon back, a Liepard that now only obeys Team Plasma, does he begin to realize he was being irrational and eventually we see him apologizing to the former Team Plasma members and helping them reunite stolen Pokemon with their trainers.
Not sure how to measure Hugh up. The best comparison I could do is say he's a better done Barry. He gets you started on your journey but after that he's usually doing his own thing, but unlike Barry he often appears and is heavily involved with the plot (even apologizing for getting the player involved in all this).

Calem/Serena, Shauna, Tierno, & Trevor (Gen VI)

And here we go. From the generation with the best/most interesting friendly rivals we go to the ones with the worst. Okay, maybe that's a bit too harsh. I get what they were trying to do, pull a BW with you travelling with a group of friends but have more friends with varied interests and appearance... but they didn't pull it off well. All they really needed was Calem/Serena and Shauna, Tierno and Trevor were just dead weight and took rival battles away from Calem/Serena and Shauna.
Calem/Serena are the main rival though they're pretty basic since which one you get depends on which one you chose not to play as thus their dialogue is made to be switchable between the two. They try to motivate you but unlike other past rivals who had big personalities that even when losing kept them going, after a while you sort of start feeling bad constantly beating Calem/Serena who seem to realize soon they'll never be as good as you so let's you walk over them (at least that how it feels).
Shauna I feel is the most interesting one of the group. She starts off as the "lesser main rival", picking the starter weak to yours and doesn't seem to be that good at battling. Yet over the course of the game she seemed to be the one who goes through the most development. It starts with a little ship tease moment, but soon following moments with her is reminiscent on what she had experienced on the journey. Then it's her who joins you and Calem/Serena when you take on Team Flare, doing her part to get you through a door, distracting/defeating admins, and pointing out what's wrong with Lysandre's confused beliefs. It all builds up to that final battle with all the rivals where you discover she has trained up a Goodra showing how much she has improved as a trainer.
Tierno and Trevor were just their to provide some battles and do quirky stuff and that's it. Their contribution to fighting Team Flare was off screen and I question how much it really helped. They were protecting the Pokemon on Route 10 from I suppose getting their life force drained but Lysandre was using the Legendary Pokemon to power the Ultimate Weapon so was that necessary? Eitherway, they didn't do anything that helped you actually fight Team Flare (thinking about it, neither did the Champion or the Professor. Only people who did anything was the player, Calem/Serena, Shauna, and a tiny bit help from Olympia who warned you this was coming... which did a few minutes later so not that big of a help). They had no character development what-so-ever, Tierno liked to dance and Trevor was a bookworm and they remained like that though now have participation medals for "helping" to save Kalos.
There was potential here and it was sort of met with Shauna, but everyone else either needed work (Calem/Serena) or should have been made more interesting characters (Tierno & Trevor). But you could say that a lot for Gen VI.

Hau & Gladion (Gen VII)

Hau is complex, he feels like an assortment of rival traits put together. He's no doubt your rival and is with you constantly through 3/4 of the game, but he's not really into battling and the Pokemon League Rival Battle isn't with him. This is easily explained with the game having a right-of-passage journey instead of "be the best" journey. You and your rival motivations aren't trying to be better than each other, its to take the Island Challenge and grow as a person by completing the Trials and experiencing Alola. But that's not to say Hau doesn't have depth or character development, it's just that Lillie's story takes the forefront leaving Hau behind. At first it seems like Hau just wants to hang back and eat malasada, but that's revealed to be sort of a mask as he really wants to be as strong or stronger than his grandfather Hala, a Kahuna and very strong trainer. When he's unable to protect Lillie from Plumeria, instead Lillie had to protect him, really shook him to start taking things more seriously, which is probably why after the Aether Foundation raid he vanishes to train harder. And this pays off with him being a Title Defense challenger, the first one you face in SM's post game though in USUM he's the initial challenge for Champion title instead of Kukui.
Gladion is the rival who picks up the slack for Hau. Being Lillie's brother and enforcer of Team Skull he's very involved with the plot which gives him plenty of character development moments. At first he thinks solely he and Type: Null has to fix everything, though eventually comes around to asking you and Hau for aid when you raid the Aether Foundation. Depending on whether its SM or USUM his story diverges though either one shows he's grown as a character (in SM becoming the president of the Aether Foundation or in USUM leaving on a journey having made up with his mother). Though no matter what he is the one that provides the Pokemon League's Rival Battle (as well as a Title Defense challenger).
Due to the way Gen VII was set up it allowed to have more unique rivals who didn't need to provide the player motivation. They were allowed to be their own character though that also meant the player didn't feel as important; really the player is just muscle for Gladion's and Lillie's story.

Friendly Vs Mean Rivals: Just to touch on this a little. It's not that I don't want or like friendly rivals, it's just that we've had so many and it's kind of starting to play itself out. After BW the friendly rivals started to feel like they didn't have much connection to the player character as they're involved with their own story. All and good, but I'm not playing their story, I'm suppose to be playing my own story and if we're going to have rivals like that I wouldn't mind seeing one that makes me want to knock down a peg or two. Or why not have it both ways? Have a friendly and mean rival, they sort of did that in Gen VII though Gladion was never exactly "mean".

 

[Merritt]

What makes me not a fan of many of the “rival” characters (particularly the friendly rivals) is that, well, they’re not rivals. Their goals either aren’t parallel to the player’s goal to naturally create competition or they aren’t forcing themselves into the players way as a roadblock of some kind. A rival should be somebody who gives the player character some reason to improve, otherwise they’re just a friend (or if they’re an asshole, a recurring character).

Blue, Cheren, and Barry act as the first kind of rival. They all have the same goal as the player, are usually ahead of the player for a lot of that journey, and are less trying to beat the player themselves as they are trying to beat the player to the completion of the shared goal. It’s a good, standard kind of rival that leaves itself very open to friendly rivals, but definitely still competitiors and not just friends.

I’d argue that the player character fulfills this role pretty often, where the “rival” character is trying to surpass the player and not the other way around. Hau’s the classic example because you pick the starter with an advantage, but I’d say this is also the case for Wally (particularly in ORAS) and Calem/Serena. For the most part the player is ahead of them and their goal is to catch up to and surpass the player character on the path to the goal.

The second kind of rival I mentioned earlier is the kind who specifically seeks out the player in order to beat them down. There’s only two characters who I’d classify in here - N and Silver. N and the player do a strange dance through the plot where their philosophy is more developed and realized at certain points and N is constantly showing up to develop his own philosophy more and convince the player that theirs is incorrect. Silver just doesn’t like the player or their methods. Rivals here are supposed to make you want to prove them wrong and beat them as much as they want to beat you in a personal sense, less in the sense of achieving the goal first. Blue can possibly fit in here too, but I feel like he’s more focused on the goal than the player themselves, the player just happens to constantly be in the path.

The other “rivals” just aren’t that. There’s no real sense of competition, they’re just companions for the journey. Some are better developed (Bianca) some are not (Tierno) but I never feel comfortable calling them rivals at all. This includes May/Brendan, Bianca, Hugh, Shauna, Trevor, Tierno, and Gladion. Gladion’s close to fitting into the “sees player as rival type 1” list, but it’s for a short period of time and not very strongly so.

 

[pe5e]

The thing to me is that I really dont mind the friendly NPCs that travel with you through the game. Just dont name them things they are clearly not. I always wondered why the structure from Gen 3 was never better repeated. You have a friendly companion as well as a rival. It is just that in Gen 3 the characters themselves werent very good. But I dont see why this wouldnt be used more often? It apeals to both sides of players types who like both real rivals and friendly companions.

Also this is me fangirling, but one thing that really stands out to me about Silver is that he is the only rival I am aware off that makes you, the player, its rival too. He truely engages you later in the game. He wants to learn your methods, surpass you and in doing so experiences some real character development. He sees you, himself and his goal in a new way through game play. I dont argue he is a flawless rival (the beginning of the relationchip with the player drags on a bit too much), but at least he feels far more human then other ones.