Unpopular opinions

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
I actually don't mind that Sword and Shield are cutting Pokemon.

There's around 1000 Pokemon out now. A cull was inevitable really, in fact I'm amazed it took this long. "Gotta Catch Em All" has never been a slogan of the games, only the shitty anime (remember "these donuts are great!" and using Thunder as armour anyone?). Even then, it was only a slogan of the English dub - the original Japanese was (I think) "Gotta Catch Pokemon". I'm also looking forward to seeing an Ubers without Primal Groudon on every fucking team, an OU where not everyone is using Landorus-T etc. It'll be a nice shake up. And Smogon will be implementing a meta that acts like you could still transfer everything, so that's something at least.

Now don't get me wrong - I would've preferred it if the option to transfer all older Pokemon was still available, and the lack of National Dex is a mark against SwSs. But for me it's not a deal breaker. I can see why Game Freak did make some cuts, and to be honest there's a tonne of Pokemon I don't give a shit about. I'd wager that's the same for most of you too. And no, it is not going to bomb - a lot of people said that about Let's Go, and yet it got positive reviews from the critis and at the moment is the 5th best selling game on Switch with over 10 million copies sold worldwide.

Also the Galar Pokedex already has over 100 mons revealed for it, and we're still 5 months away from release.
Amazing. I hate people whining about the dex too, and the same with Sword and shield will happen with Let's go: Many people want to buy it! As for the competitive scene, it'll make the annoying stuff just disappear, like Landorus-T, Primal Groudon, Xerneas, ect. Yup, too true on that. Lastly, if anything, I NEVER use mons not in the regional dex, not including the Barbaracle I got from Ultra Space in USUM, but even so it's still in the main game. And the anime? You mean more like dumpster business? Heh heh. I would go on further, but my 100% feelings for those whining about the game should only be said in firebot. But yeah though, agreed, many great points, it's too good for an average like so yeah I gave it an ever better reaction.
 
I actually don't mind that Sword and Shield are cutting Pokemon.

There's around 1000 Pokemon out now. A cull was inevitable really, in fact I'm amazed it took this long. "Gotta Catch Em All" has never been a slogan of the games,
Really?

Because a casual Google search shows "Gotta catch 'em all!" right on the box of Pokemon Red and Blue, so it's been a slogan of the games since the beginning. (even if it hasn't been present on all of the games)

However, I suspect the Pokemon not present in the Galar Pokedex (along with Mega Evolution and Z-crystals) may see a return, albeit not in Sword and Shield. Possibly in next year's game(s). (because they have to come out every year now apparently)
 

Merritt

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Still, that slogan hasn’t been used since GSC, so it hasn’t been on the main series games for the best part of 20 years. Speaking of years, the Pokemon series has been releasing 1 game (not counting spinoffs) almost every year right from the start.
Alright, let's debunk this real quick.


This is the official US trailer for Let's Go. At the 3 second mark, immediately following the Switch animation, we get what TPCi used as an intro animation for almost all large announcements since the release of XY. You can quickly check the ORAS announcement trailer, where it's also used.



It's something that's been used in official media released by The Pokemon Company more recently than a year ago, in their announcements for "core" games to the series.
 
Realistically, does it matter whether or not the slogan is technically in use or not?

It's something that has become associated with the Pokemon brand to the degree that even people barely familiar with the series immediately recognise it. It may be that this is out of GF's control at this point, but even so it seems like bad marketing to ignore it.
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
I know the thread is locked but can y'all not bleed Sword and Shield discussions into every other thread on the OI? Take it to the Discord if you need to vent.
I normally take out my frustration towards sword and shield on firebot since that's where it's best, but usually it's about people whining about there being no dex and only there, I can unleash my true feelings. So fine with me, I just like to stay on topic.

Also, I feel that team flare is the second best evil team of all time, only behind team neo plasma. They are very underated. I mean, this is called unpopular opinions, so I thought I might as well say it here.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Sword & Shield Galar Dex Discussion: For the most part I'm just going to point back to my post about it in the Sword & Shield thread. Though I will also say this: after listening to a lot of people who I watch talk about it, only ones really taking this as a big controversy are long time Pokemon fans. Generally everyone agrees they would like all the Pokemon, but it's not a major issue they aren't all in. And even among long time fans they're also split on this, many deciding just to wait to see how it works out. So, let's do that. It's happening, they aren't changing course, let's just see where it goes.

And no, it is not going to bomb - a lot of people said that about Let's Go, and yet it got positive reviews from the critis and at the moment is the 5th best selling game on Switch with over 10 million copies sold worldwide.
I don't know who thought this wasn't going to be a success, I think the main worry (at least for me) if this is going to replace the remakes (and some established lore such as Red being the one to defeat Giovanni). And while the worry still exists, GF backpedaling saying Let's Go is its own parallel series may mean the updated remakes part of the core series will still happen. Maybe.

Also, I feel that team flare is the second best evil team of all time, only behind team neo plasma. They are very underated. I mean, this is called unpopular opinions, so I thought I might as well say it here.
I feel we never really got a good chance to see what Team Flare was about. The contrast between the grunts being wacky and their leader Lysandre being super serious prevented the team from reaching a full potential in on direct.

Since Lysandre is super serious (aka ready to commit planet-wide genocide of all non-Flare people and all Pokemon) you get whiplash from the sudden turn after having dealt with a batch of doofuses who wore bright orange business suits, made funny poses, and looking quick ways to make money.

Since the grunts are wacky, it's hard to take Lysandre's grand plan with the seriousness it wants as he says the people part of Team Flare are people he had personally sought out as the best of humanity... yeah, sure they are.

And it's hard to think how things would be if they only went one direction as what we got was a result of the compromise of wacky grunts & serious boss, having gone one direction would completely change the story and probably characters made for the team (if not the team entirely).

Also following Team Plasma didn't do them any favors, and then followed by Team Skull. If Flare cam after Aqua & Magma or Galactic maybe it wouldn't have been too bad.
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
Since I deleted my first quote on accident, I'll do this:
Pikachu had said: Since the grunts are wacky, it's hard to take Lysandre's grand plan with the seriousness it wants as he says the people part of Team Flare are people he had personally sought out as the best of humanity... yeah, sure they are.

And it's hard to think how things would be if they only went one direction as what we got was a result of the compromise of wacky grunts & serious boss, having gone one direction would completely change the story and probably characters made for the team (if not the team entirely).

Also following Team Plasma didn't do them any favors, and then followed by Team Skull. If Flare cam after Aqua & Magma or Galactic maybe it wouldn't have been too bad.

My reaction: Honestly, I kinda like the transition from funny to serious. It makes team flare feel less... Stale. It gets boring for me if everyone feels so alike. Also, the grunts seem a bit more serious after the psychic gym. Also, Lysandre was a freaking genius. Until everything was all set up, he hid the fact he was the leader of team flare so well. He hides his goals well enough for you to think "there's no way he could be the leader of team flare, he's not nearly as vicious as those guys" but then, once you get to his Cafe, it kind of hints to you, but not the protagonist that maybe that thought was wrong... If you took the time to talk to the NPCs anyways. It kinda gives that feeling of shocking surprise you know. And not only that, but since team flare is dressed in all red (minus the scientists of course, their designs kinda sucked so they are exempt from this) it gives them that intimidating, scary, and even cool, and honestly, it was way less bland than the next team: Team skull. Team skull was like "Yo, let's just steal stuff and act cool, yo," compared to Team Flare, who did lot's of cool stuff, like highjacking a Poke ball factory, taking all the power for themselves to fuel a very powerful weapon, causing very high pressure hail storms, which kinda gives them a elemental mage vibe (and I love elemental mages) and unleashing a very strong weapon, capable of killing anyone not in team flare. I could go on, but it'd take hours if I listed everything I liked about them.

Edit: Well, he hid it well enough from the protagonist in the game.
 
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Since I deleted my first quote on accident, I'll do this:
Pikachu had said: Since the grunts are wacky, it's hard to take Lysandre's grand plan with the seriousness it wants as he says the people part of Team Flare are people he had personally sought out as the best of humanity... yeah, sure they are.

And it's hard to think how things would be if they only went one direction as what we got was a result of the compromise of wacky grunts & serious boss, having gone one direction would completely change the story and probably characters made for the team (if not the team entirely).

Also following Team Plasma didn't do them any favors, and then followed by Team Skull. If Flare cam after Aqua & Magma or Galactic maybe it wouldn't have been too bad.

My reaction: Honestly, I kinda like the transition from funny to serious. It makes team flare feel less... Stale. It gets boring for me if everyone feels so alike. Also, the grunts seem a bit more serious after the psychic gym. Also, Lysandre was a freaking genius. Until everything was all set up, he hid the fact he was the leader of team flare so well. He hides his goals well enough for you to think "there's no way he could be the leader of team flare, he's not nearly as vicious as those guys" but then, once you get to his Cafe, it kind of hints to you, but not the protagonist that maybe that thought was wrong... If you took the time to talk to the NPCs anyways. It kinda gives that feeling of shocking surprise you know. And not only that, but since team flare is dressed in all red (minus the scientists of course, their designs kinda sucked so they are exempt from this) it gives them that intimidating, scary, and even cool, and honestly, it was way less bland than the next team: Team skull. Team skull was like "Yo, let's just steal stuff and act cool, yo," compared to Team Flare, who did lot's of cool stuff, like highjacking a Poke ball factory, taking all the power for themselves to fuel a very powerful weapon, causing very high pressure hail storms, which kinda gives them a elemental mage vibe (and I love elemental mages) and unleashing a very strong weapon, capable of killing anyone not in team flare. I could go on, but it'd take hours if I listed everything I liked about them.
I have to disagree. Lysandre seemed pretty dead obvious he was the leader of Team Flare, given his propensity for very similar reds as Team Flare. But then, that might have been me having experienced Cyrus of Team Galactic, which Team Flare feels like an "off-brand" version of. (also, when did they create a hail storm? They pestered an Abomasnow in the Frost Cavern, but it has little to do with the blizzards that frequent Route 17)
 
Lysandre only hid his villainy because the rest of the cast was taking stupid pills to ignore highly obvious clues. Remember your second conversation with the guy?

"You played a young girl so wonderfully in your debut on the silver screen. Wouldn't you rather remain young and beautiful forever and always play such roles?" "You were chosen to be a movie star, correct? Isn't it your duty to be ever beautiful? Everything beautiful should stay that way forever. I would make this world unchanging and eternal so all beauty will last forever.X/I would end the world in an instant so that beauty never fades.Y I can't stand the thought of the world becoming uglier."

In every conversation afterward he mentions something along the lines of separating the beauty from the filth in language with all the subtlty of piano falling from the sky.

Which is the problem, as Lysandre's completely obvious villainy and absolutely serious demeanor 100% of the time is hysterical because his followers are comprised of red-dressed foppish clowns. So Lysandre looked more like an out-of-place joke by the company he keeps and his absolute lack of a filter.

If I had to pick one moment to show how tone-deaf Team Flare looks, it would be the point where Lysandre cries over pokemon before the final battle. It's supposed to be this poinent emotional moment but instead it's this up until now super serious guy considering the ramifications of global genocide leading a group of red foppish clowns and is followed by a boss fight where he wears a bug outfit. So the tears just look silly.

Team Flare is basically what happens when the writing team takes cues from Team Magma and Aqua but forgot that they're supposed to be at least a smidge self-aware about how ridiculous they are.

Then throw in all the wasted characters (see my old post about the Flare Scientists whose names none of you can remember) and Team Flare really is the worst villain team in the series.

181739

...okay maybe second worst.
 
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If I had to pick one moment to show how tone-deaf Team Plasma looks, it would be the point where Lysandre cries over pokemon before the final battle. It's supposed to be this poinent emotional moment but instead it's this up until now super serious guy considering the ramifications of global genocide leading a group of red foppish clowns and is followed by a boss fight where he wears a bug outfit. So the tears just look silly.
Wait, what does Team Plasma have to do with Lysandre?
 
Re: Team Flare things: I've a planned side project where I rewrite a great many parts of X and Y's terrible writing, including Team Flare. On advice of others, I chose to play up their Nazi-esque tendencies and make them much more elitist, serious, dedicated to Lysandre's actual goals, etc. However, it's only a rewrite (harder gameplay comes from it being built on someone else's hard mode hack. Eternal X to be specific.); rescripting, remodeling, etc. is out of the project's scope. I also don't really work on it as I've many other, better things to do.... (Still, if you want to see the small part I've made as a demo of the project, PM on Discord)
 
Then throw in all the wasted characters (see my old post about the Flare Scientists whose names none of you can remember) and Team Flare really is the worst villain team in the series.
Fun fact about said wasted characters: apparently the names of each of the scientists correspond to the classification of solar flares, as their names each start with A, B, C, M, and X.

...raise your hand if you didn't care about them enough to realize this.
 
Fun fact about said wasted characters: apparently the names of each of the scientists correspond to the classification of solar flares, as their names each start with A, B, C, M, and X.

...raise your hand if you didn't care about them enough to realize this.
Kind of weird when you think about it, cause everyone else in XY is named after fruit or some kind of plant.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Kind of weird when you think about it, cause everyone else in XY is named after fruit or some kind of plant.
Not really, at least if you know that in Japan almost every Pokemon character is named after a plant (which until Gen VI the international versions ignored giving most characters more on-the-nose thematic names; in Gen VI they tried combining both naming methods with having an elemental word within a plant name; in Gen VII they just went with the Japanese names to make the characters sound "exotic") except certain character like the villain teams:

Rocket: Executives were named after rockets.
Aqua: Admins were named after water things. Shelly's Japanese name is Izumi which means "spring" (also has "umi" which means "sea") & Matt is Ushio which means "tide".
Magma: Admins were named after fire things. Tabitha's Japanese name is Homura which means "flame" & Courtney is Kagari which comes from "kagaribi" which means "bonfire".
Galactic: Named after planets or other celestial bodies.
Plasma: Almost all named members had names that didn't relate back to plants.
The Sages sans Ghetsis were named after colors in different languages.
Ghetsis comes from the musical notes "G" and "Cis/C#", a combination known as a tritone which has been given the nickname "Diabolus in Musica (The Devil in the Music)"; this tritone is indeed in Ghetsis's battle theme.
N/Natural Harmonia Gropius is in three parts: N-atural comes from "Natural Number"; Harmonia could come from "harmonic functions" or, when combined with the N in the beginning, "Enharmonic"; and Gropius possible named after the famous architect Walter Gropius.
Colress Japanese name is Achroma which comes from "achromatic".
Now Anthea & Concordia were just referred to as the Goddess of Love & Goddess of Peace in the Japanese versions of BW, but they did get normal names in B2W2 which come from plants so they no longer count toward this point (by the way plants have a ton of symbolism connected to them so there usually is a reason why characters are named after certain plants).
Flare: Only Lysandre's Japanese name isn't from a plant, Fuladari which comes from "fleur-de-lis". The Scientists are all named after plants since it's only the first letter of their name that has to correlate with a classification of solar flares.

Oddly Skull and Aether Foundation break this theme, all their prominent members are named after plants. Though par for the course in the Japanese version and, as mentioned, international versions probably kept their names to make the characters feel "exotic" to go with Alola's theme of being a faraway island chain.

Anyway, I wanted to quickly discuss a new video that JWittz just put up: "10 Things Pokemon is MISSING". After having played a batch of other RPGS (Japanese and Western), JWittz mentions the 10 he would like to see in Pokemon. Now a lot of them are points we discussed but never hurts to go over them again:
Player (Body) Customization: Really GF? We're now moving onto the Switch yet we STILL only get four default options for each gender, and it's only skin color that changes (hair and eyes too, but you can change those... though until then you are stuck with the ones the default has picked)? JWittz points out when you start other self-insert RPGs nowadays you're taken to a character creator screen. Why doesn't Pokemon have this? Now, I get they want the main character to be a kid, but there's still a batch options they can let the player adjust via a character creator: skin color (can use the Von Luschan's Chromatic Scale to make a slider), eye color, hair color (for eyes and hair maybe just give us a HEX color chart; maybe also let is have different eye colors and add highlights to our hair; cause anime), weight, & height (that may really help people feel like the player character represents them if you can make them big, tall, or short). Maybe also give us a way to change the player's facial features a bit and add on details like freckles, beauty marks & scars. And how about this: let us use the camera function to take a photo of your face! That alone would get skin color, eye color, & hair color!
And then maybe even give us a character we can use online. Instead of being the default player we can choose a trainer class and do the same body changes to them.
Though to also give a quick mention to clothing options, wouldn't mind clothing based on the important NPCs (Rivals, Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champion, Villain Team, etc.) and even for the Trainer Classes.

More Online Interaction: Don't really have anything to say here. Sounds like JWittz wants another Wifi Plaza which I'd be alright with though probably would never use, then again that was on a DS and was local so if it was on the Switch and over the internet may not be too bad. Maybe let us compete/race against each other in a Battle Facility or in a White Treehollow/Black Tower-like dungeon. They also sort of did something similar with Sinnoh's Underground with the flag catching game where players are able to set traps for each other (though that was also local).
And Pokemon Animal Crossing, now there's an idea I'm pretty sure Nintendo is sitting on just in case they ever get in financial problems and need a game that'll sell like hot cakes (like Square Enix with the Final Fantasy 7 remake).

Bigger Side Quests: Pretty much would like to see more what they did with USUM, which I sort of agree with. And I only "sort of" agree with because normally I'll completely agree but GF has proven themselves not to be competent on this end. What it comes down to: first and foremost if they're limited on what side quest stuff they can have I'd rather any additional material be given to the important NPCs (Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Rivals, etc.) first to flesh them out more, show us who there are and learn a little more about them. After that, if they still have room for more side quests, then go nuts with having a random trainer here and there give you a task to help them with. Now, this should ALREADY be part of the bare minimum, but GF is too busy making up new game mechanics no one asked for (and removing content we did like) then fleshing out the interesting game worlds they build.

New Game+ (I think this is one of the points, because otherwise he's missing one): Now I could list all my ideas how they could do New Game+ content (plus other challenge modes they could do) but I know GF is never going to do it. While I can see a way to do it, it would be VERY time consuming, pretty much require giving us a second save slot (Arceus forbid they do that...), and afterwards there's the quandary of how much connection should this New Game+ mode have with the main saved game. Maybe instead of fully replaying the adventure they can have a way to just re-play the parts we want to re-play. In the Pokemon Ranger games, they have a character that gives us a way to re-challenge the bosses. Now it's done in those games so we could get a better score on them in our Ranger Dex, but I think a similar idea could be done in the main games. We re-live the memory of the iconic parts like going through the villain team bases but this time they have higher level Pokemon. Also make it easy to re-battle the important NPCs we want to battle again. Why can't we just go back through the Gym to re-challenge the Gym Leader post game? Why do GF make it a process or we have to jump hoops. This was especially annoying with the Trial Captains who with some being version exclusive, locked to the Battle Tree or a Title Challenger, or were a once-and-done.

Difficulty Options: I think we discussed this one to death.

Dialogue Choices: Now, unless you can somehow either mold a personality into your trainer that other characters acknowledge or what you say may affect how certain characters treat you on future encounters, this one I can take or leave. For what I want to see, and possibly JWittz I'm not sure, it would require a hefty undertaking of many branchings of "if thens". I'm personally fine with being given an option either to be straight forward or sarcastic as long as they have different immediate responses. Though, maybe adding in a few which changes how a character interacts with you wouldn't be too bad, like maybe a side rival, a recurring side quest character, or a grunt of the villain team you keep running into. They could maybe even do this with important NPCs when doing a side quest for them.
Oh, and also maybe let me control my character's facial emotion, being sarcastic kind of falls flat when my character is just smiling and staring into the void.

Voice Acting: When Zelda had moved onto voice acting and your brand also has one of the longest lasting anime adaptations which pumps out a movie yearly, yet your games still has none, maybe you should consider calling the anime branch to get some voice actors over...

Modern Visuals: I think this is more an issue of GF only having 200 employees and probably only a handful (if that many) are in charge or making the environments. If they hired more programmers and modelers (notably ones skilled with modern day techniques) maybe we could start seeing the Pokemon visuals move on to the likes of other JRPGs.

Trainer Class System: So from what JWittz is describing here sounds like he wants side objectives, possibly based on the Trainer Classes you see throughout the game. Like you can help Pokemon Rangers protect the environment and help/rescue Pokemon and people that got lost/injured. You can get hired by a farm or daycare to help take care of the Pokemon needs to assure they produce the best quality products or Eggs. And I'm sure many more examples I can give. Would like to see, but highly doubt GF would do unless it goes along with a new mechanic they're doing.

Tutorial Skipping: While I wouldn't have the "two option at start of game" as JWittz said, I would just let us press the Start button and have a "Skip Tutorial" button. Also have a log book that keeps track of all the tutorials, just in case there's something new or you need to read up how a new mechanic works.
 
New Game+ to me is really a combination of 2 things.
One, hard mode, which is a common request.
Two, some way of passing pokes on to the same file without it being broken or feeling like a cheat.

My very rough, it’s 6 AM here solution? Don’t include the Champion in the story or build them up, focus on everyone else(think Gen 1/3/7) When you select New Game Plus, the professor asks you if you want to provide eggs for the next generation of trainers. You can pick up to six unhatched eggs that will be hatched and given to your new account instead of the starter. The game proceeds as normal until you reach the Champion, which is your old trainer with your first Hall of Fame team. Rematches are against your final HoF team.
 
Not really, at least if you know that in Japan almost every Pokemon character is named after a plant (which until Gen VI the international versions ignored giving most characters more on-the-nose thematic names; in Gen VI they tried combining both naming methods with having an elemental word within a plant name; in Gen VII they just went with the Japanese names to make the characters sound "exotic") except certain character like the villain teams:

Rocket: Executives were named after rockets.
Aqua: Admins were named after water things. Shelly's Japanese name is Izumi which means "spring" (also has "umi" which means "sea") & Matt is Ushio which means "tide".
Magma: Admins were named after fire things. Tabitha's Japanese name is Homura which means "flame" & Courtney is Kagari which comes from "kagaribi" which means "bonfire".
Galactic: Named after planets or other celestial bodies.
Plasma: Almost all named members had names that didn't relate back to plants.
The Sages sans Ghetsis were named after colors in different languages.
Ghetsis comes from the musical notes "G" and "Cis/C#", a combination known as a tritone which has been given the nickname "Diabolus in Musica (The Devil in the Music)"; this tritone is indeed in Ghetsis's battle theme.
N/Natural Harmonia Gropius is in three parts: N-atural comes from "Natural Number"; Harmonia could come from "harmonic functions" or, when combined with the N in the beginning, "Enharmonic"; and Gropius possible named after the famous architect Walter Gropius.
Colress Japanese name is Achroma which comes from "achromatic".
Now Anthea & Concordia were just referred to as the Goddess of Love & Goddess of Peace in the Japanese versions of BW, but they did get normal names in B2W2 which come from plants so they no longer count toward this point (by the way plants have a ton of symbolism connected to them so there usually is a reason why characters are named after certain plants).
Flare: Only Lysandre's Japanese name isn't from a plant, Fuladari which comes from "fleur-de-lis". The Scientists are all named after plants since it's only the first letter of their name that has to correlate with a classification of solar flares.

Oddly Skull and Aether Foundation break this theme, all their prominent members are named after plants. Though par for the course in the Japanese version and, as mentioned, international versions probably kept their names to make the characters feel "exotic" to go with Alola's theme of being a faraway island chain.

Anyway, I wanted to quickly discuss a new video that JWittz just put up: "10 Things Pokemon is MISSING". After having played a batch of other RPGS (Japanese and Western), JWittz mentions the 10 he would like to see in Pokemon. Now a lot of them are points we discussed but never hurts to go over them again:
Player (Body) Customization: Really GF? We're now moving onto the Switch yet we STILL only get four default options for each gender, and it's only skin color that changes (hair and eyes too, but you can change those... though until then you are stuck with the ones the default has picked)? JWittz points out when you start other self-insert RPGs nowadays you're taken to a character creator screen. Why doesn't Pokemon have this? Now, I get they want the main character to be a kid, but there's still a batch options they can let the player adjust via a character creator: skin color (can use the Von Luschan's Chromatic Scale to make a slider), eye color, hair color (for eyes and hair maybe just give us a HEX color chart; maybe also let is have different eye colors and add highlights to our hair; cause anime), weight, & height (that may really help people feel like the player character represents them if you can make them big, tall, or short). Maybe also give us a way to change the player's facial features a bit and add on details like freckles, beauty marks & scars. And how about this: let us use the camera function to take a photo of your face! That alone would get skin color, eye color, & hair color!
And then maybe even give us a character we can use online. Instead of being the default player we can choose a trainer class and do the same body changes to them.
Though to also give a quick mention to clothing options, wouldn't mind clothing based on the important NPCs (Rivals, Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champion, Villain Team, etc.) and even for the Trainer Classes.

More Online Interaction: Don't really have anything to say here. Sounds like JWittz wants another Wifi Plaza which I'd be alright with though probably would never use, then again that was on a DS and was local so if it was on the Switch and over the internet may not be too bad. Maybe let us compete/race against each other in a Battle Facility or in a White Treehollow/Black Tower-like dungeon. They also sort of did something similar with Sinnoh's Underground with the flag catching game where players are able to set traps for each other (though that was also local).
And Pokemon Animal Crossing, now there's an idea I'm pretty sure Nintendo is sitting on just in case they ever get in financial problems and need a game that'll sell like hot cakes (like Square Enix with the Final Fantasy 7 remake).

Bigger Side Quests: Pretty much would like to see more what they did with USUM, which I sort of agree with. And I only "sort of" agree with because normally I'll completely agree but GF has proven themselves not to be competent on this end. What it comes down to: first and foremost if they're limited on what side quest stuff they can have I'd rather any additional material be given to the important NPCs (Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Rivals, etc.) first to flesh them out more, show us who there are and learn a little more about them. After that, if they still have room for more side quests, then go nuts with having a random trainer here and there give you a task to help them with. Now, this should ALREADY be part of the bare minimum, but GF is too busy making up new game mechanics no one asked for (and removing content we did like) then fleshing out the interesting game worlds they build.

New Game+ (I think this is one of the points, because otherwise he's missing one): Now I could list all my ideas how they could do New Game+ content (plus other challenge modes they could do) but I know GF is never going to do it. While I can see a way to do it, it would be VERY time consuming, pretty much require giving us a second save slot (Arceus forbid they do that...), and afterwards there's the quandary of how much connection should this New Game+ mode have with the main saved game. Maybe instead of fully replaying the adventure they can have a way to just re-play the parts we want to re-play. In the Pokemon Ranger games, they have a character that gives us a way to re-challenge the bosses. Now it's done in those games so we could get a better score on them in our Ranger Dex, but I think a similar idea could be done in the main games. We re-live the memory of the iconic parts like going through the villain team bases but this time they have higher level Pokemon. Also make it easy to re-battle the important NPCs we want to battle again. Why can't we just go back through the Gym to re-challenge the Gym Leader post game? Why do GF make it a process or we have to jump hoops. This was especially annoying with the Trial Captains who with some being version exclusive, locked to the Battle Tree or a Title Challenger, or were a once-and-done.

Difficulty Options: I think we discussed this one to death.

Dialogue Choices: Now, unless you can somehow either mold a personality into your trainer that other characters acknowledge or what you say may affect how certain characters treat you on future encounters, this one I can take or leave. For what I want to see, and possibly JWittz I'm not sure, it would require a hefty undertaking of many branchings of "if thens". I'm personally fine with being given an option either to be straight forward or sarcastic as long as they have different immediate responses. Though, maybe adding in a few which changes how a character interacts with you wouldn't be too bad, like maybe a side rival, a recurring side quest character, or a grunt of the villain team you keep running into. They could maybe even do this with important NPCs when doing a side quest for them.
Oh, and also maybe let me control my character's facial emotion, being sarcastic kind of falls flat when my character is just smiling and staring into the void.

Voice Acting: When Zelda had moved onto voice acting and your brand also has one of the longest lasting anime adaptations which pumps out a movie yearly, yet your games still has none, maybe you should consider calling the anime branch to get some voice actors over...

Modern Visuals: I think this is more an issue of GF only having 200 employees and probably only a handful (if that many) are in charge or making the environments. If they hired more programmers and modelers (notably ones skilled with modern day techniques) maybe we could start seeing the Pokemon visuals move on to the likes of other JRPGs.

Trainer Class System: So from what JWittz is describing here sounds like he wants side objectives, possibly based on the Trainer Classes you see throughout the game. Like you can help Pokemon Rangers protect the environment and help/rescue Pokemon and people that got lost/injured. You can get hired by a farm or daycare to help take care of the Pokemon needs to assure they produce the best quality products or Eggs. And I'm sure many more examples I can give. Would like to see, but highly doubt GF would do unless it goes along with a new mechanic they're doing.

Tutorial Skipping: While I wouldn't have the "two option at start of game" as JWittz said, I would just let us press the Start button and have a "Skip Tutorial" button. Also have a log book that keeps track of all the tutorials, just in case there's something new or you need to read up how a new mechanic works.
Always found it strange for a game that forces you to watch cutscenes and tutorials, there is no theater or soundroom in the game. Kind of surprising since GF doesn't want a child to be lost and play the game.

As for visuals, it also comes from time constraints. I watched Movie Insider's history on Pixar Animation, and when you compare the dog's fur from the original Toy Story to the cat in Toy Story 4, you'll notice that Cat's fur looks almost life like compared to the dog from Toy Story. Fur is very difficult to animate, since each strand is an individual part that needs to be animated, and that ca range from a Thousand to a million. In fact the reason why Lotso was saved for Toy Story 3 is because the technology to make his fur did not exist back then.

This goes back to why Pokemon textures in general look very samey rather than vastly different textures for fur and scales- there simply isn't enough experience with the animation and technique that Game Freak has. They only started 3D few years ago, and their hesitance to hire new people also adds to the problem why their 3D animation is lacking.
 
Most fur and scale texture in video games, detailed ones, owe to additional texture maps as well as those maps working in a rendering engine. The technology for better textures is there, especially on the Switch. They can easily make normal maps, height maps, ambient occlusion maps, metallic maps (which function kinda like alpha maps with grayscale tones indicating how "metallic" a component of the texture is with white being completely metallic and black being rubbery), roughness maps (similar to metal maps as glossiness versus matte). Do note that none of these maps affect the mesh themselves in any way, only how light interacts with them. But it's popular for video game companies to create a high poly model and then bake details (transfer information) to these textures to give the impression of something that is very high-poly but it actually way lower poly (such as a hard edge of a model appearing softer and beveled). But anyway, fur textures are also helped by multitudes of 2D planes with transparent textures overlaid on them to emulate to uneveness of fur, but the results look pretty good.​
To put it in simpler terms, there are tricks to make things appear more detailed than they really are, and things like bumpmaps and specular maps are garden variety standard in video games; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has them, Super Mario Odyssey has them, Mario Kart 8 has them (don't think the Wii games had them); this game SHOULD have them, and the technology to make them more detail absolutely exists. It's not to the same level as Pixar et al, but it can get way better than the current texture quality we're seeing from their games.​
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Honestly, bringbacknationaldex is getting pathetic.
People insulting gamedevs, spamming Pokemon twitter accounts, etc.


PS: It's ok if you are doing it politely though.

Really?

Because a casual Google search shows "Gotta catch 'em all!" right on the box of Pokemon Red and Blue, so it's been a slogan of the games since the beginning. (even if it hasn't been present on all of the games)

However, I suspect the Pokemon not present in the Galar Pokedex (along with Mega Evolution and Z-crystals) may see a return, albeit not in Sword and Shield. Possibly in next year's game(s). (because they have to come out every year now apparently)
Fact: "Gotta catch'em all!" is a USA slogan. It does not exist in Japan.
They never promoted catching them all in Japan or any other Asian countries.
 
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Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
Honestly, bringbacknationaldex is getting pathetic.
People insulting gamedevs, spamming Pokemon twitter accounts, etc.
Let me ask you-- Have you seen Japanese people doing this?
Nope!

PS: It's ok if you are doing it politely though.


Fact: "Gotta catch'em all!" is a USA slogan. It does not exist in Japan.
They never promoted catching them all in Japan or any other Asian countries.
I don't hate there being no non galgar dex mons in Galgar. I like it!

What I hate, is the people whining about that feature. Seriously, nearly every user of Firebot and Orange Islands know that. This isn't firebot, but instead Orange Islands, so I'm not going to rant. I learned my lesson about ranting in the Orange Islands some time before the Pokemon Sword and Shield discussion thread was locked.

Also, I heard the slogan was changed when the USUM show came out. I mean I don't watch the show, I stopped watching that garbage when I was 11! But on PS in the room "Pokemon games" and even a little bit on Smogon, I had heard the slogan changed during USUM.
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
I don't hate there being no non galgar dex mons in Galgar. I like it!

What I hate, is the people whining about that feature. Seriously, nearly every user of Firebot and Orange Islands know that. This isn't firebot, but instead Orange Islands, so I'm not going to rant. I learned my lesson about ranting in the Orange Islands some time before the Pokemon Sword and Shield discussion thread was locked.

Also, I heard the slogan was changed when the USUM show came out. I mean I don't watch the show, I stopped watching that garbage when I was 11! But on PS in the room "Pokemon games" and even a little bit on Smogon, I had heard the slogan changed during USUM.
I mean, I'd be happy if they patch National dex. But I don't see why I need to get out of control if they don't.
Why would it affect people's emotions so much anyway?
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
I mean, I'd be happy if they patch National dex. But I don't see why I need to get out of control if they don't.
Why would it affect people's emotions so much anyway?
Same here! I in all honesty wouldn't go out of sanity if they didn't get rid of national dex mons! I just like that, that's all!

And to answer part two, it's because they think their favorite Pokemon may just disappear... Make new favorite Pokemon! I already did that, because I'm loving Corviknight!

Edit: I meant make more Pokemon you love, not make one your total favorite. I mean no matter how much I love Corviknight, Bisharp, Charizard and Darkrai will forever be my favorites.
 
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Honestly, bringbacknationaldex is getting pathetic.
People insulting gamedevs, spamming Pokemon twitter accounts, etc.


PS: It's ok if you are doing it politely though.
Don't think changes in decorum really matter if you're harassing the developers. Guys, don't harass developers or else I'll spam some Pokemon models made in 5 minutes for you, and they will be good and they will be in industry standard Zbrush and they will be over 2 million poly.

Now can I talk more about 3d modeling and textures, it was more interesting that way. Do you know Pokemon are modeled in Maya?
 

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