FRLG is definitely one of my favourites in the franchise. It has flaws in its more bizarre details - the dex requirements; no gen 2 evolutions until national dex - but aside from that it's just an extremely solid remake. I especially praise it for not being afraid to expand on Gen 1 and give a lot more to do; the sevii islands still stand as one of my favourite aftergame things and I'm glad they decided to move Moltres, Ponyta and Magmar there so there's a place that makes sense for these fire-types to come from. I found myself replaying it a ton; it contributes to why I feel Gen 3 is one of the best.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
I'd rather the Hyper Training, but either make the grind to level 100 easier or allow Hyper Training from level 50+. (or Pokemon's stats act as though flawless in areas where their levels are set for the battle)
It would be a far simpler solution to make Hyper Training available at Level 50.
I mean, why 100? Official tournament formats use level 50, so no one tends to train Pokémon beyond that level (even less so thanks to the Gen VII Move Relearner letting Pokémon learn moves of a higher level than theirs). Pretty much the only reason is the super-late level 51+ evolutions.
I mean, why 100? Official tournament formats use level 50, so no one tends to train Pokémon beyond that level (even less so thanks to the Gen VII Move Relearner letting Pokémon learn moves of a higher level than theirs). Pretty much the only reason is the super-late level 51+ evolutions.
Yeah, back in Gen VI I would only go above about 55-60 levels just to either get the pseudo-legendary evolutions or a specific level-up move that I needed on a set, and also there were five rematchable trainers with four Level 60 Pokémon each that could be easily used for grinding. Now it’s a necessity for Hyper Training.
far easier solution to IVs: just get rid of them. they're a flawed mechanic and game freak recognises this, yet their solutions to this so far have just been to add more mechanics on top to try and fix it. having hyper training doesn't really make IVs a better mechanic, it just gives you the option of playing a tedious minigame to get around them. adding mechanics to try and fix other flawed mechanics is something that pokemon games do a lot and it just leads to massive feature creep without really improving the experience in a meaningful way.
pokemon that get transferred in from other games have their IVs set to 31, the stat formula is changed so that pokemon's stats are always calculated as though they're 31. hidden power could be calculated some other way (this also could enable hidden power fairy to exist). seems like a pretty ideal scenario to me
pokemon that get transferred in from other games have their IVs set to 31, the stat formula is changed so that pokemon's stats are always calculated as though they're 31. hidden power could be calculated some other way (this also could enable hidden power fairy to exist). seems like a pretty ideal scenario to me
Honestly at this point, considering hypertraining maintains the original hidden power even with IVs artificially at 31, they might as well just have you manually select the Hidden Power type in some way.
Or go along with one of my unpopular opinions, completely remove HiddenPower as in my opinion is a flawed and terrible mechanic that should not exist, as i see no reason to give a (special only) coverage of choice to every pokemon.
Except for all the special attackers that want their attack as low as possible to minimize confusion damage. And all the pokemon that want their speed to be as low as possible. And all the people that want their Stakataka
I think making HT more convenient is the far easier solution. As for Hidden Power, a solution would be to make moves such as Icy Wind and Shock Wave have a stupid huge distribution, like Toxic.
Are those super niche cases really impactful enough to warrant keeping this stupid system?
Another reason that IVs are kept is for the sake of grinding, just so players will stick with the game for longer. It is particularly visible in Pokémon Go, but it applies to the main series to some degree as well: By having some Pokémon being objectively better than others, players might stick around with the game for a long while in search of the "perfect" Pokémon. If any Nidoran caught freshly off Route 2 could be turned into a competitively optimal Nidoking, players would get their perfect team in one playthrough and not bother any more, but the current system requires them to really invest time and effort in the game, hopefully growing more attached to it in the process.
It's a pretty cynical and un-fun mechanic, but presumably one the devs are keeping for a reason. Maybe they have some idea about "the reward having value proportional to how difficult it is to obtain", like how Diamond Pickaxes aren't lying around behind every tree in Minecraft, but when it's purely a matter of RNG like in Pokémon, it doesn't have quite the same positive feel to it.
It's a pretty cynical and un-fun mechanic, but presumably one the devs are keeping for a reason. Maybe they have some idea about "the reward having value proportional to how difficult it is to obtain", like how Diamond Pickaxes aren't lying around behind every tree in Minecraft, but when it's purely a matter of RNG like in Pokémon, it doesn't have quite the same positive feel to it.
Natures already give you the ability to lower a stat if you want to, though.
The problem with IVs is that in-game, no one cares. They’re irrelevant when worrying about NPC teams. And in competitive, they’re a massive source of grinding that adds nothing to the strategy. Everything has an optimal spread, and 99% of the time it’s straight 31s except for the non-attacking stat. You don’t have to think, you just have to hatch a bunch of eggs. That’s non-fun and a barrier to players getting into competitive, when the games should be actively drawing people into the VGC scene. Why have a system that doesn’t make the fights more strategic but does make people less likely to play?
If they're that worried about keeping "ingame pokemon different", they can just further make Hypertrain more accessible by lowering the minimum level (or, make level 100 easier to obtain. It was needlessly grindy in SM/USUM and Let's Go)
IV in-game do offer the option to add artificial difficulty by having the AI with higher/perfect IVs (was done in gen 6 games, and notably USUM uses enemy pokemon with perfect spreads a lot to create artificial difficulty), so I don't mind it remaining. But Hypertraining at 100 doesn't really give you much reason to be used aside for legendaries and idk, shinys when breeding is just faster otherwise.
I don't believe we need IVs to make bosses more difficult. Even putting aside totem-esque boosts - which were pretty brilliant and seem to be continuing based on LGPE's Legendaries and SwSh's max raids - I think we could just let the bosses have advantages similar to badge boosts. Just raise their stats by 10%, why do we need IVs for that?
Well, I didn't say we "need" it, I just meant it's fine to keep them as they are as long as they make less frustrating to "max" the IVs.
I believe the decision to remove "badge bonuses" was mostly due to the fact they're unintuitive (they only worked in game, so you'd have different stats in game and in pvp)... but then.... Refresh exists and is basically the same thing :|
My argument though is that they're otherwise pointless. Why keep the system around if you're just going to give an easy way around it and all other functions can be replicated easily without it?
Anyway, for an actual unpopular opinion, I like HMs and am disappointed they’re sticking with removing them in SwiSh. While they were never implemented great, forcing the player to have a diverse team and letting us use our Pokémon in the overworld are both good things, and switching to items instead makes the games much less interesting.
I agree with your main point here, although I wouldn't go so far as to say I like HMs. The implementation was very wonky (compromising a Pokémon's battling capability and/or forcing you to use 'mons that learned the HM moves), but the core idea was good: Using your own Pokémon to help you navigate the overworld. It feels more satisfactory to jump on your trusted Water type to cross the ocean than over-inflating the tires of your bike and just biking into ponds. The Gen VII implementation wasn't good either, since you never used your own Pokémon. You practically just called a taxi whenever you wanted to cross an obstacle.
I don't think it would have been very difficult to fix it either. Make HM-ing an innate ability of any Pokémon that could learn the HM move. It shouldn't be that much more work to assign a "can smash rocks" flag in the code than to assign the "can learn HM06" flag.
I agree, though the only problem is that it still runs into the issue of needing to use certain Pokémon on your team. I will almost certainly need a Water-Type to use Surf, for instance; and would certainly be very encouraged to use a Pokémon that could Fly. LGPE struck an interesting compromise on this by giving it to your partner Pokémon, and I would suggest that a good way of doing that here would be to allow all three starters to in some way be capable of all the HMs.
If the PC Anywhere system of the Let's Go games were to be kept, HMs would be much less of a hassle.
Sure, you'd still need to get a Pokémon that could learn the move, but you would not have a weaker team because you can get the HM slave, use the HM move, and then put it back in the PC.
Somehow the idea of a surfing Incineroar (as in riding a surfboard) amuses me to no end now.
Granted, doing this could encourage Game Freak to get rather dull with the starter Pokemon's designs, needing to somehow justify how they can do all the things the HMs allowed. Like, they'd all need to be strong enough to break small rocks or shove large ones into holes, be able to swim and possibly climb waterfalls, chop small trees out of the way, and of course fly. Yes, Let's Go had special little things that could occur when using the secret techniques, but that may have been more because Pikachu and Eevee are already long established designs. They might not go that route if they're designing starters from scratch with this in mind.
Plus, you know, it still runs into the issue of needing to use certain Pokemon. What if a player doesn't want to use a starter and chooses to box it the moment they've caught their first Pokemon?
I think the least painful method would be either letting the player access the PC anywhere or removing the restriction of being unable to forget HMs. (it's not like the machine itself disappears after use, so you could teach the move again if it's needed)
Please no "PC anywhere". With the free healing you can get from the PC, it sounds like an awful idea. Remove all frustration from the game and you have no game. Might as well be a VN at that point.
I had a sort of complicated idea to deal with HMs that would tie into some other changes I want for the game systems (again, no way anything but a fangame would have this). First of all, buff HMs to the point of usability like some hacks do. Then bring back a limited item (and I means limited, like Gen 1 limits) on person system (including different limits on items per item. Like you can carry 20 or so Potions but only like 2-4 Full Restores on your person. Maybe a grid based sytem could work i.e.: Deus Ex 1) (PC storage back and could hold everything you could want and then some) and have some "HM items" like some fangames have to mimic some HMs. So you could have the HM item in your invetory but sacrifice space for some better items but no limits on your Pokemons' moves or you could teach HMs to your Pokemon to free up some space but sacrifice some moveslots. Creates a bit a of a dilemma and management.
Of course, I'm open to "HMs as natural Mon abilities" or just burning them down to the ground for a solution like the Gen 7 games. I'm not too attached to the idea above I posted (but I want that revised inventory system!). HMs as they where were the worst of basically all worlds. Mostly crap moves that inhibited on your moveslots, team composition, and Pokemons' growth. Improvements on that system like we saw in Gen 7 can only be, well, an improvement.
I had a sort of complicated idea to deal with HMs that would tie into some other changes I want for the game systems (again, no way anything but a fangame would have this). First of all, buff HMs to the point of usability like some hacks do. Then bring back a limited item (and I means limited, like Gen 1 limits) on person system (including different limits on items per item. Like you can carry 20 or so Potions but only like 2-4 Full Restores on your person. Maybe a grid based sytem could work i.e.: Deus Ex 1) (PC storage back and could hold everything you could want and then some) and have some "HM items" like some fangames have to mimic some HMs. So you could have the HM item in your invetory but sacrifice space for some better items but no limits on your Pokemons' moves or you could teach HMs to your Pokemon to free up some space but sacrifice some moveslots. Creates a bit a of a dilemma and management.
Of course, I'm open to "HMs as natural Mon abilities" or just burning them down to the ground for a solution like the Gen 7 games. I'm not too attached to the idea above I posted (but I want that revised inventory system!). HMs as they where were the worst of basically all worlds. Mostly crap moves that inhibited on your moveslots, team composition, and Pokemons' growth. Improvements on that system like we saw in Gen 7 can only be, well, an improvement.
So remove the healing feature from the PC. As simple as that.
In fact, that's exactly what LGPE did. I was worried it'd be broken going into it but yeah, it was fine.
