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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
You mean, that there's ever been a pokemon game that's not easy? :P
I really don't understand why difficulty is a big matter in Pokémon. If anything, the difficulty is customizable - almost the entirety of it is set by the Pokémon you use, and the items you use. The rest of it is tedious mechanics that become irrelevant in the post-game.
One player might find it easy, and another might find it challenging, and that's completely okay. When you have nearly a hundred options (only considering fully-evolved Pokémon) per game, it's to be expected.
One player might find it easy, and another might find it challenging, and that's completely okay. When you have nearly a hundred options (only considering fully-evolved Pokémon) per game, it's to be expected.
Its a complex question. But Pokemon has a huge audience, which includes a huge teen and adult fanbase, and naturally people want something more challenging. Even if one person finds it challenging, when you compare it to other RPGs, Pokemon is one of the easiest RPGs you can play which, makes sense, since the game has a large audience, that includes children. So hence why, the games are really easy by default. The problem lies is GF's execution of difficulty, items, and Pokemon; as well as so much they could do. You've already mentioned the items, and anyone who has played the competitive scene knows how many potential combinations they can do, but is barely touched on. Which is strange in games like Gen 5 because the battle facilities were challengable prior to the post-game, which meant "competitive" items like Life Orbs are available. it just seems like a huge waste to hide this complexity behind post game, when there's barley a post game, let alone preparing high-level play is a whole new territory to grind.
As for Pokemon, well, we all know how contradictory Competitive Pokemon is to its casual side: Choose your favorite Pokemon, even if they are outclassed. Hence resulting in some very questionable design choices in term of game lore and mechanics. To me though, encountering higher leveled/generally better Pokemon is like recruiting a better character who has better weapons, better stats etc.
So I think the problem with difficulty lies with the fact that Pokemon has the potential to create very complex challenging strategies , but it never gets used, making it feel lazy and "playing too safe " for older audiences, especially in an era where there are several other games that offer strategy in a similar level to Pokemon.
On a similar note, after defeating the final boss of the Blue Lions path on Fire Emblem: Three Houses ( Fantastic game. Must play for fans of Japanese RPGs )., I've come to realize how sucktacular single bosses from Pokemon are. Take Black/White Kyurem. Ghetsis gets control of an ancient dragon fused with another ancient dragon, which has the power to freeze the whole Unova region, and it only takes two turns to defeat Kyurem... That's just lame... Ok, I know this game is meant for children, but these boss fights should be challenging in some capacity. In other RPGs, are usually given powerful skills or abilities to prevent traditional strategies or at least better AI or higher HP bars for a challenge. But not Pokemon, at the very least give the Pokemon better AI for heaven's sake. It was painful seeing Necrozma-DW use Moongeist Beam on my Cinncino only to be 2hkoed by technican-boosted Thief two turns later.
On a similar note, I like the direction Totem Pokemon were going in Gen 7. They were smart enough to the point that if you went in unprepared, you could be in a lot of trouble. I like how totem Salazzle really took advantage of Corrosion with Venom Drench, while totem Lurantis caused me to reset many times. Sadly, with SwSh going back to gym leaders, I doubt they GF will try something like this again, since they have a poor track record of improving mechanics,
I don't think Totem battles were particularly well implemented, to be honest. Often the opponent gets two Pokemon, which makes you being restricted to one feel very arbitrary. And the one Totem battle I can think of that didn't use two mons crossed the line from "requires careful thought" to "you are basically required to cheese this fight because it pretty much can't be beaten conventionally" because it had stat boosts and an optimised moveset while also being grossly overleveled for the point at which you fight it.
We're getting Raid battles in SwSh, and my hope is that they'll provide more interesting singular boss fights. I also remember Mewtwo in Pokemon Let's Go being quite challenging without being unfair, primarily because it had defensive moves instead of just being an offensive powerhouse and you're expected to have access to basically everything in the game when you fight it.
I think the issue with difficulty in Pokémon games is the player always has the upper hand, and to a significant degree. Most trainers' Pokémon's IVs are set to 0, with only a couple of trainer classes such as Ace Trainers having any IVs at all, which means that even if you and your opponent are using the same Pokémon at the same level with the same moves, the trainer is in an advantageous position. Trainers have unlimited use of items whereas regular trainers have none and bosses have one or two potions at most. The trainer knows what Pokémon the opponent is going to use at a glance -- going up against a Bird Keeper? Set your Rock-Type to the front of your party and win. Tate & Liza are Psychic-Type gym leaders? Go catch a Sharpedo.
It reminds me of the weapon triangle in Fire Emblem that was removed in Three Houses. Upon being removed the fanbase reassessed the mechanic and realised that it actually over-simplified gameplay drastically: if your opponent is using an axe then the player uses a sword and probably wins. It would be a misplay to use a lance, so you have to use a sword. And at that point, the game is choosing what the player's action is for them, as opposed to the player actually strategising. It defeats the purpose of an RPG, where strategy is the name of the game.
Totems were a step in the right direction -- those battles can be difficult for unprepared trainers because the opponent gets random stat boosts and even back-up so the player's Pokémon looks like it's on the backfoot, which makes the battles far more interesting. However, that's just appearances, because inevitably a 6-vs-1 scenario favours the 6, and the player had a full team at their disposal to take down one strong boss Pokémon.
The frustrating thing about difficulty in Pokémon is they already did it right -- challenge mode in B2W2 was awesome. It didn't quite get to the point where gym leaders had a full team of 6 themselves, but it did modify their teams so that they maybe had one more Pokémon than normal, and that Pokémon covered a weakness of their type. That's the design that Pokémon really needs, making players actually have to think on the spot, and removed soloing from the equation for the most part. To this day Crasher Wake has my favourite team in Pokémon with a Gyarados to neutralise the Grass-Type weakness of Water-Type, and a Quagsire to remove the Electric-Type. That's all a gym leader really has to do: the player can still be prepared by having both a Grass- and Electric-Type Pokémon, but since most players don't want to catch a new Pokémon specifically for one boss, it creates a more level footing on the likelihood that a player doesn't have both types of Pokémon, meaning both the player and gym leader might have to be working with neutral hits. Of course, the player still has potions and held items and the like that Crasher Wake doesn't use, but baby steps.
There's no reason Pokémon shouldn't have a difficulty setting. I think it's bold to claim that running with a team of trashmons makes the game hard -- I've done as much in various games in the series and it really hasn't made it difficult at all. In fact, in many nuzlockes it's some of the early-game Pokémon that can really pull the weight of the team, because they build up EVs as you use them that makes them somewhat overpowered compared with the opponents you'll be facing, even if their base stats are supposed to be low. A difficulty setting would appease to both sides of the fanbase too, since even the most casual players sometimes like challenge runs like nuzlockes, and having a higher difficulty to do those in gives anyone a greater sense of achievement than running on the normal easy difficulty of Pokémon.
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I think I would actually be okay with a RSE-styled reboot in Gen 8 where nothing from the previous games are transferable.
I've been thinking about this, and I feel one of the biggest things to me is that they're doing transfers in half-measures. Only some of your team can be transferred over; maybe, and potentially between different games. That's the core of what I feel makes this a bad idea; that they're offering this service, this ability to still have your old Pokémon, but it's clearly nowhere near complete and it's just going to be a disappointing half-assed thing. Arguments a fair few people have brought up is "well this forces you to use new Pokémon" and "you shouldn't rely on your old favourites too much, try a fresh start," which... are arguments I don't have much of an issue with in concept, and I'm realising I would not just mind but love to get this in the same way RSE did it. But the problem with those arguments is that that's just not the case here; Game Freak through Home are still giving us a taste of something we'll never get the full course on because transferring still exists, it's just that only certain Pokémon are allowed. Every argument in support of not allowing the full national dex through hinges on letting go of the past, but this is in direct contradiction to the fractured transfer in the first place being a desperate attempt to hold onto as much of it as it can.
Dexit is a phenomenon caught between the reality of having to let go of the past and the desperate wish to hold onto it. What I would suggest is that Game Freak should select a decent group of between perhaps 300-400 Pokémon per game and focus on that, because otherwise their games are just going to be hurt going forward by a focus of quantity over quality. Drop cross-generation transfer altogether and allow these games to be games. I'll be sad to see my Infernape and Porygon-Z and Mimikyu go, but... what Masuda said was right. This was always going to become a problem; this was always going to become unsustainable; we were always going to head towards a point where we can't have every Pokémon in the game; and even if you could argue it's something we could technically maybe do now if we had time, the issue is only going to get worse and it will stop being possible. So it's time to stop trying to do that while we can and embrace a fresh new start.
I've been thinking about this, and I feel one of the biggest things to me is that they're doing transfers in half-measures. Only some of your team can be transferred over; maybe, and potentially between different games. That's the core of what I feel makes this a bad idea; that they're offering this service, this ability to still have your old Pokémon, but it's clearly nowhere near complete and it's just going to be a disappointing half-assed thing. Arguments a fair few people have brought up is "well this forces you to use new Pokémon" and "you shouldn't rely on your old favourites too much, try a fresh start," which... are arguments I don't have much of an issue with in concept, and I'm realising I would not just mind but love to get this in the same way RSE did it. But the problem with those arguments is that that's just not the case here; Game Freak through Home are still giving us a taste of something we'll never get the full course on because transferring still exists, it's just that only certain Pokémon are allowed. Every argument in support of not allowing the full national dex through hinges on letting go of the past, but this is in direct contradiction to the fractured transfer in the first place being a desperate attempt to hold onto as much of it as it can.
Dexit is a phenomenon caught between the reality of having to let go of the past and the desperate wish to hold onto it. What I would suggest is that Game Freak should select a decent group of between perhaps 300-400 Pokémon per game and focus on that, because otherwise their games are just going to be hurt going forward by a focus of quantity over quality. Drop cross-generation transfer altogether and allow these games to be games. I'll be sad to see my Infernape and Porygon-Z and Mimikyu go, but... what Masuda said was right. This was always going to become a problem; this was always going to become unsustainable; we were always going to head towards a point where we can't have every Pokémon in the game; and even if you could argue it's something we could technically maybe do now if we had time, the issue is only going to get worse and it will stop being possible. So it's time to stop trying to do that while we can and embrace a fresh new start.
That ain't a unpopular opinion, an unpopular opinion would be if you liked them. ;)
Quickly throwing my hat in, indeed I agree if they're not going to make them easier to manipulate then they should be tossed as they're no fun. They prevent the Pokemon you caught and went through a journey with being usable in the post game Battle Facilities. It creates a story-gameplay segregation for no reason other then trying to emulate the idea of genetics... where even if a Pokemon is the same species they can still be inferior or superior to another. Who thought that was a good idea?
But if they don't want to get rid of IVs for whatever reason, how about instead then we have a way to change IVs. "But you can't change your genetic!" Yeah, and they threw that out with Hyper Training. Anyway, my idea: with every level the Pokemon gets it gets a "IV Coin". You can access these coins on the status screen at anytime and use them at any time to either increase or decrease an IV by a point. Speaking of Hyper Training, make it also simple. No level restrictions, let you decrease an IV, and introduce lower colored Bottle Caps that are easier to get (make them purchasable via Battle Points maybe) and can be used to permanently increase a Pokemon's IV by a point (Red for HP, Orange Atk, Yellow Def, Blue SpA, Green SpD, and Pink Spe; Silver automatically makes one stat either 0 or 31, Gold lets you individually adjust all stats to be either 0 or 31).
Also just have Legendaries come with perfect IVs and after the first time beating the Pokemon League allow all Pokemon who was part of that team get a free Gold Bottle Cap Hyper Training.
As for Hidden Power, you know the guy who tells us it's Type? Instead make it so he can do three things: 1. He can change Hidden Power's Type, 2. change Hidden Power's Category, and 3. Give it a secondary effect of either using target's Defense stat (if HP is Special) or Special Defense (if HP is Physical). Not only does this get it off relying on IVs (and you can make it into Fairy-type) but also lets Physical Pokemon finally able to have some versatility.
There's also another idea for Gym battles: level caps. If your Pokemon is over the Gym's Level cap it decreases like it does when entering a Battle Facility where levels are set to 50. If they implement difficulty levels they could even have the Gym Leader's Pokemon levels be above the cap so you have to rely on strategies instead of overpowering to win.
However the Gym Leader able to apply a stat boost to their own Pokemon wouldn't also be a bad idea to make them feel a bit tougher.
I'm mixed on this. On one hand I found HMs sometimes forcing team choices, especially for moments where you can't switch out your Pokemon before a major battle. I did like the idea of the Poke Rides, even if they aren't your Pokemon I like the idea of there being a service which offers Pokemon to get pass obstacles (though some kind of felt redundant or replaced something that wasn't an HM like the item seeker and bicycle). Personally I think they should just try straight out key items that act as the HMs (I can go over what I think the items should be but some of them are out there so might be considered wishlisting; maybe I'll include them below in a spoiler tag). Instead of having your Pokemon improve it'll instead be the player improving by gaining these tools.
Cut: Laser Cutter (A limited-range laser beam made to effortlessly cut through thin trees and tall grass but not people, Pokemon, or non-plant material; sure I could have used gardening shears or something similar but at the same time I thought "would an adult trust a kid with a bladed weapon" so went with this futuristic tool that was child friendly)
Strength: Hover Handle (A handle that attaches to large and heavy objects and uses anti-gravity technology to make it easy to push; I at first thought about giving the player power gauntlets but why wouldn't they use that for more then Strength so thought of something more specific, I figured anti-gravity technology isn't out of the realm of possibility for Pokemon and makes sense if you just want to make something move easier to make it float)
Flash: Lantern (A LED-covered lantern that brightly lights up the surrounding area; What? Not all of them have to be futurisitc technology, in this case if you want to light up a place sometimes you just need a good ol' mobile light source)
Rock Smash: Sonic Breaker (A hand held speaker that causes certain rocks to crumble apart with a high noise frequency most can't hear; if I'm not giving a kid a blade I'm not giving them a hammer heavy enough to break stone. This is not only cooler but technically safer as I did specify it only breaks rocks)
Rock Climb: Extend Ladder (A collapsible ladder that fits into a cliff indentation and extends high to the top; sometimes if you want to get to a higher place, just use a ladder)
Defog: Fog Fan (A high-powered fan with propeller blades made to create a clearing gust of air; if it ain't broke don't fix it)
Surf: Surf Scooter (A diver propulsion vehicle made for traversing through water)
Whirlpool: GPS Navigator (A navigation system designed for the Surf Scooter to navigate it through rough waters)
Dive: Scuba Set (A wet suit and breathing device that lets the wearer explore underwater with their Surf Scooter)
Waterfall: Turbo Boost (A super charged set of propellers that attaches to the Surf Scooter allowing it to go up waterfalls and makes it faster)
(Was just easier to combine the water based HMs by upgrading the tool you needed to Surf)
Fly: Fly Beacon (a peg that emits a strong light a Flying Taxi sees and pick up the trainer; yeah, kind of too dangerous to give a kid a flying device so instead I thought having a device that let's you summon the Flying Taxi from anywhere would be the better option)
Strength: Hover Handle (A handle that attaches to large and heavy objects and uses anti-gravity technology to make it easy to push; I at first thought about giving the player power gauntlets but why wouldn't they use that for more then Strength so thought of something more specific, I figured anti-gravity technology isn't out of the realm of possibility for Pokemon and makes sense if you just want to make something move easier to make it float)
Flash: Lantern (A LED-covered lantern that brightly lights up the surrounding area; What? Not all of them have to be futurisitc technology, in this case if you want to light up a place sometimes you just need a good ol' mobile light source)
Rock Smash: Sonic Breaker (A hand held speaker that causes certain rocks to crumble apart with a high noise frequency most can't hear; if I'm not giving a kid a blade I'm not giving them a hammer heavy enough to break stone. This is not only cooler but technically safer as I did specify it only breaks rocks)
Rock Climb: Extend Ladder (A collapsible ladder that fits into a cliff indentation and extends high to the top; sometimes if you want to get to a higher place, just use a ladder)
Defog: Fog Fan (A high-powered fan with propeller blades made to create a clearing gust of air; if it ain't broke don't fix it)
Surf: Surf Scooter (A diver propulsion vehicle made for traversing through water)
Whirlpool: GPS Navigator (A navigation system designed for the Surf Scooter to navigate it through rough waters)
Dive: Scuba Set (A wet suit and breathing device that lets the wearer explore underwater with their Surf Scooter)
Waterfall: Turbo Boost (A super charged set of propellers that attaches to the Surf Scooter allowing it to go up waterfalls and makes it faster)
(Was just easier to combine the water based HMs by upgrading the tool you needed to Surf)
Fly: Fly Beacon (a peg that emits a strong light a Flying Taxi sees and pick up the trainer; yeah, kind of too dangerous to give a kid a flying device so instead I thought having a device that let's you summon the Flying Taxi from anywhere would be the better option)
But I can see how taking away the ability for your Pokemon using their ability on the field feels like they're just there to battle and nothing else. Gen VI and before whenever you Surfed it was you and your Pokemon tackling the water, whenever you used Strength it was you and your Pokemon pushing obstacles away, when you used Fly it was you jumping on the back of your Pokemon and going setting off where you needed to go. It wasn't just you on the journey, it was you AND your Pokemon. And as Codraroll said there was ways to get around forcing you to have a Pokemon on your team or at least teaching them the HM you didn't want on them. Like you didn't need to teach a Pokemon an HM move, maybe you could just have them hold the HM for the time you want them to use it (also let us carry around some extra Pokemon could also help with this; you'll have the "active" 6 Pokemon which you sue when battling but also this "bench" set of Pokemon you can use on the field and actively switch out with your active Pokemon, like a portable PC but it's not your entire Box like in Let's Go). Or maybe recycle the Poke Ride idea but instead of calling someone else's Pokemon we assign one of our Pokemon to do the job.
Wouldn't be the first odd Pokemon to learn Surf: Nidoqueen, Nidoking, famously Rhydon (and Rhyperior), Tauros, Snorlax, Miltank, Tyranitar, Makuhita family, Aggron, Rampardos, Bouffalant, Skiddo family, Pancham family, Swirlix family (you know the Pokemon made of sugar)
And this was I feel the main problem with the way GF handled the announcement. I too also don't mind this limiting the game to just the Pokemon in the Dex, but GF did a HORRIBLE job selling it.
First, instead of realizing this is a major change so should be treated as a big announcement worthy of having a direct of its own... they just had Masuda nervously side note it during E3. They honestly wished players would just accept it without them doing anything else to sell us that, for many players, their favorite Pokemon may not be usable in the next Pokemon game.
Then they continue to fumble by also dropping Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves aren't going to be in the game, noting the Dynamaxed mechanic (which is just them increasing the size of the Pokemon, so special...) was replacing them. Now, we've had a discussion on the Sword & Shield thread how Dynamax actually does seem like a better mechanic due to both its limitations but what it offers and so feel balanced. HOWEVER this is something us fans needed to do, GF did NOTHING to try and explain how Dynamax was a proper successor to Mega Evolution & Z-Moves. Oh, and this announcement was done via a magazine interview with Masuda because splitting vital information all over the place is a great way to not frustrate fans.
Finally, when they did realize they kind of needed to address this, they excuses they gave us was pathetic because it shows how inept programmers GF was. Dynamaxed Pokemon isn't just the game increasing the size of a Pokemon, smoothing out textures, and adding the cloud and red lighting graphics. Nope, they're entirely different models which makes it feel like they didn't exclude Pokemon because they wanted to but had to because they ran out of room on the cartridge! Also there's them saying it guarantees better graphics... and well we've been over how the graphics are on par with a later Gamecube/early Wii game title. And they made no mention of them actually improving/re-balancing the stats, movepools, & Abilities of the returning Pokemon which would be a good reason to only focus on a smaller group of Pokemon instead of all of them.
Then they continue to fumble by also dropping Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves aren't going to be in the game, noting the Dynamaxed mechanic (which is just them increasing the size of the Pokemon, so special...) was replacing them. Now, we've had a discussion on the Sword & Shield thread how Dynamax actually does seem like a better mechanic due to both its limitations but what it offers and so feel balanced. HOWEVER this is something us fans needed to do, GF did NOTHING to try and explain how Dynamax was a proper successor to Mega Evolution & Z-Moves. Oh, and this announcement was done via a magazine interview with Masuda because splitting vital information all over the place is a great way to not frustrate fans.
Finally, when they did realize they kind of needed to address this, they excuses they gave us was pathetic because it shows how inept programmers GF was. Dynamaxed Pokemon isn't just the game increasing the size of a Pokemon, smoothing out textures, and adding the cloud and red lighting graphics. Nope, they're entirely different models which makes it feel like they didn't exclude Pokemon because they wanted to but had to because they ran out of room on the cartridge! Also there's them saying it guarantees better graphics... and well we've been over how the graphics are on par with a later Gamecube/early Wii game title. And they made no mention of them actually improving/re-balancing the stats, movepools, & Abilities of the returning Pokemon which would be a good reason to only focus on a smaller group of Pokemon instead of all of them.
But back to the point, I wouldn't get rid of cross gen transferring because that's one thing which makes Pokemon a special franchise for many. They have the ability to transfer up the Pokemon they grew close with to the next games and use them in future games with all the improvements and mechanics they bring. Now, even if they can't go to Sword & Shield they can still have that Pokemon waiting in HOME until the next gen that allows them. However I'm fearing that with them having the transfers now need ONLINE services like Bank and HOME instead of just being something that can be done between games I'm fearing a generation lockout will be happening soon. One day they're going to announce "we're closing Pokemon Bank", giving no alternate way to transfer Pokemon into or out of the Gen VI and VII games (so in a way creating 3 new lockouts).
I think the NPC should only be able to set the Hidden Power, as having a ton of options seems overwhelming and unnecessary. I'm not sure why you thought Hidden Power should act like Psyshock, but I do understand wanting to allow physical attackers to use it. However, instead of having to set it manually by talking to an NPC, the move should instead just behave like Photon Geyser. If the user's Attack is higher than their Special Attack, Hidden Power automatically becomes physical.
Just thought having the option would be nice. But I'll be down with it acting like Photon Geyser.
Assuming certain Pokemon will ever be allowed into a future gen game. Because why would ANY legendary or mythical Pokemon other than
Let's face it. Of all the Pokemon already introduced or will be introduced in the future, be it in Sword and Shield or a future title, it's going to be most of the previous legendary and mythical Pokemon that will be left out. They're generally so iconic to the region they're introduced in that they tend to seem odd when they appear outside of it.
But I agree with Kurona on the whole "Dexit" thing. Home just muddies the water because we're being given the ability to half-transfer our old favorites to the new generation - they can't go back, but a number of them can't be sent to the new region, either. (and as I've said, the legendary and mythical Pokemon are mostly gonna be stuck in permanent limbo) It gives us the expectation that everything is transferable when it really isn't.
Or maybe Game Freak is incompetent and/or scummy and plans to make this one more thing to be stripped at the beginning of each generation so being able to "catch 'em all!" can be an advertise-able feature for the second set of entries in the generation? I don't know.
We actually just talked about this in the Sword & Shield thread. How sure are you that the Legendaries and Mythicals are as connected to a region? Are you sure it isn't the other way around, a region is connected with a Legendary and Mythical. If so, that doesn't necessarily mean a Legendary is stuck in that region as past games have shown us plenty of times.
Actually I'm now worried that once we move away from Gen VIII and remove the Dynamax feature GF would then see how much free space they now have on the cartridge that'll encourage them to do another memory hogging gimmick but go too big forcing them to cut out more things (cause Arceus forbid they learn to better program) and this starts a destructive cycle.
I feel you guys are being a bit too much destructive there.
GameFreaks might definitely be incompetent when it comes to optimization, but they aren't purposely trying to make the game unfun or force you to buy DLCs (mainly, cause Nintendo would shot them if they dared).
As Unpopular as it can be, I don't think GF are inherently assholes that want to ruin your enjoyment of the game, nor inherently want to remove Pokemon arbitrarly: they're just bad when it comes to optimizing their workload or making optimal decisions.
GameFreaks might definitely be incompetent when it comes to optimization, but they aren't purposely trying to make the game unfun or force you to buy DLCs (mainly, cause Nintendo would shot them if they dared).
As Unpopular as it can be, I don't think GF are inherently assholes that want to ruin your enjoyment of the game, nor inherently want to remove Pokemon arbitrarly: they're just bad when it comes to optimizing their workload or making optimal decisions.
With Game Freak's history alone there's enough proof that there are no bad intentions in what they are doing. They are that bad.
Now that makes one wonder whether it's entirely their fault, or if TPCi and Nintendo have some blame too in not making them invest in more staff, with Pokémon being the huge moneymaker it is.
Difficulty is one avenue game designers can use to deliver enjoyment
Which is my unpopular opinion, as I feel this new main-line(ish) game every year strategy that's been going on for a while now isn't sustainable. And I'd rather have them skip a year (or even two) than what they've been doing.
Or they just wait a little bit longer to release a game.
Which is my unpopular opinion, as I feel this new main-line(ish) game every year strategy that's been going on for a while now isn't sustainable. And I'd rather have them skip a year (or even two) than what they've been doing.
Is this unpopular? Because I completely agree; if you look at any other big game franchise, even ones that have frequent releases have very big breaks between their bigger projects. Mario 3D World and Odyssey were a fair few years apart, for instance.
Okay, it's GFs, TPCi, and Nintendo's fault then. Doesn't change anything really. It's not like the level of problems and complaints decreased, they're now just all receiving the same amount.
Everyone wants them to do that again! We used to have about 3 years between version releases which not only allowed the meta to settle but also gave player's wallets a break and allowed for the next version release had more time to cook. But when they rushed to doing games in 3D they then got into a habit of doing yearly releases and the lack of development time shows (whether it's skipping the third version/second paired games like with XY or having them be lackluster retreads of the initial paired games like USUM). I wonder how much better looking Sword & Shield would be if we had at least an additional year of development (and maybe more staff working on it).
The games still seem to be about three years between base game releases, though. XY came three years after BW, and SM came three years after XY. When SwSh come out in November, it will have been three years since SM.
One also has to consider that making a game like USUM is vastly different from making a game like SM. The base game of a generation requires a lot of work to create the engine and design the assets of the games from scratch. The follow-up games only need additional content placed inside the same engine, often using the same assets. So much of the work is done already, it hardly compares. For instance, changing the encounter tables in an area to give a more varied Pokémon selection would just be a matter of copying a couple of lines into a spreadsheet. ORAS and LGPE might have been more demanding than USUM and BW2 were, but they could still lean heavily on the engine and code of games made before them. Besides, their respective regions with all their map designs, character designs and (to some extent) game balancing work was already done, although I don't think it would have been a major cost driver to it again from scratch either.
So yeah, perhaps what we should wish for is a four-year development cycle instead of a three-year one, rather than three-year instead of one-year - that is how it's done already. And/or for TPC to spread the workload across multiple studios, so Game Freak doesn't have to spread their attention across 2-3 Pokémon games at the same time, in addition to whatever games they want to make on the side.
I hate Pokemon Go, and the Let's Go games are not great either. Imo the best gen 1 experience is FRLG. And that was before moves got to be special or physical instead of types!
I honestly wish we would get a software after Pokebank no longer gets supported that allows people to transfer Pokemon from Gen 5 to 6 or 7. This will most likely not happen.
For all the complaints about Pokemon Sword and Shield, I think Generation 8 might be handling a better job at Double Battle than Generation 7 did, and I do not agree on people think Generation 7 handled Double Battle well. Neutralizing Gas and Mirror Armor both seem like amazing abilities for the purpose Double Battle while still being useful in Single. Generation 7 has Receiver and Power of Alchemy, which ends up falling flat in practice. Battery could have been useful had it not been restricted to only Charjabug. This only leaves out Instruct as Oranguru has decent enough stats, and Queenly Majestic/Dazzling, but there's no point of picking them if there's Tapu Lele. And you don't have that many opportunities to test most of the abilities or moves for Double out considering there isn't that many Double Battle in Generation 7 since it insists on only allowing one Pokemon for Totem and SOS battle. One thing I might praise Max Riad is that you finally have the chance to use these out if you want to.
But on the other hand, I feel like they might overdoing it with the whole countering Incineroar thing, similar to what happened to Thundurus and Talonflame in Gen 7. I hope Incineroar remains good in Gen 8 (if it's in the Galar Dex) considering both of them didn't have the firepower to back them up.
But on the other hand, I feel like they might overdoing it with the whole countering Incineroar thing, similar to what happened to Thundurus and Talonflame in Gen 7. I hope Incineroar remains good in Gen 8 (if it's in the Galar Dex) considering both of them didn't have the firepower to back them up.
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Just a quick heads' up, please keep all SwSh spoilers (ideally, all SwSh talk at all) to the dedicated SwSh thread. The post above is on the edge, but I think it can stay because it doesn't go into specifics. Just don't make any more posts like that in this thread.
To be fair, there are good reasons for not using Lele in a format where other Tapus are everywhere and terrain is getting overwritten constantly. It[s just that the Pokemon themselves with the other abilities aren't great, whereas Lele is still good even outside of its terrain.
Also Tapu lele doesn't block priority when it's hitting flying Pokemon, Queenly Majesty does.
Not a case Tsareena has significant enough usage in VGC this year until primals were allowed.