Unpopular opinions

HGSS didn't include early-game Phanpy, or Teddiursa come to that. Sneasel cannot be caught in the Ice Path in HGSS either. In fact, I'm not sure HGSS retained any of the tweaks Crystal made to Pokemon availability.

We should be grateful they bothered to include the Odd Egg at all, because otherwise it followed GS's distributions very closely.
That's what I meant to say, sorry if it was unclear.
 

Pikachu315111

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Since the BDSP leaks have made this a topic of discussion again, I just wanna say no matter how my opinions on that game change overtime I cannot and will not ever give credit to HGSS for "preserving Crystal's additions". The reason for this is simple: What even was there to preserve? Crystal did not make anywhere near the degree of changes to the original the likes of Emerald and Platinum did. Acknowledging Crystal was literally as easy as just shoving in a handful of Eusine and Suicune mini-cutscenes, and you cannot seriously argue that those would be enough to significantly affect the game's quality if they weren't around.
And yes they did that. They did those very small additions even though they didn't affect the game's quality. So BDSP, are you gonna include such easy/throw away inclusions? Oh, no, you're just gonna keep on following the blueprints of Diamond & Pearl even though Platinum used those blueprints and the sticky notes of what Platinum did are right there and you can easily implement without going off course... no, just ignore those, add in the major NPC's Platinum teams post game and everything will be a-okay!...

HGSS for whatever goddamn reason decided to replace her with the infinitely inferior Lyra, who while by no means a bad design, is by all means a step down from Kris and also does a huge disservice to her since Kris was the very first girl protagonist in the Pokemon series and the ORIGINAL: such disrespect! Lyra isn't a bad design, per se, but she definitely doesn't have that Trainer out on an adventure to catch Pokemon and battle vibe that Kris nailed, and she's also inferior to Ethan/Gold who is also a peak protagonist design in and of himself.

That was an utter disservice to one of the biggest things Crystal introduced, I mean Kris deserves to be treated better than that. HGSS completely disrespected Kris and her legacy.
I can think the only reason they changed Kris from Lyra is because they suddenly decided the player characters should resemble their mother and, well, Kris has blue hair. We'll just ignore the easy explanation that maybe the father has blue hair (or this is anime land thus that doesn't matter, or who's to say the player isn't adopted and it doesn't matter if they are or not), but for whatever reason they decided before Gen VI that was important thus out with blue-haired Kris, in with brown-haired Lyra. It's the only explanation I can think of.

However, even with her removal as playable character, she should have been somewhere in HGSS. Like, maybe make her a new "normal" rival since Silver isn't your typical Rival. Or if not a normal Rival, maybe a rival for the Pokeathlon. Because it is disrespectful to the first female player character to just leave them out because of a sudden character design philosophy change. At the very least she's in Masters (EX) so not totally forgotten.
 
HGSS actually removed one particularly great thing from Crystal, and that's that they got rid of Kris and replaced her with the inferior Lyra as the girl protagonist.

Kris is the OG girl protagonist and her inclusion in Crystal was a huge, huge deal back in Crystal's release. And she's a great protagonist design, she's just got that proper "Trainer out on an adventure" vibe in her design that really works.

HGSS for whatever goddamn reason decided to replace her with the infinitely inferior Lyra, who while by no means a bad design, is by all means a step down from Kris and also does a huge disservice to her since Kris was the very first girl protagonist in the Pokemon series and the ORIGINAL: such disrespect! Lyra isn't a bad design, per se, but she definitely doesn't have that Trainer out on an adventure to catch Pokemon and battle vibe that Kris nailed, and she's also inferior to Ethan/Gold who is also a peak protagonist design in and of himself.

That was an utter disservice to one of the biggest things Crystal introduced, I mean Kris deserves to be treated better than that. HGSS completely disrespected Kris and her legacy.
I like Lyra. I think she looks cuter. But I never played the original GSC, so that never bothered me. HGSS were my first Johto games, so Lyra is more iconic to me. But you do have a fair point. On the bright side, she and Lyra are in Masters, so she hasn’t been completely forgotten; not to mention her English Dub is Cherami Leigh, one of the greatest English VAs.
 
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QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
The Odd Egg from Crystal ISN'T in HGSS, though. The closest thing to it are the slugma, mareep, and wooper eggs you can grab in violet city if you give Primo a certain combination of phrases that are based on your ID number.
Oh lord now I'm the one forgetting stuff. Duhhh.
 
The Johto protags are just weird. Gen II, we start with Gold as the protag, Silver as the rival, and they add in Kris as a potential replacement for Gold in Crystal. Fine, that makes sense. HGSS comes around, they rename Gold to Ethan(which wasn't even one of the default names in Gen II), Silver stays the same, and they delete Kris for Lyra. That's a lot of unnecessary changes.
 
I can think the only reason they changed Kris from Lyra is because they suddenly decided the player characters should resemble their mother and, well, Kris has blue hair. We'll just ignore the easy explanation that maybe the father has blue hair (or this is anime land thus that doesn't matter, or who's to say the player isn't adopted and it doesn't matter if they are or not), but for whatever reason they decided before Gen VI that was important thus out with blue-haired Kris, in with brown-haired Lyra. It's the only explanation I can think of.
The Gen 2 mom has black hair. Kris looks more like her than Lyra.
 
HGSS actually removed one particularly great thing from Crystal, and that's that they got rid of Kris and replaced her with the inferior Lyra as the girl protagonist.

Kris is the OG girl protagonist and her inclusion in Crystal was a huge, huge deal back in Crystal's release. And she's a great protagonist design, she's just got that proper "Trainer out on an adventure" vibe in her design that really works.

HGSS for whatever goddamn reason decided to replace her with the infinitely inferior Lyra, who while by no means a bad design, is by all means a step down from Kris and also does a huge disservice to her since Kris was the very first girl protagonist in the Pokemon series and the ORIGINAL: such disrespect! Lyra isn't a bad design, per se, but she definitely doesn't have that Trainer out on an adventure to catch Pokemon and battle vibe that Kris nailed, and she's also inferior to Ethan/Gold who is also a peak protagonist design in and of himself.

That was an utter disservice to one of the biggest things Crystal introduced, I mean Kris deserves to be treated better than that. HGSS completely disrespected Kris and her legacy.
imo LGPE did a bigger disservice at creating Green, a different character who's not Leaf and adding up the confusion. Also, her "personality" is just throwing pokeballs at you (oh did i say throw? what I mean was the screen going white multiple times)
 

Pikachu315111

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imo LGPE did a bigger disservice at creating Green, a different character who's not Leaf and adding up the confusion. Also, her "personality" is just throwing pokeballs at you (oh did i say throw? what I mean was the screen going white multiple times)
Oh boy, this. NOTE: Before I begin & anyone points it out, yes, in Japan the original games were Red & Green thus, in the Japanese versions, Blue & Green names are swapped; for the purpose of this post I'm using the name Green when referring to the Leaf "counterpart" in LGPE since I'm from the US.

I think it's mostly agreed that Green & Leaf are the same character even if unofficially confirmed. Nowadays, when it's not a duo picture of Red & Blue, its one or the other shown with them when doing a Kanto Trainer Trio shot. I think it's most notable in Masters which has Leaf but not Green, BUT Masters also includes Kris and Lyra confirming them to be different characters. Also the Special/Adventure Manga just keeps her as "Green" as they technically introduced Green first (though the manga also does a strange thing where they made Kris wear Lyra's clothing for the HGSS arc thus combining the two characters, weird).

So, why did they have her as "Green" in LGPE? Well, my guess is to simply match with Red & Blue. Green/Leaf did not exist in Gen I and they never planned on having a choice of playable character. Sugimori confirmed this himself, explaining that Green just existed as a quick girl trainer he included on the cover at for the Gen I guidebook so that they could have all Starters with a trainer facing each other on the cover; she didn't even have a name then. This girl design would then later be used as the basis for Green in the Manga. When they made FRLG, Sugimori said they did take her into consideration which I guess means they made her have the same hair style & color. They gave her the name "Leaf" as I guess a way to point out that, yes, she's a Kanto protag BUT was introduced later on in the remakes (obviously the manga didn't care, only doing a little joke when they had a practice battle where Red & Blue (who, remember, is called Green in Japan) swapped their Starters (Venusaur & Charizard) and a character commented it was a battle between "FireRed & LeafGreen"). Anyway, her officially being called "Leaf" didn't really matter as she was never given an NPC role in the games unlike Red & Blue thus her identity was whatever the player named her just like Red & Blue.

Now we've come to LGPE. They decided to introduce new protags and rival which freed up Red & Blue being their own NPCs (well, Blue at least, Red was still as reclusive and stoic as ever). However, this gave them also a chance to officially include the third Kanto trainer, the girl whom manga's Green & FRLG's Leaf was based on. But, being these games were marketed toward kids who may not know the complex history behind this character, and maybe a nod to the manga, they decided to name her "Green" so that you would know she's meant to be a trio with Red & Blue, having the Blastoise.

I guess we now come to the personality issue. Those who played Masters will note that Leaf does not act like Green who is a bit weird. To that, I say just a result of LGPE taking place in its own continuity. With the change of protags and rivals, that also changed Red & Blue's roles with Blue being more friendly & a helpful mentor toward the player & rival (infact, Blue never even mentions or hints toward Red in the game). So I wouldn't take the odd behavior of Green in these games as meaning her and Leaf are unrelated counterparts of the same character (though maybe expect one day in Masters for Leaf to have a strange moment mentioning how she was younger she would try catching "people" and throwing Poke Balls at them).

Now with all that explained, have fun reading the arguments about Leaf & Green on Bulbapedia's discussion page for the characters. Leaf has the majority of them, while the only one Green has is asking why her page was split into its own thing, lol. :blobnom:
 
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Affection actually has some merit as a mechanic as long as you're facing the correct opponents. It gives you an out against extremely overlevelled opponents, which can give you a second chance from a losing position. It isn't guaranteed so you can't use it in your plans either; it's on the same board as a critical hit except a bit more potent. You all know that feeling when a crit saved your ass in a nuzlocke run? The correct affection triggers are similar except more thrilling because anime friendship power is fun

For instance, look at this monster.
Screenshot 2021-11-22 210954.png

In my BDSP run against rematch maylene, I realize after medicham one shotted my tangrowth with high jump kick that none of my fighting resistless team can survive the attack nor outrun it. Considering I don't use items and set up moves (fk them, they're broken), I should've lost on the spot there (and be forced to use some protect / berry shenanigans afterwards) but the affection mechanic triggered and saved my ass. I won't deny that it made me feel really thankful for my empoleon there and increased my immersion in the rest of the match, knowing i can't screw up anymore.

Of course, this normally doesn't happen and the mechanic just stomps already easy matches or turn interesting fights into disappointments but it is not always bad, only about 99% of the time.
 

Gangsta Spongebob

"Mama I'm a Criminal" - Badass Smoking Caterpillar
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1) I really like Roaming Pokemon. It was genuinely fun having the travel all over the region in order to find and catch them, while using Pokemon and Moves I otherwise would've never used in order to trap and catch them. Gen 6's change of having them instantly flee before being static was annoying as even if it was difficult to catch a roaming Pokemon I'd usually catch them on my 3rd or 4th attempt, rather than having to encounter them 10 times before finally being allowed to catch them.

However, I will admit there is no excusing the flaws in their implementation, such as the various Glitches present in Gen 3, or how much of a hassle tracking them was in Gen 5.

2) If you remove the Wifi, X and Y are by far the worst Main Series Pokemon Games. While earlier Games might have less overall content, I can see myself replaying them infinitely more than X and Y. X and Y's story is terrible, the game is super easy, and it's far less rewarding to explore.

Now the PSS is incredible and the greatest thing since sliced bread. For all it's vices X and Y's PSS turn them games from meh at best to great, at least in Pokemon terms.

3) idk how unpopular this is but I really feel the Pokemon Anime sucks now due to how ridiculously stale it is. It was never a masterpiece but in the Original Series at the very least it felt like Ash is progessing and becoming a better Trainer throughout his adventure. Moments like him deciding to catch Primeape or gain Charizard's respect always stuck out as progress in Ash's journey. There were admittedly plenty of filler and stupid moments like Ash giving away Primeape, but at the very least the Anime felt like it was generally going somewhere

By the time Ash beat Gary and went to Hoenn, he's just really boring. His previous selfishness was a flaw but it a least let him have development. He's just what I can only describe as the excitable friendly Anime Protagonist Archetype, but has very little to differentiate him from that archetype (aside from moments of exteme stupidity). And in my opinion he doesn't work as a flat-arc protagonist as whatever he does never has much of a lasting impact, especially when he leaves the region. I will say that Sinnoh and Kalos individually were quite great due to other characters having arcs, but again in the context of the Anime as a whole they're just another region with little lasting impact. Also Tobias was BS.

By the time of Alola, Ash finally became a Champion, but by then it was just to late. It never felt like Ash worked up to this moment with now much stagnation (or regression in the case of Unova) his characther had. It was just a thing that happened, since it's hard to care about a story that keeps going on for the sake of going on. No disrespect to the people who like the Anime, but to me it's just been going through the motions for decades.
 
idk how unpopular this is but I really feel the Pokemon Anime sucks now due to how ridiculously stale it is. It was never a masterpiece but in the Original Series at the very least it felt like Ash is progessing and becoming a better Trainer throughout his adventure. Moments like him deciding to catch Primeape or gain Charizard's respect always stuck out as progress in Ash's journey. There were admittedly plenty of filler and stupid moments like Ash giving away Primeape, but at the very least the Anime felt like it was generally going somewhere

By the time Ash beat Gary and went to Hoenn, he's just really boring. His previous selfishness was a flaw but it a least let him have development. He's just what I can only describe as the excitable friendly Anime Protagonist Archetype, but has very little to differentiate him from that archetype (aside from moments of exteme stupidity). And in my opinion he doesn't work as a flat-arc protagonist as whatever he does never has much of a lasting impact, especially when he leaves the region. I will say that Sinnoh and Kalos individually were quite great due to other characters having arcs, but again in the context of the Anime as a whole they're just another region with little lasting impact. Also Tobias was BS.

By the time of Alola, Ash finally became a Champion, but by then it was just to late. It never felt like Ash worked up to this moment with now much stagnation (or regression in the case of Unova) his characther had. It was just a thing that happened, since it's hard to care about a story that keeps going on for the sake of going on. No disrespect to the people who like the Anime, but to me it's just been going through the motions for decades.
No I agree
I also liked the sass 4Kids gave him over OG, though after 2005 that has since expired since they stopped dubbing. Gen 3 was a good chance for him to be a mentor for May (he even initially scuffled for ideas), though she became a full on Coordinator
Gen 4 gets me cuz Ash is flat as heck already. The only reason people were interested was cuz Paul tried triggering the Rivalry + Chimchar. Though it's horribly one sided in retrospect
 
I can argue that Kalos has a notorious lack of character arcs aside from Sawyer and Clemont...

But yeah, Ash is one of the biggest aspects that has dragged down the anime for me. Even in the movies, the 2 most recent ones (Power of Us and Secrets of the Jungle) stand out by having the plot revolving mostly around characters that aren't Ash, and that WORKED!
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

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Would it be a contrarian opinion if I said that my main incentive to watch the anime nowadays is less because of Ash and more because I want to watch it for the girl companions? (And not just the girls, but the other companions like Goh rn too)

I don't mean this in an odd way, but the main thing that still keeps me watching the anime is that even if Ash himself can be perceived as having stagnated, the feminine perspective is always nice to witness and seeing those characters go through their arcs is something I still appreciate from the anime even if Ash himself ends up boring. I know the anime team has an incredibly asinine reason for constantly rotating the girl companions out (eye candy for the boys...ugh what a dumb and shitty reason), but at the same time the fact that the main cast rotates members at all does, in a way, help keep the main anime a little fresh for me because even if Ash stagnates. The DP anime is by far the most formative series for me, and frankly, if you ask me, the main reason I enjoy it so much is not so much because of Ash himself, but rather because of Dawn. The Ash/Paul rivalry was one thing, but Dawn going through her own character arc was another entirely and one I truly enjoyed. Seeing her start her own journey and really grow in her skills and talents as a Coordinator was really fun to watch, and I really loved witnessing Dawn's journey throughout the DP series. She's a fun character with a ton of personality to boot too, and watching her dynamics with Ash and her own rivals (Zoey, Nando, Kenny, Ursula) was a treat.

The other companions that have been rotated throughout the series have frankly been more interesting to me nowadays than Ash himself. After OG, which was Ash's story, while Misty and Brock were just sidekicks, it's understandable if people think Ash has stagnated starting from AG, but on the bright side, the new companions he's had since, such as May, Dawn, Iris, Serena, the Alola gang, Goh, and Chloe have always been a treat to watch, especially since they have their own character arcs and are less sidekicks to Ash but rather their own characters as opposed to Misty and Brock being second banana and just being there to accompany Ash. Even Iris, who was more akin to Misty than May, Serena, or Dawn, had her own character arc in BW that while never reached its full potential, was still nice to see, and I was super happy to see Iris return in Journeys and to see Axew finally having realized its dream of becoming a magnificent Haxorus (which also was the explicit goal the village elder had for her when she gave Iris the Axew). I like the later series more because of the other companions like Serena, Dawn, Lillie, etc. who have character arcs of their own which were a treat to watch, not so much because of Ash.

Even the current Journeys series I enjoy, but it's mainly for Goh and Chloe, sure I enjoy Ash at times, but in recent times it's really been picking up with the focus on those two and not Ash himself.

In fact, I would totally love it ideally if the companions got their own anime series where we get to witness more of their journeys after they parted ways with Ash. I'd love to see what May, Dawn, Iris, Serena, etc. have been up to after they parted ways with Ash. I'd love it if May, Serena, and/or Dawn met along the way of their journeys and became great friends because I know they'd be fantastic friends, or I'd love to see how Iris's journey went from her leaving BW to her return in Journeys. I want to see how Iris trained and became a stronger Dragon-type Trainer, and how Iris's Axew trained and grew stronger and the journey it went through to evolve into a Fraxure and then the magnificent Haxorus that it is now.

I adored the little specials where I saw Cilan and Brock meeting, or when Cilan met Clemont and Bonnie, and I'd be down for more of that stuff down the line, even though I know it probably won't happen. Enough Ash Ketchum, let the companions get more spotlight! I wanna see where those peeps are now and what they've been up to after parting ways with Ash.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
I honestly don't see what the issue with Tierno is. I do think the gen 6 rival group is annoying except for him though. Tierno was funny to me, he's the most helpful giving you free shit and he's the least up my ass. He's also the most interesting of the group imo
Agree with this wholeheartedly with the addendum that I actually really liked Trevor too. One of the many things XY handled badly is how their "main" rivals are stupendously dull while the two "minor" rivals manage to be way more interesting and charismatic even with less time in the spotlight. Tierno and Trevor could easily have been the rival duo in their own game, 4 all at once was overkill. Nice idea in concept, though.
 
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One thing I liked about Tierno was the concept of a themed trainer where it's not a type-based theme. They could have done better, made his team actually threatening, but the idea of "his entire team knows moves with 'dance' in the name and tend to set up" is a good way of both making him distinct and also making his various party members make sense. Oleana is the only other time I can recall having that happen.
 

Samtendo09

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There’s been talk that, in-game, the Galar’s Gym Leaders are meant to be difficult to face with especially starting with Kabu but… I beg to differ.

You know what I mean? For all the “competitive” spirit and sport-theming Galar encourages, the Major Division Gym Leader’s teams, at least the later ones, aren’t even carefully built and relied too much on the Dynamax mechanic. This left with poor team composition with either too few coverage, use a weak Pokémon at a point too late thus wasting a team slot, or use their stats very poorly.

I skipped over the first three Gym Leaders since the two are meant for starters, and Kabu is meant to be a suddenly tough one with all fully evolved Pokémon alone. Almost none are bothered to use held items on them either. To wit on their first match…
  • Bea’s Pokémon are all mono Fighting except Pangoro, and none of them have coverage against Flying-type Pokémon. Alister is somewhat better with all of his Pokémon not sharing the dual type and Cursola as the sole mono Ghost, but Galarian Yamask not being evolved at this point of the game leaves for a very weak member.
  • Only Mawile’s moveset is a full four, the other three, even her Ace Alcremie that have the G-Max Factor, have only three moves. She also uses Togekiss’ Hustle poorly, as none of its moves are physical.
  • Gordie slapped Rock Tomb on all of his Pokémon, even if only Shuckle would make actual use and somehow, it is the only one that uses the much stronger Stone Edge. This undermines Rock-type STAB on all of his Pokémon. Melony have two mono Ice-type, one of which is an awful single-staged gimmick without using the Dynamax mechanic, although G-Max Lapras does give her slight edge.
  • Piers having a diverse team of Dark-type Pokémon and Obstagoon having actual EVs do make him a decent challenge if you are not using Fighting or Fairy-type Pokémon. None can directly threaten Bug-type due to a lack of coverage for this.
  • Raihan’s Sandstorm team and engaging in Doubles helped him to be a fan favorite but… His Duraludon only have Physical moves, even if it’s Special Attack is much higher than Attack. Mishandling right there.
Did the Galar Tournaments allows improvement for their team? Looking at them individually… Not really. I’ll say it quick, they don’t even use a full party of six and are just barely better, still no using items even in the post-game. And Bea still severely suffers from “too many monotype Fighting” with only Hawlucha being the dual typed one. Although Gordie bringing a Tyranitar and Raihan bringing Goodra in the player’s first final are a neat surprise; Melony might wish for an Ice-type Pseudo-Legend!

P.S. I know this is not an exclusive problem for Sword and Shield regarding bad or mediocre team composition, but with all the in-game hype of how tough the Galar’s Gym Leaders are, that really stuck like a sore thumb.
 
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ScraftyIsTheBest

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Agree with this wholeheartedly with the addendum that I actually really liked Trevor too. One of the many things XY handled badly is how their "main" rivals are stupendously dull while the two "minor" rivals manage to be way more interesting and charismatic even with less time in the spotlight. Tierno and Trevor could easily have been the rival duo in their own game, 4 all at once was overkill. Nice idea in concept, though.
The XY "rivals" strike me as being conceived as more of a "friend group" than an entire cast of rivals. They're like a group of friends who are on the journey together but cross paths and are occasionally competitive with each other: the only true "rival" in the group is Calem/Serena: the other three are just your friends who tag along with you and have their own goals on their journeys. Shauna is just there to have fun, Tierno is a master dancer, and Trevor is all about filling the Pokedex and being the first in the group to do so. I think the biggest issue is that the friend group individually don't get enough spotlight as individuals and are treated as a package deal more often than not, so we don't really get to see their individual schticks shine through as much except with Calem/Serena and maybe Shauna. Tierno's dancing gimmick is something I'm not sure would've been something they could've done much with, but Trevor's whole Pokedex schtick was one that definitely had a lot of potential.

Having a whole "friend group" for the journey was definitely a good idea in concept and it's clear it was a very bold and unique idea for X and Y, problem was the concept wasn't quite used to its full potential.

Although Gordie bringing a Tyranitar and Raihan bringing Goodra in the player’s first final are a neat surprise; Melony might wish for an Ice-type Pseudo-Legend!
We absolutely need one of these someday. It would justify the frequency of Ice-types being late-game Pokemon more often than not as pseudo-legends are designed to be late game Pokemon with their high stats and great movepools often justifying their late availability by being powerhouses for the late game. It would also be a good offensive Ice-type with the right stats and a good movepool to justify it.
 
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Pikachu315111

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Affection actually has some merit as a mechanic as long as you're facing the correct opponents.
It's easy to read complaints about the Affection bonuses and think people don't want them in, but we're not asking that. As you said, on a casual run it feels awesome when the Pokemon you stuck with through a lot of your journey dodges or hangs on with 1 HP from an otherwise KO hit (and/or scores a Critical Hit when they attack).

What most players looking for a challenge want is simply the option to go into the menu, select "Options", and right under selecting Text Speed there being something that says "Affection Bonuses On/Off" (along with "Exp. Share On/Off"). That's it, that's all we want. It can be turned on be default, just that little option. Actually it would be great if we can customize them even more like choosing what bonuses we want on and off (and how we want the Exp. Share to function, like it only affecting the Pokemon with the lowest level/isn't evolved), but baby steps.

1) I really like Roaming Pokemon.
I think the main issue with roaming Pokemon breaks down to two annoyances: Tracking & fleeing anytime.

Tracking: Even if you could see where they are on a map, they made Tracking them annoying by making it so you can't simply just Fly to where they are near. No, you gotta generally camp at a Route Gate which connects 3 or 4 Routes, running back and forth until the Roamer finally decides to teleport itself to that area. Infact "Tracking" really isn't the best word as you're not tracking it, and it's not "Trapping" nor "Baiting", it's just... "Waiting". How To Make It Better: Okay, if they want to make it a bit challenging by not letting us use Fly, how about this: As long as the player is "on foot", the Roamer can't teleport. It's stuck travelling along the Routes it's on, occasionally going back-and-forth. That way, even if it takes some time, the player can reliably "track it" without worrying if they take too long it'll just teleport to a new location. Also, after an encounter they can have it teleport to a new location to start the tracking all over again, but once again as long as it can't teleport while you're on foot it's not that major of an issue.

Fleeing Anytime: Pretty much what the title says, even if its alseep, stats are all in the negative, and has low HP it can still run away. Even if it keeps the status ailment and HP it's still annoying. How To Make It Better: Well first off if its asleep or frozen it can't run away until it wakes up (though you can have it have a higher chance of waking up early). Second have factors which decrease the chance of it fleeing (and have them stack): Low HP, Paralyzed, Confused, and lowered Speed & Evasion stats; those would be the most logical status ailments which would hamper it fleeing. How I see it, "fleeing" should be a "punishment" for doing poorly or not doing the most optimal strategy.

One thing I liked about Tierno was the concept of a themed trainer where it's not a type-based theme. They could have done better, made his team actually threatening, but the idea of "his entire team knows moves with 'dance' in the name and tend to set up" is a good way of both making him distinct and also making his various party members make sense. Oleana is the only other time I can recall having that happen.
There have been other instances but you gotta look for them. Ones that come to mind are:

Falkner: While a Flying-type specialist, most of his Pokemon are birds. I'm surprised they never tried doing a bonus battle where he surprises us by using a Blaziken and Empoleon. "What, they're bird Pokemon, nothing says they need to be Flying-type".

Lusamine: Oleana actually sort of copied Lusamine's shtick. Lusamine uses feminine and "cute" Pokemon.

But you're right we could use more of them and there's plenty of ideas, though whether they'll be an important character or just a side NPC with a neat gimmick if you notice it is another issue entirely.

The thing with Tierno is... he appeared one generation too early.
Was he? Sure, he couldn't make use of Oricorio or its Dancer Ability, but he could still have made use of moves like Dragon Dance & Quiver Dance to try and make a buffing up team (also throwing in some Petal Dance, Sword Dance, and Teeter Dance).

Did the Galar Tournaments allows improvement for their team? Looking at them individually… Not really. I’ll say it quick, they don’t even use a full party of six and are just barely better, still no using items even in the post-game.
Quick, give them to ILCA! Even if they don't make them good they'll at least make them interesting (I can imagine them giving Raihan a team for each weather condition).

Having a whole "friend group" for the journey was definitely a good idea in concept and it's clear it was a very bold and unique idea for X and Y, problem was the concept wasn't quite used to its full potential.
Checked a few posts ahead just to see if someone said this before I did. Well, not the whole "friend group concept" thing, though I agree with it. I just wanted to say I don't really have a problem with Tierno or Trevor (or Shauna) as characters but they're under utilized. ScraftyIsTheBest pretty much summarized why so I'll leave it at that.

Actually, one thing I will add is maybe ways they could have improved it. Since they're pretty much travelling with us the entire journey, maybe they could have had them act as quick "side quests" for each Town/City we visit. Like Tierno would want to see (a) certain Move(s), Trevor would want to see certain Pokemon, Shauna would want to go with a player to see a certain landmark, and Serena/Calem would always like a battle. Also on occasion they'll switch up what they usually do or want to have a battle. You don't have to do these side quests, but doing them would give you more chances to interact with them and get to know them better, allow them to tell a bit more about themselves and their backstory cause, remember, you're new to the region and this group of friends so you wouldn't know much about them.

Melony might wish for an Ice-type Pseudo-Legend!
We absolutely need one of these someday.
You could pretty much say that for any of the neglected Types. Normal-type, Poison-type, Bug-type, Grass-type. Though we also need to do another thing: STOP MAKING THEM DRAGONS! There's mythical beasts of great power than just dragons, like focus on the Fairy-type or maybe do some Elementals/Primoradial beings (maybe even some folk heroes).
 
How To Make It Better: Okay, if they want to make it a bit challenging by not letting us use Fly, how about this: As long as the player is "on foot", the Roamer can't teleport. It's stuck travelling along the Routes it's on, occasionally going back-and-forth. That way, even if it takes some time, the player can reliably "track it" without worrying if they take too long it'll just teleport to a new location. Also, after an encounter they can have it teleport to a new location to start the tracking all over again, but once again as long as it can't teleport while you're on foot it's not that major of an issue.
Alternatively (maybe, we might be thinking the same thing with different words) just make which route they'll move to next predictable. So instead of just camping at a hub and waiting for them to stumble your way, you can check where they are currently, figure out the path they'll take through the region, and then plan out what path you need to take to intercept them.

(Actually, I'm pretty sure I just described the strategy used for at least one of the Galarian Birds)
 

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Alternatively (maybe, we might be thinking the same thing with different words) just make which route they'll move to next predictable. So instead of just camping at a hub and waiting for them to stumble your way, you can check where they are currently, figure out the path they'll take through the region, and then plan out what path you need to take to intercept them.

(Actually, I'm pretty sure I just described the strategy used for at least one of the Galarian Birds)
Yeah, that what I meant when I said chasing them on foot. As long as you don't Fly you should be able to run over to them without them deciding you took too long so decide to teleport to a route that wasn't adjacent to the one they were on. Maybe also have them hang out on a route for a bit to ignore a situation where you're running after them but they keep going one route ahead and there's no good way to cut them off (though I guess at that point you might as well Fly and reset their route).

Yeah, G-Moltres you had to find opportune spots on the Isle of Armor to cut it off and battle it. If followed a set path and I think you can just wait for it to lap but it flies around the ENTIRE island so if you're impatient you either try to keep track of it of you keep on resetting its pattern until you can find the most earliest spot (which I believe if around the Master Dojo).
 

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