I'm uh, not seeing how Groudon would be capable of gliding or swimming like Koraidon can. Or moving quickly or climbing walls...or anything at all beyond being rideable, really.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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This is gonna sound so silly...
Perhaps Gamefreak can express how Groudon can fly! It also tends to talk over the water all the time, which can be used instead of swimming. Groudon can create land underneath itself, which can be used to access hidden areas, this alongside flying can replace the need to climb. Groudon speed-ties Kyogre who has shown in the Mega Evolution Special to move very fast. It was also the first legendary ride Pokémon alongside Latias/Latios in ORAS. Surfing on it ingame makes you able to travel at fairly good speed.
Alternatively additional ride Pokémon could be utilized.
The difference in that is human perspective. Alolan Ratatta family and Yungoos family by human standards became invasive species because they are affecting the environment in the way humans are used to it... BUT in the large scale of things all Ratatta and Yungoos did was adapt to a new environment, both placed there not completely by its own choice. Zygarde may very well be millions of years old if its duties are any indication, even if its only a few thousand years it would still have seen plenty of geographical and ecosystem changes in that time, all perfectly natural occurrences. Tectonics plates moving and causing landmasses to split, a volcano erupting and decimating a forest which grew around it, a giant long-lasting storm flooding a canyon making it a river, a long drought turning a field into a desert... such events that drastically change things that life both old and new adapts to (or die out if unable to), and nothing which isn't out of place thus doesn't require Zygarde's involvement.
What was happening in XY and SM wasn't natural.
In XY, Zygarde was stirred because the very balance of Life & Death was being messed around with. it would have not been by the will of the embodiment of those forces which was building a cannon to give eternal life to a few and kill everything else, it was a single man driven to an insanity. Heck, who knows if Lysandre plan succeeded it would have resulted in a plant barren of any life (including plantlife and microscopic, either due to the absence of humans & Pokemon or because the weapon worked too well) and only Geosenge and the surrounding area would have any life, though it would be a twisted form of life that is forever growing and cannot die (a sort of "I have no mouth, and I must scream" scenario). Even if Lysandre plan failed due to being unable to control the Legendary, who knows what ecological nightmare would have happened from those Legendaries going wild (I still say that would have made for an interesting plot in a X2 & Y2, due to Lysandre being able to fire at least one shot at the end of XY it has causes a chain reaction of plant life growing at a rapid rate & encroaching on different environments & human settlements (X2) or ecosystems begin to collapse as plant life begin to wither and replaced by barren rock & desert which even human settlements being affected by (Y2)).
Anyway, moving to SM, obviously the Ultra Beasts are not natural. And while they have not caused that much harm yet, them alone being there is enough to stir Zygarde into action as it would easily be able to sense them. Doesn't matter if the UBs don't seem to be able to reproduce (at least how we know it), just a few are enough to wreak havoc. And not just directly, but what comes with them:
- Nihilego has a poison which makes anyone affected by it lose their inhibition and possibly all of control which has no known cure.
- Buzzwole may be able to act like its real world counterpart and is able to spread blood born diseases.
- Pheromosa can leave a wake of destruction from their supersonic running.
- Xurkitree is very efficient at absorbing energy from the environment which would have a impact of plant growth (it also would likely electrically charge the surrounding area causing more indirect harm).
- Celesteele burns down an entire forest when its launches, and who knows if the gas released has any negative side effects.
- Since nothing in nature can cleanly cut through things, Kartana cuts would be harder for the environment to recover from as its not adapted to from such a clean cut.
- Guzzlord is a natural disaster, it destroys anything it eats and leaves no trace, and it never stops eating.
- Poipole family has a poison it can shoot which sticks to whatever it hits and produces liters of the stuff which means it's not afraid to fire wildly and leave its sticky foreign poison everywhere (and if its like some other organisms which create a sticky substance it may even use it to build nests and/or change its territory to its liking).
- Stakataka can easily cause blockages wherever it lies. It can likely lie motionless for a long time, which gives things a chance to grow and build on it, which it can then easily destroy if it just decides to get up on day and move.
- Blacephalon could easily cause side fires from its attacks, though also cause undue stress on non-targets close enough to see and hear the flash & bang from its fireworks-based attacks (who knows if it doesn't leave behind traces of foreign contaminants).
- Finally, all of them are bathed in a foreign energy and who knows what possible mutations could be caused from prolonged exposure (why do you think the Recon Squad wear havoc suits? While the player doesn't spend enough time in Ultra Space or around Ultra Beasts to be permanently effected, the Recon Squad spend months out of their home dimension and working directly with Ultra Beasts that extra protection is required to protect from the prolonged exposure).
To be honest, there was a relatively straightforward detour that you could take... which I only found after over an hour battle-hooking my way through the caves.
If you're talking about the entrance with a jump to enter, I found that too. But the thing is, for some reason I couldn't make the jump. I don't know why, because I watched another video where someone was able to make the jump with the super jump just fine, but no matter what I did I couldn't do it. Thus I had to go up to it via the shore route and dodge high-level Bombirdiers.
Well, let's think here, they actually don't need to make that many different teams/movesets. They could just make enough that fits within the difficulty term and from there use the number of badges to automatically adjust Levels (and this stats). Like the Gym Leaders would only need like 4 teams, Team Star would probably be fine with 3, and the Titans with 3 different movesets. They just need to decide a "base" where the boss Levels start (say Level 15 with zero badges), decide a # of Badges threshold for when they would use a stronger team/moveset (like maybe every 3 or 4 for Gym Leaders and 5 or 6 for Team Star & Titans), and then for every Badge they have increase their Pokemon Levels by +2. It may sound complicated, but it's not, it's all formulaic.
I wouldn't call that wanting it to perform, I'd say what you're asking is something I agree with: forget the realism, make it a cartoony visual style! Because, that's what you do with the Pokemon, and yet by trying to make the environments look real it can place Pokemon which are supposed to be part of that environment out of place. Here's the (Titan) Klawk on the cliff it's home too:
Doesn't matter this is the Titan, ALL Klawf clings to cliffs that look this, and they look out of place. Barely the same shade of orange-brown, shell pattern doesn't match the realistic crags of the rock texture, and the hairs meant to resemble plants sticking out from the rock don't appear anywhere like that. They needed to base the cliffs ON Klawf's textures: similar color to it, less craggy, has those polygonal patterns, has plantlife sticking from the rock scattered around. Tree textures should resemble the textures used for the wood parts of Sudowoodo (who I think was designed to resemble the Berry trees), Torterra, Sawsbuck, & Phantump family. Not that some things shouldn't look realistic, I like how the Steel-type Pokemon's metal bodies actually look metallic now, but that's different from trying to replicate a natural material like rock or plant matter.
If they did that, not only do I think the game would look better, but it would likely run better.
Area 1 has 632146 mons, plus raids, the game is wide open, breeding is easy af, gotta catch em all.
Like dang, how am I supposed to pick a team like this?
The way I made my team is that at first I focused on evolving Pokemon just to start filling in my dex, my Starter the only real permanent teammate (for me this was Fuecoco). This allowed me to try out many Pokemon and if there was one which caught my fancy, I either kept it in my party or put it aside to swap in the first half of the game I wanted at least half my party open to evolve Pokemon. This is how I got Smoliv and Nacli part of my permanent squad, eventually Tinkatink joining in. And pretty much for half the game my main team was Skeledirge, Arboliva, Garganacl, and Tinkaton, me swapping around the last three (my Starter always stays in my party, you can call me a traditionalist like that). After the halfway point it was time for me to start thinking of my last two members, by that point I had encountered the pseudo Legendary of this region and, despite annoyed it was yet another dragon, decided an Dragon/Ice would be nice on my team. It wasn't until the last few Badges where I was struggling to think of a 6th member, but then I learned that Gallade was given the Sharpness Ability. I got a Sharpness Gallade who fit my team quite nicely.
So, yeah, I say don't worry too much about a "permanent" team until you get near end game. By the middle of the game you'd likely have found at least half of what you would want to be part of your permanent team.
If all else fails I suggest doing Raids, you'd be surprised what Pokemon they offer and they're usually at decent Levels so you can start using & Leveling them up.
In addition the ocean is more than just open water. There are plenty of water biomes, especially when near land, which could have added some interesting visuals when exploring all the water routes. They could have had a coral reef, kelp forest, hydrothermal vents, brine pool, marine snow, algae bloom, ocean current, a sunken ship, a whale fall, a garbage patch, etc.. You then dot the area with trainers who, in addition to a battle, give you some information about the biome/phenomenon. And of course would help diversify what Pokemon you'd find.
I just assumed it summoned a volcano underneath it and shot itself out of it like a cannon.
Mine is Pikachu is way way overhyped. They should have choose a lot more ferocious pokemon to promote like Gyarados or something. They even tried to make it somewhat viable with Light Ball, Surf and ES.
See, here's the catch. Hypothetically they could make a ferocious Pokemon like Gyarados a primary mascot, but the catch to a mascot for marketing purposes is that you want your mascot to be able to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible. Badass/fierce designs like Gyarados don't work that well in that regard because the target audience of those kinds of designs is dominantly male (and younger), which is why none of those mons were chosen over Pikachu as the franchise's main mascot.
Pikachu works as Pokemon's mascot because its design is perfect as one that appeals near-universally to all kinds of demographics, really hammering in Pokemon as a franchise that's for just about everyone. Its design isn't specifically suitable for one specific target audience: it's designed in such a way that it can appeal to all sorts of target audiences. It's cute, which is one thing, but at the same time it's also capable of looking cool. It's very expressive, and has a lot of personality to it, especially as you can see with Ash's Pikachu in the anime. Ash's Pikachu is very much lively, full of personality, and it's both cute and cool, and it's also capable of looking awesome in battle, while also being an adorable and endearing Pokemon when the time comes for it. In that sense just about anyone from any demographic can find something to love about Pikachu.
Yes, if you look from a gameplay battle perspective it sucks, but design wise, which is what matters more, it works so well because of its nearly universal appeal in terms of what sells, because it can appeal to just about anyone.
Now yes, Pokemon actually does have some ferocious secondary mascots who are supplementary to Pikachu. Chief among them is, as you should probably know, Charizard. Charizard is the epitome of "ferocious" and "badass" in terms of design, which is why it's such a marketed Pokemon. You also have other shilled and marketable mons like Eevee and its evolutions (who nowadays due to their cute designs dominantly appeal to girls), the other starters (especially Greninja), Lucario (cool looking in the sort of mysterious, level-headed way, very different flavor from Charizard in that regard), and whatnot. But Pikachu is the mascot because it appeals so universally to all sorts of demographics: its design isn't just for any one target audience. When you're a big franchise like Pokemon trying to appeal to as many people as possibile, you want a mascot who can have near universal appeal. And Pikachu fits the bill in its own way.
Of course, it's also practically synonymous with Ash Ketchum, since Pikachu is Ash's starter and main partner in the anime which is a big avenue of the franchise to promote Pokemon by showing the monsters in all of their fidelity, and Pikachu's universal appeal of its design shines the most in the anime in that regard.
If they want people to actuallly use a Pikachu, GF should just raise their stats to be usable at the time of capture instead of attempting to overcompensate, so that the species have at least a niche for in-game playthroughs, from beginning and, once Light Ball obtained, even lategame. That would not be enough for competitive, but Raichu is already better for VGC in general outside of SwSh’s Gigantamax Pikachu.
It helped that most Pikaclones, except Pawmi who can evolve twice, aren’t strictly better than Pikachu in every category.
I unironically wish the Charmander line was in Hisui. This isn't bait or anything, it just comes down to the REALLY hyper-specific fact that my childhood Explorers of Sky file had Shinx as my protag and Charmander as my partner. It would've been really great for me to have Charizard and Luxray together on the squad for old times' sake
I feel like I understand where Charizard's heavy usage and popularity comes from. Besides "Kid Like big Dragon" to the appearance, Charizard is a very versatile mon in terms of depicting how it fights, being able to shoot for long range, grapple and swipe with its claws, bulky enough to just brawl and body check, headbutting and use of its tail for weird mixing up, can utilize its wings for things like Air Slash or blocks, and both low and high flight for movement on ground or aerial fighting.
Charizard's design lends itself very well to dynamic fighting and Animation, so even if not for its popularity, its a good Pokemon for an Ash ace because they can get really creative with the angles and movement in battles with it, as befits climactic or finale battles that might want to wing back and forth. You can even see this in a lot of big battles Charizard is utilized for.
- Blaine's Magmar (a comparable fire type that Zard spends most of the battle on-foot, fighting the arena as much as it for, until the reveal he survives the Lava just as well)
- 3 different mons vs Gary (the nimble but weak-to-it Scizor, and two heavy-but-sturdy opponents in Golem and Blastoise)
- Harrison's Blaziken (a back and forth fight mostly taking Fire shots to match Blaziken's Physical hits)
- M3 Entei (A ground-bound but still extremely mobile opponent that mostly has Zard playing evasion)
- Noland and Articuno (Almost like a dog-fight with both Pokemon being pretty swift aerial fighters bearing good long-ranged attacks)
- Leon's Charizard vs Ash's Pikachu (David vs Goliath type match-up, using the several versatile attack methods to pursue a smaller and more evasive opponent himself.)
There are a lot of others, and I would note Charizard loses more than half of the listings I had, but at the same time there aren't a lot of Pokemon that not only have decent popularity/a recognizable design on par with it, but also lend themselves to this many methods of battle as naturally.
Charizard's design lends itself very well to dynamic fighting and Animation, so even if not for its popularity, its a good Pokemon for an Ash ace because they can get really creative with the angles and movement in battles with it, as befits climactic or finale battles that might want to wing back and forth. You can even see this in a lot of big battles Charizard is utilized for.
- Blaine's Magmar (a comparable fire type that Zard spends most of the battle on-foot, fighting the arena as much as it for, until the reveal he survives the Lava just as well)
- 3 different mons vs Gary (the nimble but weak-to-it Scizor, and two heavy-but-sturdy opponents in Golem and Blastoise)
- Harrison's Blaziken (a back and forth fight mostly taking Fire shots to match Blaziken's Physical hits)
- M3 Entei (A ground-bound but still extremely mobile opponent that mostly has Zard playing evasion)
- Noland and Articuno (Almost like a dog-fight with both Pokemon being pretty swift aerial fighters bearing good long-ranged attacks)
- Leon's Charizard vs Ash's Pikachu (David vs Goliath type match-up, using the several versatile attack methods to pursue a smaller and more evasive opponent himself.)
There are a lot of others, and I would note Charizard loses more than half of the listings I had, but at the same time there aren't a lot of Pokemon that not only have decent popularity/a recognizable design on par with it, but also lend themselves to this many methods of battle as naturally.
This is actually a reason I dislike Charizard heavily featuring in spinoffs, etc.. Whenever I'm looking at something that's trying to expand existing characters, whether or not the adaptation keeps the same playstyle as the source is something that ends up scrutinized a lot. In the case of Charizard, I'm expecting to see something with SpA as its best stat and demonstrably faster than e.g. pikachu. An up-close brawling dragon thus comes off as the devs lazily only looking at the appearance of a mon, the equivalent of having Link with only his sword and shield.
Not sure if this counts as an Unpopular Opinion or Little Thing That Annoys me, but I'll assume some people like these so I'll post it here for now:
The Mighty Mark Tera Raids are NOT fun.
I just caught Greninja, and while with the previous two Might Mark Tera Raids I felt I was involved and could follow along with the progression of the battle... with Greninja I had no idea what was going on and not sure how much I was contributing.
What GF probably thought would be engaging cooperative battles have only turned out to be sterile experiences of my using a Pokemon I have no interest in & using specific strategies to pretty much game the system. And you HAVE TO game the system because they stack the MM Raids very much against you: Even before you could make a move the MM Pokemon sets up two status Moves. Next they're quick to both reset your stats and as well setup their shield, said shield so bulky that even Tera STAB only does a small dent unless you spent a few turns raising your stats/lowering the MM's stats (oh, and of course when the shield is up they're immune to Status moves).
GF said all the changes they did with Tera Raids was a response with criticisms of Max Raids. But with Max Raids I've NEVER felt completely useless. In addition, in Max Raids it always felt the bar was being moved, even when you got close to the wire at the very least you knew how far you progressed if you failed and can learn how to improve next time. And the Max Raid barriers were SO much better as they were their own pseudo-HP bar but required a specific amount of hits instead of going off a bulked up HP stat, and when you broke the barrier if decreased the Dyna/Giganta's Pokemon's Defense & Special Defense as a reward! Finally, when they introduced a tougher version of Max Raids with the Dynamax Adventures, instead of making the Dyna/Giganta Pokemon so tough you need a competitive build to beat them, instead they used a Rental Pokemon system and, though at first it felt cheap you couldn't use your own Pokemon, turned out to be a good move and made the Adventures fun to replay through as you never know what you would get next. With Dynamax Adventures the Pokemon you battle before the boss helped build a stronger team, one of the ones you catch are your reward at the end, AND to top it off all Pokemon had the highest yet chance to be Shiny (so even after you catch the Legendary you have reason to keep going through it)!
So, what do the MM Tera Raids offer? Just a normal version of a Pokemon you'd be able to transfer over later when they connect SV to HOME & a "Mighty Mark" which no one cares about (seriously does anyone care about Marks/Titles? The most pointless customization addition cause, if I wanted to give my Pokemon a Title, I would have liked it to be something I imagined my Pokemon having and not some arbitrary trait a Pokemon just so happened to have; Ribbons feel like they have more value than Marks and thy have no effect on battle animations or box text!). "They give a lot of rewards" Yeah, by the time I finish a MM Tera Raid I could have battled 3 or 4 easier Raids and gotten more loot. And yes, higher raids gives you rare items like Gold Caps and Ability Patches, but like how many of those does someone need? Whenever the next MM Raid is announced I'm more focused on trying to get as many Experience Candy and Sellable items so I can then build up the next one-trick pony.
Well, there's my rant on MM Tera Raids. Don't know whether this is a generally agreed upon complaint or I'm in a minority, but I'm hoping the SV DLCs offer something more along the lines of the Dynamax Adventures. Anyway, I guess onto the next MM Pokemon. If they keep up the trend of it being a Transfer Only Pokemon, while they have a few "obvious" choices like Starters, Legendaries, or Regional Variants (or Cap Pikachu or, Arceus forbid, Vivillon), personally I'm looking forward to the MM Carbink (and yes, I know, what they're probably going to do is have a MM Diancie and there will also be special 5-Star Carbink Tera Raids to go with it; it was just an odd initial inclusion to the Transfer Only list until I thought about it for more than a few seconds).
The Mighty Mark Tera Raids are NOT fun.
I just caught Greninja, and while with the previous two Might Mark Tera Raids I felt I was involved and could follow along with the progression of the battle... with Greninja I had no idea what was going on and not sure how much I was contributing.
- To begin, it took 3 attempts to get the Greninja. No big deal, except for my first 2 attempts Greninja's HP BARELY budged. I was concerned I wasn't doing things right. And during the 3rd attempt, for most of the battle, once again Greninja's HP barely budged... AND THEN all of the sudden last few seconds of the battle it went from mostly full HP to 0. What I think happened was my Teammates (Vaporeon and Slowbro, also had a Kingambit though not sure if it did much) got all their Calm Minds done finally and began using Stored Power.
- So, what was I doing? Reading some guides, I decided to go with Toxicroak with Taunt, Swords Dance, Earthquake, and Acid Spray. So here's my second complaint: The only beneficial thing I did was Acid Spray and potentially Taunt. As soon as the battle began I Taunted so it wouldn't try stacking Double Teams (which is just a WONDERFUL thing to give to these already tedious battles: Evasion Hax). Next I tried getting up 3 Swords Dance, but it would reset stats before I got in the 3rd and while setting up again would put up its shield. When it uses its shield I use Acid Spray to try and give my team support. So after 3 Acid Sprays I continue to do 3 Sword Dances and unleash my Earthquakes... and ingoing the times I missed... does NADA. And for me, that's ALL I can do. I got its SpD down to -6, its behind its shield so I can't Taunt (and even if I could it would only be the once), and I'm at +6 Atk. All I have left to do is Earthquake which I see is doing like a slit of damage. And Toxicroak's Tera Type is Poison so it wouldn't help. I guess I could have also cheered, but by the end of the battle everyone was keeping themselves healthy enough that obviosuly me not cheering meant nothing would have changed (except I guess ending the battle earlier).
- Now, I would like to say that, at the very least, with me getting its SpD down to -6 that meant Vaporeon's and Slowbro's Stored Power was hitting extra hard, TEAM WORK! Except, I think that's just me trying to grasp at anything to make it feel I contributed anything. For all I know, Vaporeon and Slowbor's Stored Power would have KOed Greninja regardless and at most I maybe ended the battle a turn earlier. And that still doesn't overlook that means, for the entire battle, my ONLY contribution would have been just 3 turns of using Acid Spray which happened pretty much early in the battle.
- But hey, I caught my Might Mark Greninja so all's well that ends well *TOXICROAK*. Oh, hi there Toxicroak. What do you want? *TOXICROAK* What am I going to do with you now? Um... good question, I only really trained you up because online guides said you were one of the good counters. I suppose you'd be useful in other Raids where I need a Poison or Fighting-type. Or you could just chill in the box with the Azumarill I trained specifically for MM Charizard and then by lucky circumstance was also useful against MM Cinderace. But outside Tera Raids... I have no real interest in you two, at least in SV. I made my team and beat the game with them. And despite the game telling me they're my Champion team, in tougher Raids they're impact is less than impactful. And don't even think they have a place in the Mighty Marks, I would have just been a burden to my team. AND that's just the point I'm making: either you go online to see the suggested options and pick the one you'd think would work best (FUN FACT: Originally I was training up a Clodsire, I decided to change last second cause Greninja has a lower Defense stat... and good thing I did cause I discover that MM Greninja was packing Ice Beam), or you're just a burden to your team. No middle ground, you either follow a competitive mindset or you're being cursed at by your fellow teammates (if they aren't too focused on what they're doing).
What GF probably thought would be engaging cooperative battles have only turned out to be sterile experiences of my using a Pokemon I have no interest in & using specific strategies to pretty much game the system. And you HAVE TO game the system because they stack the MM Raids very much against you: Even before you could make a move the MM Pokemon sets up two status Moves. Next they're quick to both reset your stats and as well setup their shield, said shield so bulky that even Tera STAB only does a small dent unless you spent a few turns raising your stats/lowering the MM's stats (oh, and of course when the shield is up they're immune to Status moves).
GF said all the changes they did with Tera Raids was a response with criticisms of Max Raids. But with Max Raids I've NEVER felt completely useless. In addition, in Max Raids it always felt the bar was being moved, even when you got close to the wire at the very least you knew how far you progressed if you failed and can learn how to improve next time. And the Max Raid barriers were SO much better as they were their own pseudo-HP bar but required a specific amount of hits instead of going off a bulked up HP stat, and when you broke the barrier if decreased the Dyna/Giganta's Pokemon's Defense & Special Defense as a reward! Finally, when they introduced a tougher version of Max Raids with the Dynamax Adventures, instead of making the Dyna/Giganta Pokemon so tough you need a competitive build to beat them, instead they used a Rental Pokemon system and, though at first it felt cheap you couldn't use your own Pokemon, turned out to be a good move and made the Adventures fun to replay through as you never know what you would get next. With Dynamax Adventures the Pokemon you battle before the boss helped build a stronger team, one of the ones you catch are your reward at the end, AND to top it off all Pokemon had the highest yet chance to be Shiny (so even after you catch the Legendary you have reason to keep going through it)!
So, what do the MM Tera Raids offer? Just a normal version of a Pokemon you'd be able to transfer over later when they connect SV to HOME & a "Mighty Mark" which no one cares about (seriously does anyone care about Marks/Titles? The most pointless customization addition cause, if I wanted to give my Pokemon a Title, I would have liked it to be something I imagined my Pokemon having and not some arbitrary trait a Pokemon just so happened to have; Ribbons feel like they have more value than Marks and thy have no effect on battle animations or box text!). "They give a lot of rewards" Yeah, by the time I finish a MM Tera Raid I could have battled 3 or 4 easier Raids and gotten more loot. And yes, higher raids gives you rare items like Gold Caps and Ability Patches, but like how many of those does someone need? Whenever the next MM Raid is announced I'm more focused on trying to get as many Experience Candy and Sellable items so I can then build up the next one-trick pony.
Well, there's my rant on MM Tera Raids. Don't know whether this is a generally agreed upon complaint or I'm in a minority, but I'm hoping the SV DLCs offer something more along the lines of the Dynamax Adventures. Anyway, I guess onto the next MM Pokemon. If they keep up the trend of it being a Transfer Only Pokemon, while they have a few "obvious" choices like Starters, Legendaries, or Regional Variants (or Cap Pikachu or, Arceus forbid, Vivillon), personally I'm looking forward to the MM Carbink (and yes, I know, what they're probably going to do is have a MM Diancie and there will also be special 5-Star Carbink Tera Raids to go with it; it was just an odd initial inclusion to the Transfer Only list until I thought about it for more than a few seconds).
I skipped out on Gen 8 so I have an incomplete idea on how Raids work, but from everything I've heard they sound supremely awful. Especially since you have no way to coordinate with other players and apparently can't set up lobbies with friends?
I'd rather go trudging through Party Finder in Final Fantasy XIV (and do). At least text chat exists there.
Playing Pokemon Go on the walk to work this morning, I had a thought. Normal is at an even bigger disadvantage in that game than it is in other canons because immunities aren't a thing in Go, meaning that it has very little defensive utility. Some people have even proposed that Normal should get an artificial damage boost as a way of compensating, but this would potentially be a little too much. Unlike in the main series, as things currently stand there's an objective worst type in the game, and it's Normal.
Obviously Normal has no advantages against other types, but if Normal were to be super-effective against anything, I would posit that it should be Fairy. Why? Well, because Normal is the mundane - everything Fairy isn't. Fans have often theorised that Normal is the closest type to human, or that if humans and Pokemon share any sort of evolutionary link then Normal-types are their closest relatives (I don't personally agree, but I think it's an interesting discussion to have nonetheless). And in many fairy stories magical and fantastical elements often lose when pitted against the ordinary - magic leaves the world, and humans make things less fantastical and more real. It evokes that Tolkienesque idea that magical or supernatural creatures flee and hide "when big, stupid folk like you or I come blundering along".
All of the elemental types have relationships with numerous others, but there are a few that have always seemed to be in more explicit direct contradiction to one another: Fighting/Psychic, Fire/Water, Electric/Ground, and arguably Fairy/Dragon to an extent. While it sort of defeats the point for Normal to be in direct alignment with any other type, I do think Normal and Fairy represent ideas that are poles apart, which is funny given that the majority of Pokemon retyped to Fairy were Normal.
Obviously Normal has no advantages against other types, but if Normal were to be super-effective against anything, I would posit that it should be Fairy. Why? Well, because Normal is the mundane - everything Fairy isn't. Fans have often theorised that Normal is the closest type to human, or that if humans and Pokemon share any sort of evolutionary link then Normal-types are their closest relatives (I don't personally agree, but I think it's an interesting discussion to have nonetheless). And in many fairy stories magical and fantastical elements often lose when pitted against the ordinary - magic leaves the world, and humans make things less fantastical and more real. It evokes that Tolkienesque idea that magical or supernatural creatures flee and hide "when big, stupid folk like you or I come blundering along".
All of the elemental types have relationships with numerous others, but there are a few that have always seemed to be in more explicit direct contradiction to one another: Fighting/Psychic, Fire/Water, Electric/Ground, and arguably Fairy/Dragon to an extent. While it sort of defeats the point for Normal to be in direct alignment with any other type, I do think Normal and Fairy represent ideas that are poles apart, which is funny given that the majority of Pokemon retyped to Fairy were Normal.
Honestly, really thinking about it, if I were to do one change with Normal, I would make is COMPLETELY neutral. It has no weaknesses, it has no resistances/immunities, nothing is weak or resistance/immune to it: completely, and utterly, neutral. It's also why (mono) Normal-types learn a ton of elemental Moves via TMs & Tutors: They're at a "base" state naturally so can expand out in all sorts of directions via artificial means with only their physical traits limiting them. Meanwhile Normal-type Moves would exist as a way for any Pokemon to "just do damage"; you traded an elemental move's chance to do super effective damage with just being able to do neutral damage guaranteed.
Anyway, moving onto the main subject: Normal > Fairy, eh, I don't see it. Have you read fey folklore? Humans are nothing but playthings to fairies, humans only get one-up on Fairies by outsmarting them or using tools like cold iron or poison. Also, Normal =/= Humans. While the majority of people would very likely be "Normal", we've also seen humans with psychic powers, trained martial artists, and other individuals with special powers. So whatever reason is done because of "human interaction" really doesn't stand in my opinion. Also, using that reasoning to argue Normal > Fairy, wouldn't that also mean Normal would be super effective against Dragon and Psychic (and Ghost)? They are just as spectacular as Fairy. The reason Fairy/Dragon are paired together is because they're two magical forces but different aspects of them: Dragon is raw power while Fairy is refined & malleable. Normal/Ghost is the "mundane/supernatural" pairing. Though the "pairing" concept is also a bit shaky as there's several combinations you can do, both relating to SE/NVE/Immunity relations and just thematic even if they're neutral to one another.
Making Normal completely neutral is a double-edged sword though, especially since it leaves no weaknesses for Chansey, Blissey and other bulky pure Normal-type Pokémon. These don’t have resistances to begin with and only immune to Ghost, but now it’s harder to break them due to to longer weak to Fighting.
That also means offensive-oriented Pokémon, especially Zangoose and Porygon-Z, are absolutely unsafe to switch-in against and they can 2HKO the entire meta at worst.
Normal being weak to Fighting but immune to Ghost is likely a reflection of how a real life person react to both actual professions and fictional beings that may or may not exist.
- Weak to Figthing: A normal person isn’t going to beat an experienced martial artist or wrestler any time soon.
- Mutual immunity to Ghost: Many normal beings and especially regular animals don’t believe in ghosts, likewise ghosts, although ambiguous if they really exist or not, have yet to make anything meaningful in real life without help of a medium.
- Resisted by Rock and Steel: An experienced martial artist can break rocks and even dent most type of metal with their bare hands, albeit not without backlashes. A regular person can’t even do that without their tools.
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In Pokemon GO immunities do actually have a reduced damage compared to ineffective, a multiplier of x0.390625 versus x0.625. (Super effective has a x1.6 multiplier). So, Normal does still have some defensive utility against ghosts, just not as good as in the main series.
Mmmm idk about this. While I've occasionally thought that Normal being ineffective against just Rock and Steel feels somewhat arbitrary (like, yes, Normal moves like Scratch aren't going to do a lot against a rocky body, but why would they be any more effective against a body made of lava or ice or water vapour?) making it completely disconnected from the type table wouldn't work for the reasons outlined in the post above mine.
Plus being typeless is already a mechanic in the games. The problem is that for the majority of the series achieving typelessness has mostly been possible through glitches or very niche moves like Burn Up and (sometimes) Roost. I'd go so far as to say that there should be more ways to become typeless, even if it's only temporary. It's a fun and potentially interesting circumstance to be in.
Sometimes, but not always, hence what I was saying. And you confirmed it by saying that humans often do outsmart or outplay them.
I think you might have overlooked this:
There are several pairings that could constitute mundane/supernatural: Fighting/Ghost would also count. But no, I wouldn't say that the reasoning I employed for Normal>Fairy would imply it should be effective against Dragon or Psychic either. Dragon, by design, stands apart from the other types (or at least did initially) as one which has few weaknesses and is stated in-universe to be superior. It wasn't originally intended to be an ordinary type, though in the last few generations it has been brought down somewhat to be more on the level of the others.
And Psychic is largely (but not exclusively) associated with cleverness and intelligence, so it wouldn't make sense for Normal's "jack of all trades" vibe to outmatch it - which is likely why Normal is weak to Fighting, too. But giving Normal too many weaknesses really would make it the worst type, so I can see why they left it at one.
Yeah, but type interactions aren't the be-all-and-end-all for whether two types have a duality. Obviously you can pair any two types like Ground and Fire and say "look, Ground is super effective against Fire, that means they're paired" but of course there's really not a lot that binds those two types together beyond that. And of course there are lots of type pairings that could be considered opposite even if they're neutral: I've always found it interesting that Dragons are described as being full of life energy, but that Poison corrodes and destroys organic life - feels like there should be more of a link there. But certain pairings of types do crop up thematically and stylistically as opposites, whether explicitly or not. To elaborate:
-Psychic/Fighting have been contrasted since the off: there's the classic brawns-vs-brawn dynamic that always crops up, there's the in-universe conflict between Sabrina and the Karate King, and generally speaking the two types parallel each other in terms of the typical breakdown of stats Pokemon of those species have and the kind of moves they learn. They're probably the most straightforward example of a pairing, but the fact that they have a strong association with each other doesn't stop other types having an interaction: Ghost gets mentioned a lot by NPCs as a type which has tricky interactions with both Psychic and Fighting, and Dark often gets linked with them too.
-Fire/Water. This one is interesting because obviously Fire and Water exist in a triangle with Grass. But although Fire has other weaknesses, Water is the one most often expressed as its nemesis - in the anime Ash's Charmander was notably terrified of water; lots of Fire NPCs often talk in terms of water when defeated: "you extinguished me!" etc, and Blaine tells the player not to waste Fire Blast on Water Pokemon. This isn't the case for other interactions: Erika and Gardenia don't shriek about how you've burned up their darling Grass-types. This is probably due to the extremely obvious and evident interaction of fire and water IRL, but also because there's an easy characteristic dynamic to draw on: fire is hot and raging, water is cool and placid. You can disagree but I think it's definitely the case that fire and water get contrasted to a much greater degree than fire and grass, or grass and water.
-Normal/Ghost. Yes, I'm taking the type I said had a link with Fairy, I know. But Ghost's relationship to Normal is expressed nicely through the unique situation of both having no effect against the other. No other type pairing has that relationship so yes, if any two types have a concrete duality it's these two.
Did not know this, thanks!
Normal type doesn't necessarily imply a lack of other interesting typing since it is also used when something is too many different types to represent with the regular system. Think of Porygon, Castform, Ditto, Tri Attack, or the base forms of Arceus and Silvally. For the relationship with Fairy specifically, this aspect of "incalculable potential" doesn't conflict with a fundamentally supernatural being.
But I will also die on the hill that the Steel-type is just as natural as Grass, so this might not align with the general sentiment.
But I will also die on the hill that the Steel-type is just as natural as Grass, so this might not align with the general sentiment.
I'm not that great at competitive Pokemon, so take this opinion with a grain of salt.
I have been thinking about the balance of the normal type, and in some ways it feels like the worst type. It's kind of hard to figure what the "worst" type is because there can be different criteria you could use to argue what the worst type is. You could state a type like grass being bad because of it's downsides of having many weakness and having it's attacks being resisted by many type, which could potentially make some Pokemon with the type really bad. But at the same time, the grass type has some really good upsides like resistances to strong types like water, ground, and electric, being able to hit the common types of ground and water for super effective, and usually having good utility moves like leech seed. These good traits of grass types can lead to some really good Pokemon like Ferrothorn that can take advantage of those unique traits of grass types. While normal has less weakness when compared to the grass type, it also doesn't really have enough good traits that make them standout when creating a team.
Normal types only having a immunity to ghost means that they likely won't provide as much defensive utility as Pokemon with other types, who have access to resistances that can help your team's matchup against types and Pokemon that the rest of the team might struggle against. The normal type isn't that good at being a hard to resist, neutral attacking type due to steel resisting it and ghost being immune to it, with ghost arguably being better at being a neutral attacking type. Normal type also doesn't have many strong moves that are mostly exclusive to it, or it can take advantage of with stab.
rapid spin is a really good move due to it hazard removing utility, but the low base 50 power of the move means that you aren't going to do that much damage even with normal type stab. Boomburst is strong but has a very limited distribution, especially for normal types. Return gave normal types the nice utility of having a base 100 power move of there type, similarly to ground types with earthquake, but it has been removed.
I feel like the other types commonly considered bad have positive traits that stand out much more when compared to normal types. Bug types have stab on one of the best moves in u-turn, and have been getting some really good unique moves like first impression, sticky web, and quiver dance, along with some nice resistances to ground and fighting. Ice type may be a horrible defensive type, but ice type Pokemon at least get stab on one of the best offensive types, and special attacking ice types have gotten Freeze-Dry to stand out from Pokemon running ice beam as coverage. I already talked about the strengths of the grass type in the intro.
My thought on this have been influenced by the tiers I am the most familiar with, that being late ss ou after the crown tundra expansion, and sv. Both tiers seem to have had no relevant normal types, except for Blissey/Chansey and Cyclizar, both of which feel like exceptions due to them mainly being good due to extremes traits that are unrelated to the normal type (Blissey having a very high hp and special defense stat, and Cyclizar being able to utilize shed tail very well with regenerator).
In terms of buffing the normal type, I feel that letting hit a type for supereffective could be awkward, since most Pokemon have access to normal type moves for coverage, unless that type was specific designed and balanced around that fact. I think giving it a resistance to fairy type could work and provide the type with more defensive utility. The plainness and stableness of the normal type could block the magic that is part of the fairy type's theming. They could also get a minor immunity of some kind, like how certain types are immune to certain status effects, or grass types are immune to powder moves and leech seed. They could also get some good moves to make them stand out more, like bringing back gen 1 hyper beam and apply that change also to giga impact, bringing back return, or giving them some unique utility moves.
I'm reminded of the Temtem meta, where the Normal equivalent, Neutral, dominated last year because only one type (out of 12) resists it. This is Gen 1 all over again.
Anyway, I honestly think not all types being created equal makes Pokémon more interesting. Take Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, where each element is weak to one element and resisted by one other. They only exist in relation to each other, not on their own merits.
Anyway, I honestly think not all types being created equal makes Pokémon more interesting. Take Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, where each element is weak to one element and resisted by one other. They only exist in relation to each other, not on their own merits.
Haven't played Temtem at all, so thanks for the information. I have played Nexomon Extinction several times, however, including a Normal monotype challenge. Normal has a disadvantage both offensively and defensively against Ghost and Psychic. Normal does have its own weird niche. Other types learn moves of their own element + Normal. Normals learn Normal + moves of another type that depends on their species. Same type attack bonus doesn't exist in Nexomon Extinction, so if you want a Wind type without Wind's defensive matchups, you might want to catch a Normal type Rapnux. A whole team of Normal types would be offensively more versatile than other monotypes.
Cyber Sleuth and its sequel Hacker's Memory are dull because the battle system is essentially "pick the strongest attack over and over". And the cutscenes are too long, like in Pokemon Moon. Pokemon Moon probably plagiarized the Poke Pelago from its equivalent in Cyber Sleuth anyhow. The only fun parts of those games are finding out what strange evolutions you can get, since that system works completely differently from Pokemon.
Perhaps what Pokemon should have done was to keep Normal as the "large move selection" type that it was in early generations.
I think most people would agree with this. It'd be incredibly dull if every type had the same number of resistances and weaknesses, and the setup as it stands does a lot to inform the "character" of each type - Ice being the worst type defensively, for instance, or Steel being possibly the best defensive type but a subpar offensive one (at least before Fairy existed).
This reminds me, Bulbapedia's page for each type used to have a little introductory paragraph that summed up the type's profile and characteristics, I quite liked that. However at some point they changed it to just being a short section covering the offensive and defensive mechanics, which I find to be a lot drier.
[23:59:33] @Ransei: You know what BDSP should have done?
[23:59:48] toraflora!: done gen 5 art style?
[00:00:20] dufe: bdsp should've been scrapped
[00:00:22] @Ransei: They needed to be a little more lazy. Just a liiiitle more lazy. They need to make Slaking follow you by levitating while in its natural lounging position.
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[00:03:02] sundays.n_sundaes: Lmao what
[00:03:10] #Ransei: Yes
[00:03:31] #Ransei: They actually made Slaking GET UP AND MOVE
[00:03:33] #Ransei: like
[00:03:36] #Ransei: Its LIMBS
[00:03:45] #Ransei: I call heresy.
[00:03:47] sundays.n_sundaes: ikr the nerve
[23:59:48] toraflora!: done gen 5 art style?
[00:00:20] dufe: bdsp should've been scrapped
[00:00:22] @Ransei: They needed to be a little more lazy. Just a liiiitle more lazy. They need to make Slaking follow you by levitating while in its natural lounging position.
=================================================================================================
[00:03:02] sundays.n_sundaes: Lmao what
[00:03:10] #Ransei: Yes
[00:03:31] #Ransei: They actually made Slaking GET UP AND MOVE
[00:03:33] #Ransei: like
[00:03:36] #Ransei: Its LIMBS
[00:03:45] #Ransei: I call heresy.
[00:03:47] sundays.n_sundaes: ikr the nerve
Emboar is the best designed Fire/Fighting starter.