Yeah, I'm inclined to agree there. Unova has a lot of my favourite lines, but they're all later on. The early-game, with a few exceptions (hi Excadrill) is mostly junkmons with little in the way of interesting or useful kits.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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Yeah, I'm inclined to agree there. Unova has a lot of my favourite lines, but they're all later on. The early-game, with a few exceptions (hi Excadrill) is mostly junkmons with little in the way of interesting or useful kits.
Yeah, the early game had done a bad first impression when it comes to concept and design, but mechanic-wise, it’s necessary that they aren’t top tier materials so that it would not completely power crept the four past regions… of which there were no Pokémon from those regions back in BW.
If most of the early game Pokémon physical design aren’t so bad, Unova‘s Pokédex as a whole would have a much less divisive reception.
Ironically, Gen 5's power creep in comp was ridiculous.
But I digress, the main problem here really is BW1's game design as a whole. Like RBY, it's structured like an ordinary RPG, which means that you're really better off swapping most of those trash early-game mons off your team.
In practice, this leads to several problems like a lot of Gen 5's bloated dex being nothing but fodder, especially with later gens' power creeps, and the awkward level requirements for BW1's late-game evos.
I’d also mention the odd type distribution in a few key areas, like Water types being extremely rare to find outside of starter and the monkey. It’s why I think Oshawott is the best Gen 5 starter, there’s just not enough good options until you’re over half way through the game, after they would hit their peak use against ClayIronically, Gen 5's power creep in comp was ridiculous.
But I digress, the main problem here really is BW1's game design as a whole. Like RBY, it's structured like an ordinary RPG, which means that you're really better off swapping most of those trash early-game mons off your team.
In practice, this leads to several problems like a lot of Gen 5's bloated dex being nothing but fodder, especially with later gens' power creeps, and the awkward level requirements for BW1's late-game evos.
I'd personally say Oshawott is the best Gen 5 starter because the other two suck.
But yeah, BW1 fell into a lot of odd pitfalls design-wise.
Fun fact, Basculin was literally created last-minute for the reason that the devs realized they lacked much of anything to fill the waterways with.
But yeah, I can actually understand the reasoning here. The first four gens were loaded with Water types, to a downright comical degree, and that is because of simple logistics. If areas and routes are intended to be set with the player crossing large stretches of water, then logically what you'd encounter are going to stuff like fish, squid, and other marine animals, which are going to be associated with Water-type because, well, what else are they going to be associated with. And, since there's a lot of ocean in the world and a lot less of most environments you'd associate with a single type, those singulars take precedent.
For a little reference, here's the number of fully-evolved Water-types introduced in each gen:
- Gen 1: 16
- Gen 2: 11 (10 discounting Kingdra)
- Gen 3: 14
- Gen 4: 8 (7 discounting Rotom-Wash)
- Gen 5: 9
- Gen 6: 4
- Gen 7: 8
- Gen 8: 9 (6 discounting Urshifu, H-Samurott, and Basculeigion)
- Gen 9: 10 (8 discounting P-Tauros and Ogerpon)
My favorite "type demographics" fun fact is how over half of this series' Poison types were from Kanto all the way up until Alola or Galar
In regards to that, I think it had to do with the way Gen I was made. If this analysis is to be believed, it's very likely that Poison was largely used as a "placeholder" type to cover for how many lines weren't designed with types in mind.
This last part in particular frustrates me, because we’re still chained to these ridiculous requirements all these years later. We’ve even had evolution retcons as of Gen 8, mostly related to stone evos - so why GF is so fixated on keeping these insanely steep levels and hindering some really cool ‘mons in-game is beyond me.
Even beyond this, though, BW1’s ‘Mon distribution is really poor and is their biggest problems as games. I can’t think of another game other than the Johto games that kick so many ‘mons to the final few hours of the game
Because the evolutions they've retconned were tedious for them to implement, a Pokémon evolving at a high level is only tedious for the player.
It's a matter of minutes. That's the kind of thing that playtesters for Gen 7 should've told them about and gotten fixed.
It's not believable that people looked at Noibat, Rufflet, and Vullaby that early and said "Hey, this might be a problem." Especially Noibat.
Pawniard in SV is the most egregious example imo, because if you do the bosses in roughly the intended order and stay close to the level curve, it'll evolve pretty much right when you reach the bamboo forest where the Leader's Crest Bisharp are. If you know Kingambit's evolution requirements and try to meet them as soon as possible, you'll likely have Bisharp for only 1-2 levels after having raised Pawniard for 30-35.
BW's minimal HM requirements, along with the story generally being more compelling than in other main series games, actually make this problem feel even worse to me. These are generally positive qualities, but they encourage the player to always keep moving forward to the next Gym or Plasma confrontation rather than backtrack and investigate side areas.
Deciding to catch and raise an unevolved Pokemon from the last couple of routes means either throwing it at endgame trainers or breaking the immersive sense of urgency that the game's built up to go exploring. This might not be so bad if the evolution levels of these Pokemon were like ~44-48, but the worst offenders probably still won't evolve in time without, like, quite a bit of time spent doing actual grinding against wild Pokemon lol.
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So Tympole doesn’t exist and we’ve been lied to?
Its funnier because it evolves into palpitoad right at the level of elesa, and basically trashes the entire team. Denies volt switch, just spam water moves, resist flame charge from zebstrika, good stats and decent moves.
The previous two gens were able to make their early route fodder competent for the entire game, either by stats or utility, and you have a variety of good options (mostly in Hoenn) such that you don't feel compelled to run the same set every time. It's more than feasible to have half your team for most of Hoenn and Sinnoh be made up of things introduced in that region and caught before the first gym, even if one of the members is just an HM slave. The fuck are you gonna keep in Unova after the beginning? Sure as hell isn't the Pidove line (which has a horrible discrepancy between its stats and movepool) or the Patrat line (outclassed by Lilipup).
And mind you, this is on default resolution on a phone, so it's not a huge screen blowing up the pixels either. This is what it looks like on a DS.
Whenever BW decides to change the camera angle, everything looks as wack as this.
Hey you can get... Drilbur in Wellspring Cave if you look for Dust... and then the fighting types near Nacrene City and some of the Pinwheel Forest Bugs.
Even when I like some early game stuff the first Gym is so damn railroaded for your options.
Sadly still better than Gen 4This is the first shot of the actual game!
And mind you, this is on default resolution on a phone, so it's not a huge screen blowing up the pixels either. This is what it looks like on a DS.
Whenever BW decides to change the camera angle, everything looks as wack as this.
I really hate Gen 4/5 trees. Especially 4s
This is the first shot of the actual game!
And mind you, this is on default resolution on a phone, so it's not a huge screen blowing up the pixels either. This is what it looks like on a DS.
Whenever BW decides to change the camera angle, everything looks as wack as this.
...What am I supposed to be seeing?
While not Pokemon, I genuinely do not like the LA remake being based on sprites and OG map design
From errors in OG sprites being translated (the Goomba eyes), to weirdly keeping the mentality that Top down Zelda can't be none cutesy, to boss design being archaic still despite you being able to flip over enemies or move diagonally. I'd rather the entire game be based on art the devs did for realized environment and chars alongside unshown concepts, not interpretations based on limitations
Is it better than BDSP? Sure, but low bar
Is it good? Not really for the mentality, even if the art is decent. It doesn't help that the intro actually is closer to OG LA art, but then immediately switches to dolls based on sprite
And no, the "but it's a dream, so it makes sense things look different" excuse doesn't fly, Link is unaware until end game for that
Actually most of this applies to Pokemon remakes...
From errors in OG sprites being translated (the Goomba eyes), to weirdly keeping the mentality that Top down Zelda can't be none cutesy, to boss design being archaic still despite you being able to flip over enemies or move diagonally. I'd rather the entire game be based on art the devs did for realized environment and chars alongside unshown concepts, not interpretations based on limitations
Is it better than BDSP? Sure, but low bar
Is it good? Not really for the mentality, even if the art is decent. It doesn't help that the intro actually is closer to OG LA art, but then immediately switches to dolls based on sprite
And no, the "but it's a dream, so it makes sense things look different" excuse doesn't fly, Link is unaware until end game for that
Actually most of this applies to Pokemon remakes...
Juniper walking to the player's house to deliver the starter trio.
The best part is that Pidove isn’t even an option until after Gym 1, because that’d just give Oshawott-choosers too much of an advantage against Cilan, I guess.
you must use The Monkey. No other fate lies before you. Do not resist.
I have to wonder if that creative choice wasn't responsible for a lot of BW1's initial mixed reception. Obviously, the soft reboot style was already a pretty dramatic creative choice, but railroading the game so you'd have to have essentially a static team until you beat the first gym likely threw a lot of people off.
Ruby and Sapphire have the worst trees in the series, without doubt.
Is it just me who sees a weird dinosaur face in them?