Unpopular opinions

[Mystora]

so this exists...
Chikorita is my favourite gen 2 starter and I think it's extremely overhated. Sometimes I feel like people hate on everything surrounding it including design when there's nothing wrong with the design, imo, it just has bad stats and an awful matchup vs the entire game. It's very cute in my opinion.

I like gen 2, sure the level curve is wack but unlike other games the start is much quicker and fun to get into, and it feels nostalgic. It gets a bit slow later on though, especially if you don't have a single good move for Morty. There is also not that much water which I hate traversing in the games.

Gen 7 is my favourite gen, the import characters are great and I love the evil team being less evil, whilst still feeling like you want to beat them because they are doing something bad (gen 8 carbon copied team skull, and also hau and made them worse)

I like Iron Jugulis, it's not creative at all but its cute! (just look at it in-game)

Also my favourite starter per gen cuz why not: Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Mudkip (although I don't really like one more, I just don't like Torchic as much), Turtwig, Snivy, Fennekin, Litten, Scorbunny (Grookey is so ugly imo), and Sprigatito

alright done (for now)

 

[ant4456]

Yeah, one of my criticisms of SM's story is that they try to say that Lusimine's actions were all because of Nihilego's poison or whatever, which really cheapens any of the character interactions that came before. I like that they didn't take the cop out path with Kieran.

No they don't!!!! That was never the point!!! Nihilego is an allegory and symbolism!!!!

Lusamine is not excused by the story and never was, and using the actual Monsters in your story for symbolism is smart!

 

[Ironmage]

No they don't!!!! That was never the point!!! Nihilego is an allegory and symbolism!!!!

Lusamine is not excused by the story and never was, and using the actual Monsters in your story for symbolism is smart!

Honestly, I'd rather consider that that was the point and that it makes the main story more awkward. I'm more of a fan of worldbuilding than character stories, so "it's symbolic of [character's] state" consistently ends up feeling lame. It takes away from questions that I'm more interested in discussing (e.g. what is the ecology of Ultra Deep Sea) to put more emphasis on parts I don't really care about. I'm already willing to entertain the idea that USUM has it better because places outside Alola had nonzero worldbuilding, reducing a cool mon to a convenient representation of a human character would likely tip that balance.

 

[ant4456]

Honestly, I'd rather consider that that was the point and that it makes the main story more awkward. I'm more of a fan of worldbuilding than character stories, so "it's symbolic of [character's] state" consistently ends up feeling lame. It takes away from questions that I'm more interested in discussing (e.g. what is the ecology of Ultra Deep Sea) to put more emphasis on parts I don't really care about. I'm already willing to entertain the idea that USUM has it better because places outside Alola had nonzero worldbuilding, reducing a cool mon to a convenient representation of a human character would likely tip that balance.

Personally I think stories are good of plot and characters, and not because Scrimblo is actually some lore for Garbglaro, a place that doesn't matter

 

[bdt2002]

Alright, fellas. Now we're getting really serious. You have managed to play my hands to convince me to rank every single main series game based on how good its writing and/or story is. Here's what I ultimately came up with, and some extra notes on specific games that I think are worth mentioning for their spot on this tier list I made.

• For the sake of respecting under-appreciated content, not only did I go ahead and add the GameCube games to this tier list, but they're both in A Tier. Side games and spin-offs often have more creative liberty with their story writing than the main series on account of not being worked on by Game Freak's hilariously inconsistent writing team, and while I do think that the average Mystery Dungeon is still probably the gold standard for a well-thought out Pokémon story, these two aren't bad by any means. The way that Orre is presented both before and after the five-year gap between games does exactly what it's supposed to do, introducing a darker side of the Pokémon world rarely seen elsewhere and introducing memorable characters for fans who grew up with these games. Colloseum does get a bit of an edge for me just because it came first, but not by enough of a margin to where it would alter XD's tier placement. Unlike another game I'll be going over, XD makes enough changes to the areas seen within the campaign's route to where the gameplay loop is noticeably different from its predecessor.

• On the other side of the spectrum, we have core series Pokémon's inconsistency during the 2010s. The only two games I have listed in F Tier are X & Y and base game Sword & Shield. To Galar's credit, I do think the DLC does just enough to warrant a higher tier placement, but the same tragically cannot be said for X & Y's notoriously unfinished world building and cast of characters that range from outright negligent to "just okay" at their best. I don't know which is worse, the heavily implied connections between Team Flare and a... certain German group (come on, I can't be the only one who sees it), or the fact that when bad things actually start happening, most of Kalos's NPCs are caught completely by surprise by things that feel like they could been suspicious from the very beginning. I don't know if the French-German connections were what Game Freak was going for with Team Flare on purpose or not, but at least there things to say about them. We barely get any sort of backstory, development, anything about Chairman Rose and Macro Cosmos in base game Sword & Shield. You know you messed up when the joke team of Generation 8 gets more story attention than the actual team.

• Oh, good heavens, what on Earth did they do to Black 2 & White 2? I don't care if these games are designated sequels for the first time since the Johto region. I don't care if there are admittedly a handful of characters who got a much-needed glow-up from the first games, because to be fair, those characters are definitely there, and Iris in particular is one of the few Champions post-Gen 1 who we get to see develop into a Champion-caliber Trainer in between installments. That's where the positives end for me, however, as a large portion of Black 2 & White 2's campaign feels eerily similar to the first games (roughly from Castelia to Mistralton), largely missing the memo of what a Pokémon sequel can or should be. Alongside Orre, Unova is the only other individual region to have a sequel installment of its own, and even though I would personally prefer sequels to take place in different regions the way Johto did it- yes, even with Johto's over-reliance on Kanto Pokémon- I would argue that Johto and XD Orre both feel different enough compared to their respective predecessors, while during playthroughs of Unova's sequels, I've had several moments where I've told myself the way certain characters, especially Team Plasma (they completely butchered Ghetsis in this sequel in particular) are actively worse-written than they were before.

I won't spend too much time talking about Alola since most of its inconsistencies have already been discussed, but similar to Black 2 & White 2, I believe some characters got better while others got worse. Hau of all characters notably gets a writing upgrade across the board which is great to see, but Lusamine's decline, while not as drastic as what they did to Ghetsis in my opinion, is still noticeable, especially when combined with Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon's pacing issues and rushed development cycle relative to specific third version games such as Emerald or Platinum, feeling more on par with a Pokémon Yellow or a Pokémon Crystal by comparison.

 

[Yung Dramps]

My biggest Pokemon hot take is that I have no higher aspirations for this series and just want more Alola. I make fun of Blueberry Academy's sometimes-heavy-handed Unova shilling knowing full well that if it were all Alola stuff I would look like the one Rise of Skywalker reaction meme. There is no further horizon. None of this is hyperbolic or a meme.

 

[bdt2002]

View attachment 600456
My biggest Pokemon hot take is that I have no higher aspirations for this series and just want more Alola. I make fun of Blueberry Academy's sometimes-heavy-handed Unova shilling knowing full well that if it were all Alola stuff I would look like the one Rise of Skywalker reaction meme. There is no further horizon. None of this is hyperbolic or a meme.

This take is hot enough to where I honestly really have to respect you for it. A bold statement for sure, even if Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon weren’t my personal favorite games as they were made. I feel like “true” Alola sequels would have a lot of potential with the writing, expanding on specific things seen in here and in Sword & Shield of all things, such as the stolen Type: Null notes and that Toxtricity poster in the Game Freak office (although I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed to be more than a coincidence).

 

[Esserise]

(although I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed to be more than a coincidence).

I don’t have the tweet on hand, but Toxtricity’s designer did confirm that it was a coincidence

 

[QuentinQuonce]

so this exists...
Chikorita is my favourite gen 2 starter and I think it's extremely overhated. Sometimes I feel like people hate on everything surrounding it including design when there's nothing wrong with the design, imo, it just has bad stats and an awful matchup vs the entire game. It's very cute in my opinion.

Honestly I feel like this isn't even an unpopular take.

Chikorita's status as the underdog in Johto has helped it way more than it's harmed it imo. It's a Pokemon that a lot of people seem to love because it's well-designed and does what it does well - it's not an offensive powerhouse, but it gets all the right moves to be a disruptive staller and a defensive wall. Initially there was a lot of disdain for it but anecdotally over time a lot of people seem to have come to appreciate it precisely for the reasons you stated. It's a scenario I think happens with all starter trios - people always like to defend the worst-suited one (though in modern games that's less of a thing than it was). I like all the Johto starters but my personal take is that the Chikorita line is really fun to use in Johto for the challenge alone.

That said, it's hilarious to see Silver using it because Meganium suits him so much less than Feraligatr or Typhlosion. He's mean and obsessed with strength, he looks ridiculous with a big friendly flower dinosaur.

 

[SpiritGuy]

Idk if it's an unpopular opinion but...

SV raid battles are shitty and poorly designed

They tried to have a different approach than in SWSH by making the boss attacking everyone at once and not loosing due to having too many KOs. Instead, you just loose time. And THIS is the problem. Because given the new approach, they had to find a way to still have challenge and the possibility to loose the raid, and for that, they chose to set a timer, which is the reason why I consider SV raids shitty. Because the move animations you can't turn off anymore and the ceaseless messages about stat changes, critical hits and the whole shebang will make you loose precious seconds unfairly. Imo, they just should have kept the same approach than in SWSH, especially when ALL allies can be useful.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Idk if it's an unpopular opinion but...

SV raid battles are shitty and poorly designed

They tried to have a different approach than in SWSH by making the boss attacking everyone at once and not loosing due to having too many KOs. Instead, you just loose time. And THIS is the problem. Because given the new approach, they had to find a way to still have challenge and the possibility to loose the raid, and for that, they chose to set a timer, which is the reason why I consider SV raids shitty. Because the move animations you can't turn off anymore and the ceaseless messages about stat changes, critical hits and the whole shebang will make you loose precious seconds unfairly. Imo, they just should have kept the same approach than in SWSH, especially when ALL allies can be useful.

Oh I am right there with you, I prefer SwSh raids to SV raids. For me it mostly comes down to the fact that SV raids commit the unforgivable UX sin of stealing control from the player in the middle of selecting an action from the menu, and then rubs salt in the wound by not even returning you to the same spot you were when it interrupted you. It's like the devs challenged themselves to translate the experience of "loading a webpage and trying to click on a link but you click on the wrong thing because a pop-up suddenly loads and moves everything on the page" into a Pokemon game.

Related is the issue I have with PLA battles, where the player is not interrupted thankfully but can spend like a solid minute not able to do anything but watch as four alphas take turns pulverizing your team.

 

[Eriorguez]

...

Stealth Rock shouldn't do damage according to how the 'mon is affected by Rock moves. Stealth Rock should do double damage to airbone 'mons instead. So, Flying types, Levitators and Air Balloon users, AKA the stuff that ignores all other entry hazards.

 

[Coronis]

...

Stealth Rock shouldn't do damage according to how the 'mon is affected by Rock moves. Stealth Rock should do double damage to airbone 'mons instead. So, Flying types, Levitators and Air Balloon users, AKA the stuff that ignores all other entry hazards.

Why?

 

[Eriorguez]

Because it is conceptually the anti-air entry hazard (FLOATING rocks have been consistently the flavor text), yet stuff like Flygon is minimally affected by it, while stuff like Volcarona will be highly affected by it while still being vulnerable to the other hazards.

 

[Hugin]

Why?

Non-Grounded mons are immune to Spikes/Sticky Web. So without SR, a mon like Flygon/Haunter/Pidgeot/Etc is immune to all entry hazards, which is OP in a switch-heavy meta. Given that, SR is an obvious source of balance, as a commonly-distributed Hazard that deals double damage to the most common group of non-grounded mons(Flying types).

But a grounded mon like Volcarona takes 4x from SR AND is hit by spikes, while Flygon takes half normal SR damage and is immune to spikes.

So if you make SR deal 2x damage to all non-grounded mons, every Rotom form, Flygon, Charizard, etc are all on equal footing with all entry hazards. And they're roughly balanced with grounded mons, in that they're weak to SR and immune to spikes, while Typhlosion and Dugtrio are both affected by hazards identically(normal damage from SR and Spikes). It fixes the weird effect SR currently has on specific types being buffed or nerfed due to this one weakness.

Also it buffs Zoroark.

 

[Coronis]

Because it is conceptually the anti-air entry hazard (FLOATING rocks have been consistently the flavor text), yet stuff like Flygon is minimally affected by it, while stuff like Volcarona will be highly affected by it while still being vulnerable to the other hazards.

Non-Grounded mons are immune to Spikes/Sticky Web. So without SR, a mon like Flygon/Haunter/Pidgeot/Etc is immune to all entry hazards, which is OP in a switch-heavy meta. Given that, SR is an obvious source of balance, as a commonly-distributed Hazard that deals double damage to the most common group of non-grounded mons(Flying types).

But a grounded mon like Volcarona takes 4x from SR AND is hit by spikes, while Flygon takes half normal SR damage and is immune to spikes.

So if you make SR deal 2x damage to all non-grounded mons, every Rotom form, Flygon, Charizard, etc are all on equal footing with all entry hazards. And they're roughly balanced with grounded mons, in that they're weak to SR and immune to spikes, while Typhlosion and Dugtrio are both affected by hazards identically(normal damage from SR and Spikes). It fixes the weird effect SR currently has on specific types being buffed or nerfed due to this one weakness.

Also it buffs Zoroark.

As a strictly ingame player these days I don’t care about whether SR is balanced or not. Flavourfully it makes sense, and that’s all that matters to me.

 

[Bog Monster]

...

Stealth Rock shouldn't do damage according to how the 'mon is affected by Rock moves. Stealth Rock should do double damage to airbone 'mons instead. So, Flying types, Levitators and Air Balloon users, AKA the stuff that ignores all other entry hazards.

Imagine switching in your air balloon rotom-fan and it dies instantly

 

[Eriorguez]

Airborne doesn't stack tho.

 

[Axiemeister]

As a strictly ingame player these days I don’t care about whether SR is balanced or not. Flavourfully it makes sense, and that’s all that matters to me.

it would still make flavour sense (arguably more so) if it worked as described in this thread, so...

 

[Coronis]

it would still make flavour sense (arguably more so) if it worked as described in this thread, so...

Nah. Its literallu rocks digging into the opponent, it makes sense to work based on type matchups. With Spikes for example the type is basically irrelevant, its just Ground type because the spikes are on the gound - it could also be a Normal or Steel move and make perfect sense

 

[Axiemeister]

Nah. Its literallu rocks digging into the opponent, it makes sense to work based on type matchups. With Spikes for example the type is basically irrelevant, its just Ground type because the spikes are on the gound - it could also be a Normal or Steel move and make perfect sense

then why don't the poison and burn statuses scale their damage with poison and fire type matchups? association with a type doesn't need to imply a type matchup

 

[Coronis]

then why don't the poison and burn statuses scale their damage with poison and fire type matchups? association with a type doesn't need to imply a type matchup

Because they’re statuses - not actual direct attack damage.

 

[Sonikku A]

Bro, imagine if volatile status could stack
Burn + Poison + Para + Sleep on one mon would be disgusting

 

[Coronis]

Bro, imagine if volatile status could stack
Burn + Poison + Para + Sleep on one mon would be disgusting

Would make catching easier.

 

[pika pal]

Bro, imagine if volatile status could stack
Burn + Poison + Para + Sleep on one mon would be disgusting

You have just described why Riki is OP in Xenoblade Chronicles