Unpopular opinions

[DrumstickGaming]

Let's pretend that they can't slow down (which they can, they said so themselves they decide the game's timeframe, but let's pretend), and that they care about a minority of nitpicky fans about how long the games take (they don't), still I feel GF has ignored or even got in a way of potential workarounds that'll let them have a game longer in development. Simply put, hire 3rd party companies to make side games to fill the void if they MUST make a game every year. GF aren't ever going to let a 3rd party make a main series game, but they've let plenty make side games. Why not set an initiative where they, say, let two other companies develop a side game that will be the "main attraction" for two years in a row giving GF about 3 more years of development time.



I'm guessing this thought is toward the GEAR Projects and the failure of Little Town Hero? Yeah, that's a steep hill to climb and I do feel bad for GF that, though they also don't help themselves when they refused to change their development cycle.

Little Town Hero feels like a side project game stretched to be at least a double A game, given triple A marketing, but given no extra time to have its mechanics more thoroughly built upon, graphics to be more polished (& coming up with a system to make the non-major NPCs be different models), and story fleshed out (at the very least so that that you reach the story ending and not a "to be continued"). If GF REALLY felt like LTH had a strong franchise opportunity, what they should have done was develop it over time for a few years with little to nor corners cut. But, whether because they refuse to change their development cycle methods or were desperate to have a new franchise to focus on (or maybe a combination of both), they rushed LTH making it have the same shortcomings are modern Pokemon games and, well, if I want that I'd play a Pokemon game. They themselves ruined LTH's chance, and that's something I can't feel sorry for them about.



As you said, these thoughts are complicated and are as much about the developer as it's about the franchise. Especially a franchise that has a complicated ownership on top of everything else.

Yes I was indirectly referring to Little Town Hero. I straight up haven't even heard of the GEAR stuff! Also, I don't think "triple A marketing" would describe Little Town Hero.

It ended on a "to be continued"? That's a huge oof, wow.

Also, you guys want a fun Game Freak game? Try Mendel Palace on NES, their very first game. Flip tiles over to kill enemies. It's very basic but fun enough and each world has its own music. It is still an NES game, but pretty fun for what it is and I enjoyed my time with it.

Edgy as heck boxart.

To quote TV Tropes:
"The cover artwork and modified title screen for the American NES version was actually a result of a misconception within Game Freak's staff, who believed that American players actually preferred mean-looking "realistic" characters."

tfw your boxart looks like rejected EarthBound enemies.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Yes I was indirectly referring to Little Town Hero. I straight up haven't even heard of the GEAR stuff! Also, I don't think "triple A marketing" would describe Little Town Hero.
View attachment 465465

It ended on a "to be continued"? That's a huge oof, wow.

Also, you guys want a fun Game Freak game? Try Mendel Palace on NES, their very first game. Flip tiles over to kill enemies. It's very basic but fun enough and each world has its own music. It is still an NES game, but pretty fun for what it is and I enjoyed my time with it.

Edgy as heck boxart.

View attachment 465466

To quote TV Tropes:
"The cover artwork and modified title screen for the American NES version was actually a result of a misconception within Game Freak's staff, who believed that American players actually preferred mean-looking "realistic" characters."

tfw your boxart looks like rejected EarthBound enemies.

I literally did not even know the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Little Town Hero existed until this post. Just mentioning that since it only enhances your overall point

Simply put, hire 3rd party companies to make side games to fill the void if they MUST make a game every year. GF aren't ever going to let a 3rd party make a main series game, but they've let plenty make side games. Why not set an initiative where they, say, let two other companies develop a side game that will be the "main attraction" for two years in a row giving GF about 3 more years of development time.

They literally just tried that and it was a contender for worst game in the series that fucked up a bunch of backend transfer code all to keep people occupied for two (2) months before PLA dropped. Not saying that it couldn't be tried again with whatever went wrong with BDSP ironed out, but considering fan reception and the likely behind the scenes problems I won't be surprised if this is a ship that has sailed

 

[Worldie]

I literally did not even know the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Little Town Hero existed until this post. Just mentioning that since it only enhances your overall point

I did but only cause I happened to hear of it in a review video.

Sadly these games were just... a disaster.
In true gamefreak style, a lot of good ideas with mediocre execution, which is a shame cause I really liked the idea!
But all the reviews pointed that after the initial bit, the game would just become slow and repetitive with no real challenge...

Maybe the fact it didn't exactly have huge success is why it wasn't really advertised anyway. Differently from Pokemon which is allowed to produce somewhat subpar games (compared to other games released on same year) and get carried by the brand, the same cannot be said for a IP.

 

[Coronis]

I literally did not even know the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Little Town Hero existed until this post. Just mentioning that since it only enhances your overall point


They literally just tried that and it was a contender for worst game in the series that fucked up a bunch of backend transfer code all to keep people occupied for two (2) months before PLA dropped. Not saying that it couldn't be tried again with whatever went wrong with BDSP ironed out, but considering fan reception and the likely behind the scenes problems I won't be surprised if this is a ship that has sailed

Yes there was a lot of poor reception, which was deserved no doubt, but it was still a clear success as a game for them, its sold 15 million copies, still ahead of Legends: Arceus (yes i know it was released 2 months later). It depends on what they as the developer consider a success and failure and how much the reception from reviews etc bother them. If you’ve still got 15 million people buying a remake game that is supposedly crap I wouldn’t necessarily feel an urgent need to force a change.

 

[Pikachu315111]

It ended on a "to be continued"? That's a huge oof, wow.

Correction. It more feels like you just finished the first chapter of a story. At the start of the game the main character's goal is wanting to leave the town which is under the protection of a castle as long as no one leaves the town. Obviously there's something fishy going on and, skipping ahead to the end, the main character does resolve the plot saving the town but it comes with a huge personal loss that makes them lose all ambition to leave the town.

Imagine playing Okami but it ends after defeating Orochi and saving Kamiki Village. It's like that.

They literally just tried that and it was a contender for worst game in the series that fucked up a bunch of backend transfer code all to keep people occupied for two (2) months before PLA dropped. Not saying that it couldn't be tried again with whatever went wrong with BDSP ironed out, but considering fan reception and the likely behind the scenes problems I won't be surprised if this is a ship that has sailed

How did I know someone was going to say that. I said SIDE game. BDSP was a main series game (heck, it's a core series game). Think Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Colosseum, Conquest, Detective Pikachu.

I really didn't want to bring up BDSP because I'm fairly certain GameFreak sabotaged that game, but that's a topic more for the mystery/conspiracy thread.

 

[Yung Dramps]

How did I know someone was going to say that. I said SIDE game. BDSP was a main series game (heck, it's a core series game). Think Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Colosseum, Conquest, Detective Pikachu.

I really didn't want to bring up BDSP because I'm fairly certain GameFreak sabotaged that game, but that's a topic more for the mystery/conspiracy thread.

I am perfectly aware, but it does not change my point. If you sincerely believe that this company is petty and spiteful enough to deliberately undermine their first attempt at a similar initiative to what you're describing I don't even know why you think them handing the holiday reigns to some spinoff is even a possibility worth dignifying

Now that you mention those old spinoff lines though, here's another talking point for the thread: Most of them simply don't make sense to revive for current hardware, at least not without major changes

-Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is just an outdated, clunkier version of the average modern roguelike, with consumers clearly agreeing as the series has cratered in sales past the 2000s
-Ranger I've already posted about being essentially only viable as a mobile game, which I don't think many of its diehards would be too happy about
-Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a franchise that until extremely recently was almost completely dead in Japan (A quick Wikipedia scroll shows it got a new release in 2022, anyone capable of telling me if it was successful enough to facilitate a broader revival of that series?). The prospects for a sequel on this one would be significantly better if they had gone with the original idea of Pokemon X Fire Emblem
-Orre existed solely to provide a 3D Pokemon campaign in a time where the main series wasn't doing that. It has now been doing so for nearly a decade.

Console spinoffs are cool and we could use more of them, it's just that we should think a bit outside the box and ask for some new stuff. A non-main series 3d game like Colosseum/XD is a bust, but what about a fancy new sprite-based affair in the vein of Square's HD-2D offerings? A Pokemon life simulator, perhaps? Fuckin table tennis? I dunno! Your call!

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Fuckin table tennis?

Bro a team-based Pokemon sports game like baseball or soccer would be fucking wild (a non-team-based sport would also be wild but Pokemon's a team-based game). All the different Pokemon using their unique skills in crazy ways, it'd be like Gamecube era Mario sports games but even more bananas.

 

[Worldie]

Bro a team-based Pokemon sports game like baseball or soccer would be fucking wild (a non-team-based sport would also be wild but Pokemon's a team-based game). All the different Pokemon using their unique skills in crazy ways, it'd be like Gamecube era Mario sports games but even more bananas.

So you mean like...
Pokemon Unite?

 

[Pikachu315111]

If you sincerely believe that this company is petty and spiteful enough to deliberately undermine their first attempt at a similar initiative to what you're describing I don't even know why you think them handing the holiday reigns to some spinoff is even a possibility worth dignifying

Not if there was a point in it. And that point: Only GF can make a main series Pokemon game. When you compare the the job ILCA did with BDSP to any of the recent main series Pokemon games GF has done, well the ones GF made look like masterpieces. Clearly, from this one instance, GF are the only ones who can a main series Pokemon game and no one should ever doubt this or think otherwise, especially The Pokemon Company or Nintendo.
We just gotta ignore that ILCA isn't a major developer or at least on the same level as GF (only seemingly picked because they've previously worked on Home), that either GF or Masuda forced them to work with the old DP code (but not Platinum) and not to change anything unless absolutely necessary (or was something that GF didn't care about like opponent movesets and post game stuff), and probably a bunch of other nonsense restrictions/limitations such as no Pokemon from Gen V+ and having to work with this strange art style of replicating the 2D graphics in 3D (and not allowed to redesign the characters or introduce new ones; which wasn't a thing GF restricted themselves to with other Remakes (aside FRLG's strange no non-Kanto evo until post game side quest)). Heck, they weren't even allowed to bring over the Contest Spectaculars from ORAS, they had to dumb down Super Contests into a simply rhythm game.

However, side games are a different thing altogether. Many don't use the same gameplay as the main series does, more focused on using the Pokemon and few connected mechanics (Type Chart mainly) to build a new game upon (or adapt a Pokemon skin over). Sometimes these games help in the worldbuilding of Pokemon, but just as much these games are just meant to be a fun experience. And in doing so it shows the Pokemon franchise being flexible, that Pokemon are more than battling or battling isn't restricted to a turn-based system. And while I'm sure GF has plenty of side game ideas, they also aren't worried a side game made by a 3rd party is going to reflect on them negatively. If a side series does good, great, that's its own thing over there in the corner which is making The Pokemon Company some money. But if a 3rd party proves they can make a competent, if not good, main/core series title as GF than GF isn't looking as that hot of a developer anymore.

Or, if you want to look at it in a less conspiracy way, could be GF just didn't trust ILCA enough to make a main series to make a main series game without a blue print to follow. Of course, if that's the reason why, then why didn't they get a bigger studio known for making RPG games like Monolith Soft or Square Enix. "Maybe they wanted to work with someone who had worked on a Pokemon game before". Okay, then, Koei Tecmo made Pokemon Conquest and Bandai Namco made Pokken. Or if you want someone familiar with making a game on the same vein as the main/core series, Genius Sonority is still around (I don't think they would have mind taking a break from Cafe Remix).

Console spinoffs are cool and we could use more of them, it's just that we should think a bit outside the box and ask for some new stuff.

I was just listing known examples, when it comes to spin-offs I would think most anything (as long as child friendly) is on the table.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

So you mean like...
Pokemon Unite?

It's kinda sorta basketball, but it's not like a basketball sim with Pokémon.
A Pikachu game that's also a sports game would be interesting, but which one? I would go with soccer, but mainly because I know nothing about baseball.

Speaking of simulations and spin-offs, parts of me are starting to miss the Pikachu series. Hey You Pikachu, Pokémon Channel, that kind of stuff. I have zero idea if pet simulators are a thing, but it would be interesting to see a Nintendogs-like game about Pokémon.

Wait... did I just describe Pokémon Amie?

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Wasn't there a virtual pet game on the Pokémon Mini?

 

[Bakugames]

I just want a new pokemon pinball [monkey paw starts to curl] THAT'S NOT A MOBILE GAME WITH MICROTRANSACTIONS!!!!!!

 

[Rarycaris]

It's actually not a good thing that every mechanic since Z-moves has been usable with every mon. Every single one since has been problematic in competitive -- Dynamax got banned immediately, and Terastal looks like it's going to get banned pretty quickly (at this point probably just on the backs of people who made up their minds the moment it was announced). Realistically the same is true of any future mechanic they will ever release. Z-moves probably would have been banned if there hadn't been such a strong aversion to banning generational mechanics at the time; they're a major reason why late gen 7 OU was such a matchup meta because there were too many threats to feasibly have two checks to all of them.

This is less a problem with the specific mechanics than with the fact so many Pokemon are close enough to being broken that any conceivable mechanic would either be total garbage or would buff them to the point of being banworthy, and surgical buffs in the form Megas provided are the only way to avoid this problem while also allowing surgical bans instead of requiring the mechanic to be taken as a whole.

 

[Worldie]

It's actually not a good thing that every mechanic since Z-moves has been usable with every mon. Every single one since has been problematic in competitive -- Dynamax got banned immediately, and Terastal looks like it's going to get banned pretty quickly (at this point probably just on the backs of people who made up their minds the moment it was announced). Realistically the same is true of any future mechanic they will ever release. Z-moves probably would have been banned if there hadn't been such a strong aversion to banning generational mechanics at the time; they're a major reason why late gen 7 OU was such a matchup meta.

This is less a problem with the specific mechanics than with the fact so many Pokemon are close enough to being broken that any conceivable mechanic would either be total garbage or would buff them to the point of being banworthy, and surgical buffs in the form Megas provided are the only way to avoid this problem while also allowing surgical bans instead of requiring the mechanic to be taken as a whole.

Gen 5 gems ended up being banned.
Given time, Z-moves also will, considering they're basically better gems.

Realistically speaking, it's just a mentality conflict: all these mechanics are made for the fast paced VGC, which both is doubles, 4v4, and also aims to be spectacular and entertaining for an audience.
This is the direct opposite of what the average smogon player wants, which is a more balanced, skill based positional slower match. And I don't mean "stall", I mean in general 6v6 singles are a much slower paced scenario, with much different teambuilding process and much more emphasis on "getting the right pokemon out at the right moment".

The two will never go well toghether. Now nor never.

 

[Ironmage]

It's actually not a good thing that every mechanic since Z-moves has been usable with every mon. Every single one since has been problematic in competitive -- Dynamax got banned immediately, and Terastal looks like it's going to get banned pretty quickly (at this point probably just on the backs of people who made up their minds the moment it was announced). Realistically the same is true of any future mechanic they will ever release. Z-moves probably would have been banned if there hadn't been such a strong aversion to banning generational mechanics at the time; they're a major reason why late gen 7 OU was such a matchup meta.

This is less a problem with the specific mechanics than with the fact so many Pokemon are close enough to being broken that any conceivable mechanic would either be total garbage or would buff them to the point of being banworthy, and surgical buffs in the form Megas provided are the only way to avoid this problem while also allowing surgical bans instead of requiring the mechanic to be taken as a whole.

To add to this: Megas also allowed a lot of lower-tier mons an opportunity to become viable, while universal mechanics are optimally used on mons that are already strong. The exceptions I can think of are when that universality is broken, such as status Z-moves on rare moves (Porygon-Z my beloved).

 

[Samtendo09]

It's actually not a good thing that every mechanic since Z-moves has been usable with every mon. Every single one since has been problematic in competitive -- Dynamax got banned immediately, and Terastal looks like it's going to get banned pretty quickly (at this point probably just on the backs of people who made up their minds the moment it was announced). Realistically the same is true of any future mechanic they will ever release. Z-moves probably would have been banned if there hadn't been such a strong aversion to banning generational mechanics at the time; they're a major reason why late gen 7 OU was such a matchup meta because there were too many threats to feasibly have two checks to all of them.

This is less a problem with the specific mechanics than with the fact so many Pokemon are close enough to being broken that any conceivable mechanic would either be total garbage or would buff them to the point of being banworthy, and surgical buffs in the form Megas provided are the only way to avoid this problem while also allowing surgical bans instead of requiring the mechanic to be taken as a whole.

Gen 5 gems ended up being banned.
Given time, Z-moves also will, considering they're basically better gems.

Realistically speaking, it's just a mentality conflict: all these mechanics are made for the fast paced VGC, which both is doubles, 4v4, and also aims to be spectacular and entertaining for an audience.
This is the direct opposite of what the average smogon player wants, which is a more balanced, skill based positional slower match. And I don't mean "stall", I mean in general 6v6 singles are a much slower paced scenario, with much different teambuilding process and much more emphasis on "getting the right pokemon out at the right moment".

The two will never go well toghether. Now nor never.

To add to this: Megas also allowed a lot of lower-tier mons an opportunity to become viable, while universal mechanics are optimally used on mons that are already strong. The exceptions I can think of are when that universality is broken, such as status Z-moves on rare moves (Porygon-Z my beloved).

We’d need a break from those universal mechanics at this rate, since giving a nice spectacle can end up not being enough for the spectators if it means just the same old viable Pokémon we‘ve seen again and again. The last seasons of VGC tend to reach a nadir once restricted Pokémon comes into play since they can benefit from universal mechanics when they don’t really needed them.

It does not help that Dynamax caused more harm than good for VGC itself... not necessarily by the mechanic itself until the arrival of restricted Pokémon, but rather because of how too many things were revolving around it. As much as several new moves were made to counteract Dynamax, were those really worth it if these moves hit just as hard, if not even harder to non-Dynamax mons as well? I can only hope Terastalizing doesn’t end up in the same issues in VGC, as much as it would get at least suspect tested in Smogon.

 

[Worldie]

We’d need a break from those universal mechanics at this rate, since giving a nice spectacle can end up not being enough for the spectators if it means just the same old viable Pokémon we‘ve seen again and again. The last seasons of VGC tend to reach a nadir once restricted Pokémon comes into play since they can benefit from universal mechanics when they don’t really needed them.

It does not help that Dynamax caused more harm than good for VGC itself... not necessarily by the mechanic itself until the arrival of restricted Pokémon, but rather because of how too many things were revolving around it. As much as several new moves were made to counteract Dynamax, were those really worth it if these moves hit just as hard, if not even harder to non-Dynamax mons as well? I can only hope Terastalizing doesn’t end up in the same issues in VGC, as much as it would get at least suspect tested in Smogon.

I don't know about that bit, while not everyone liked Dynamax, it didn't exactly seem that restrictive at all in VGC, and matches weren't singlehandedly decided by it (if ever).

That said, Terastal is nowhere close to the power level of Dynamax, either ways.
As stated somewhere else, it doesn't provide any special immunity, doesn't double your HP, and doesn't arbitrarly make all your attacks Z-moves with benefits, and has much less flexibility due to it being predetermined at start rather than just empower all of your attacks.
All it does is alter your type chart, and give a extra oompf to a type (being it empowering a stab, or give you a new one).

So despite anything we can say, GF definitely noticed they went way overboard with Dynamax power level and toned it down a lot of notches. How centralizing it'll be, that's to be seen, but I doubt it'll have the level of impact that Dynamax had.

 

[Hugin]

We’d need a break from those universal mechanics at this rate, since giving a nice spectacle can end up not being enough for the spectators if it means just the same old viable Pokémon we‘ve seen again and again. The last seasons of VGC tend to reach a nadir once restricted Pokémon comes into play since they can benefit from universal mechanics when they don’t really needed them.

The obvious solution is what they ALMOST did with Dynamax, making it so that legendaries can't use the generational mechanic. If that was an actual universal rule, it'd help keep the busted regular mons on-par with the BST 680s. Yes, that screws Zapdos etc, but it's at least better than DMax Kyogre.

 

[Worldie]

The obvious solution is what they ALMOST did with Dynamax, making it so that legendaries can't use the generational mechanic. If that was an actual universal rule, it'd help keep the busted regular mons on-par with the BST 680s. Yes, that screws Zapdos etc, but it's at least better than DMax Kyogre.

Eh, not like it changes anything on base concept.

A similar example is the pre-home Ubers, where they had that "dynamax clause lite" where you couldn't dynamax the restricteds.
It's not like it changed anything ultimately: it'd still be a select few that would abuse Dmax.

In general, it's a similar "problem" to when I contest people who say that metas without legendaries would arbitrarly be better: no, you just change who the top 10 are. Expecially as in the case of the gen 8 leges, while they couldn't Dynamax, all of them were inflated in stats & given tools to nuke Dynamax.
If you prevent a group from using <insert mechanic>, all you do is make the next best use it instead.
Mega Evolutions were a clear example too: despite a significant enough amount of pokemon having access to it, in a given tier you'd really only see 2 or 3 of them if even. Mega Blaziken was in ubers but noone used it, why use it when you can use Mega Salamence or Mega Gengar?
You could tecnically use Mega Beedrill in OU, but why bother when you could use Mega Mawile, Medicham or Charizard?

Ultimately, no matter how you slice it, any mechanic will always end up being used by "the top X" that can use it, with all the others capable being ignored.
At that point, "generic mechanic" at least still gives you the option to use it on the fringe cases in some situations. I think it's better conceptually than "target limited" ones.

 

[Rarycaris]

The obvious solution is what they ALMOST did with Dynamax, making it so that legendaries can't use the generational mechanic. If that was an actual universal rule, it'd help keep the busted regular mons on-par with the BST 680s. Yes, that screws Zapdos etc, but it's at least better than DMax Kyogre.

As Worldie says, post-Home, pre-Crown Tundra Ubers had a clause like this. It wasn't well liked for a few reasons:

1) It meant that the best Pokemon were ones which weren't *quite* strong enough to get caught by the clause, to the point that most Ubers were low in the viability rankings and the top ranks were filled with OU mons because they could Dynamax.

2) It meant that OU tiering decisions had a direct effect on Ubers viability.

3) It only worked in the early SS ubers meta because the mons that Game Freak made unable to Dynamax also had specific counters to their opponent Dynamaxing, and were also very strong by Ubers standards. Doing it with older box legendaries risks the problem recurring of those mons being just worse than lower BST mons due to lacking access to the mechanic; the fanservicey cover legendaries *should* feel overpowered, and IMO it's generally indicative of a design flaw when they don't.

That's not to say your solution is completely unworkable on Game Freak's end (I don't think it's a good idea for Smogon to mod the game this way again). Dynamax was by far the most broken of the generational mechanics, and a more toned down one might not so aggressively bridge the gap between OU and Ubers. As long as it was limited to the box legendaries and specific mythicals (Arceus, Hoopa), it might be workable in that setting.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

We’d need a break from those universal mechanics at this rate, since giving a nice spectacle can end up not being enough for the spectators if it means just the same old viable Pokémon we‘ve seen again and again. The last seasons of VGC tend to reach a nadir once restricted Pokémon comes into play since they can benefit from universal mechanics when they don’t really needed them.

About Dynamax, it's worth noting there are three Pokémon who can't ever Dynamax: Zacian, Zamazenta, and Eternatus. It's funny because Eternatus caused Dynsmax.
They do, however, get signature moves that deal extra damage to Dynamaxed Pokémon. Which I guess is meant to be balanced on paper?

Interestingly, Zacian and Eternatus also happened to be really good Pokémon outside of Dynamax. In Zacian's case, absurd even. So I guess there is power creep even outside of the generational gimmick.

Looking back to what Samtendo09 said, an entire generation with few restricted Pokémon available would be a gamechanger in a good way, but sadly, it looks like GF wants us, the players, to play with old cover legendary Pokémon in most games.

So as disappointing as it would be to see Kyogre and Groudon in Gen IX's later VGC teams, I won't be surprised. It's marketing. The public loves to see behemoths of the land and the sea, and TPC knows it. Thanks to great stats and iconic formerly signature Abilities, these two in particular have survived multiple generations and are to this day still VGC staples. I don't even dislike either Pokémon, they are dope. But imagine a world where the likes of Politoed and Ninetales were the Rain and Sun setters in later VGC metagames.
Oh yeah, I forgot who said it, but why does Tyranitar summon Sandstorm? Granted, I also couldn't find a reason why Ninetales can summon Sunny Day.

 

[pika pal]

Ultimately, no matter how you slice it, any mechanic will always end up being used by "the top X" that can use it, with all the others capable being ignored.
At that point, "generic mechanic" at least still gives you the option to use it on the fringe cases in some situations. I think it's better conceptually than "target limited" ones.

My issue with this particular mentality is at that point, if we're going to end up with the top-end simply abusing the mechanic over the less-top-end stuff anyway, I think the specifics are better because at least in that case the number of stupid options is less likely to be giant and wide-reaching to the point of being impossible to balance or Suspect specific troublemakers. It's almost a given that with any mechanic, we will have users who become incredibly unhealthy presences because of it.

With Megas, when Lucario and Kangaskhan got their megas banned, I still got to at least keep things like Steelix, Blastoise, Lopunny, Manectric, etc. in their "fittest form" for either specific teams or lower tiers. This is in part because the Megas bore in mind what Pokemon they were attached to and so could result in improvements beyond "make number bigger so thing die" like with Sableye's Magic Bounce or Mega Scizor specializing more in Bulky sets. With Z-Moves, we ended up with virtually the entire attacking side of the game using Z-Moves to break opposing Checks/Counters, and Dynamax similarly saw abuse by everything that benefitted from Z-Moves w/ Extra Effects + Doubled Health. Were these mechanics banned to cull the OP shit, the weaker mons who were simply "good" by using it would see their viability suffer all the harder for it because of other Pokemon who were already better than them. It's not exactly feasible to try banning all the unhealthy dozens of users instead of the mechanic, especially with no guarantee the former ends up with something playable.

When the mechanics are specific, the abusers are narrow enough to identify, so they get smacked. When the mechanic is generic, everyone can use it, so everyone suffers when the top 10% are busted, because 10% of the Pokedex or even just OU is too many for any balance team we've seen to actually juggle.

 

[Ransei]

N can't be a well-executed character if he is a great rival, or a rival at all.

He unknowingly became the very thing he tried to fight off against well before the climax of the game.

If you say he challenges you to reaffirm that he's right I'll need to inform that based on his own philosophy, he's sacrificing the well-being of his own Pokémon to do so, making it seem as if he cared more about his selfish ideologies than he did about his Pokémon.

 

[Samtendo09]

N can't be a well-executed character if he is a great rival, or a rival at all.

He unknowingly became the very thing he tried to fight off against well before the climax of the game.

If you say he challenges you to reaffirm that he's right I'll need to inform that based on his own philosophy, he's sacrificing the well-being of his own Pokémon to do so, making it seem as if he cared more about his selfish ideologies than he did about his Pokémon.

Can’t argue against it…

Except that it’s possible that he wanted to test out himself if the Pokémon battles are really as bad as he and some of his followers made it out to be, or if it turned out to be a simple, mostly friendly spar as long as both sides don’t go overboard or breaks the important rules. He doesn’t seems to want to have his Pokémon hurt, but is willing to test things out to see why Pokémon battling is a familiarity since human and Pokémon interacted, and trusted the player character enough to prove it.

 

[Sceptilian70]

Pretty sure this is unpopular: so here you go: I really love the Gen 9 starters and evos and honestly all of Gen 9's new Mons in general. Yeah Gen 9 has flaws, but I love it in spite of those flaws.