Unpopular opinions

[Ryota Mitarai]

This. I've never replaced any pokémon from my ingame team in GSC or HGSS with a pokémon caught in Kanto because they are so underleveled, usually in their 20ies. I think in remakes gyms bring more challenge but it's not valid enough reason to replace your high level team member with L20 Murkrow or something. :P In Gen II I usually just speedrun through Kanto in 2 hours or less just to get access to Mt.Silver.

I also agree with Siggu about level curve issues... I've played recently through all 3 games. Gold as a regular play-through, Crystal in slow-mode (catching every pokémon and exploring everything) and Silver in Nuzlocke. What these all got common was that after defeating Morty you're forced to grind for 4+ hours from level 15 to 25 with wild low level pokémon. There isn't nowhere near enough trainers to get to decent levels.

I'm not sure but can you go to Lake of Rage before going for Cianwood City (5th Gym) and defeat Team Rocket at Mahogany Town and at Radio Tower? I've never tried that to be honest, I've always just struggled myself through Fighting and Steel gyms with severely low leveled team. :D

You can go to the Lake of Rage before fighting Morty, but you won't have Surf to get through it. I think the game intends you to take that route after beating Morty and do the Team Rocket quest since if you do it, you are actually pretty on par with Chuck's team.

 

[Zelen]

You can go to the Lake of Rage before fighting Morty, but you won't have Surf to get through it. I think the game intends you to take that route after beating Morty and do the Team Rocket quest since if you do it, you are actually pretty on par with Chuck's team.

It makes sense now as I started to think about it. It's still weird that I've played these games "wrong" for such a long time. I think I had official GSC guide published by Nintendo but yet I still was forcing myself to go to Cianwood City. :D (it was a thick magazine that did cost around half from the price of the game).

Meh, it sucks that I don't have it anymore. I think I did read it through way too many times and it eventually dissolved. It was great during early years of pokémon before everything was available in Internet. D:

 

[MyNameIsLouise]

3D sprites hail in comparison to 2D sprites. Just look up a picture of Typlosion’s gen 5 sprite, and then his 3D counterpart. He goes from cool armadillo dude to a slimy rodent ad he just looks sooo awkward.

Dawn was terrible in the anime. Everyone else before her had something defining about their personality, but Dawn is kind of like a dumbed down version of May. And more annoying, too.

Charizard and Mewtwo. Both get two mega evolutions. Only their Y mega evolutions are cool and their X mega evolutions make no sense (seriously, Mewtwo turns into a fighting type?? And Charizard is now blue/black??)
Also now there are rumors that they’ll be getting a Sword/Shield form in the new games. Why so spoiled?

The fairy type is under appreciated, because not only are there good mons (Xerneas, Florges, Tapu Lele, etc) but they also calmed down all the insanely powerful dragon types and have an immunity to Draco Meteor and a locked-in Outrage.

Palkia and Dialga are by far the worst looking box art legendaries.
Palkia doesn’t even look like a water type at all and is over designed.
Dialga is like a weird horse thing and it’s head weirds me out.

Dragonite is stupid and I hate him. He’s so under designed and both of his pre evolutions look much better and are more original. Also, how does a beautiful little serpent queen evolve into an obese Charizard??

Gen 1 has by far the worst Pokémon of any generation. Out of all the Pokémon, only a few have something going for them. Snorlax, Arcanine, Vaporeon, Lapras, Gyarados, Gengar and Zapdos.
Other than that, Persian is just a cat with a gem on it’s head, Tauros is a bull with a gem on it’s head, the Kingler is just a crab, Raticate is a rat, and PIDGEY IS A FREAKIN’ FAT BIRD. These are just a few, there’s tons more horribly designed monsters but I can’t be bothered to list everyone here.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

I'm sure the reason Charizard gets a X mega evolution that makes it turn black and into Fire/Dragon is a tryhard attempt to make Charizard look cool. Mega Charizard X looks awful. That single shoulder tumor with two hors... no guys, it's not "horns", it's an infected swollen lump that probably traveled to the rest of its body and is turning its skin color dark and sickly, and we need to take Charizard to a Pokemon Center rather than have it fight. Charizard Y also looks stupid, too, just not as stupid. Oh, and "obese Charizard", Charizard is already obese to begin with. :P

Mewtwo's Y form looks stupid too. It now has its crotch for a face. That's swell. Not threatening at all. X is tolerable, but I also dislike Mewtwo too, so whatever.

My only complaint for the Fairy type is that it resists bug for some unfathomable reason. It should be weak to bug and bug should resist it. Why do seven whole types resist bug!?? Are dark, grass, and psychic super effective hits really important?

Gen 1 is home to some of the worst Pokemon designs, IMO. It's the only gen where evolutions are just bigger and angrier versions of Pokemon. Poliwrath. Muk. Primeape. Electrode (upside-down, smuggier Voltorb). Seel. And also, it's home to Seaking. Screw Seaking.

Disagree about Dialga and Palkia but feel free to share your opinions without being judged.

 

[adman2]

This. I've never replaced any pokémon from my ingame team in GSC or HGSS with a pokémon caught in Kanto because they are so underleveled, usually in their 20ies. I think in remakes gyms bring more challenge but it's not valid enough reason to replace your high level team member with L20 Murkrow or something. :P In Gen II I usually just speedrun through Kanto in 2 hours or less just to get access to Mt.Silver.

I remember playing around with Murkrow (found in Kanto) in my ingame team when the original Johto games were new, but that was because Dark and Steel types were novel then.

 

[Kurona]

3D sprites hail in comparison to 2D sprites. Just look up a picture of Typlosion’s gen 5 sprite, and then his 3D counterpart. He goes from cool armadillo dude to a slimy rodent ad he just looks sooo awkward.

Yeah, the XY models and animations were for the most part pretty damn bad and it's extremely disappointing that they're being used three gens on.

 

[Rarycaris]

It also introduced the well-appreciated mechanic of respawning legendaries.

Pretty sure this was in Platinum.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Oh, I skipped Platinum. A lot of Pokemon games to keep track of. But either way, you don't have to worry about accidentally killing Sudowoodo or something, unlike in the original version, which I find to be a good step up over the original.

Yeah, the XY models and animations were for the most part pretty damn bad and it's extremely disappointing that they're being used three gens on.

I personally think the model and animations are better than the sprites. They allow for dynamic camera angles and whatnot, and they also don't look all robotic and jambled as they do in the Black and White generation. Their real problems are the texture work and poses. I have no idea why they decided to make the textures so washed out when they were fine in the Mystery Dungeon games. Some of the poses, I agree are pretty bland, but I think 3d models and stuff have potential so I like to see them continue in that direction.

 

[earl]

Why do a fair share of BW sprites inflate? It looks super dumb and not realistic even for the Pokemon world

 

[Kurona]

I personally think the model and animations are better than the sprites. They allow for dynamic camera angles and whatnot, and they also don't look all robotic and jambled as they do in the Black and White generation. Their real problems are the texture work and poses. I have no idea why they decided to make the textures so washed out when they were fine in the Mystery Dungeon games. Some of the poses, I agree are pretty bland, but I think 3d models and stuff have potential so I like to see them continue in that direction.

I'm not saying we move back to sprites; I specified XY's models and poses which continue to be used. There's nothing wrong with like the entire concept of doing stuff in 3D; thinking so would just be dumb.
It's just that the XY models and poses which continue to be used are just terrible. Typhlosion, Swellow, Xatu, Hitmontop, Lucario; I could go on and on.

 

[DreamPrince]

3D sprites hail in comparison to 2D sprites. Just look up a picture of Typlosion’s gen 5 sprite, and then his 3D counterpart. He goes from cool armadillo dude to a slimy rodent ad he just looks sooo awkward.

Dawn was terrible in the anime. Everyone else before her had something defining about their personality, but Dawn is kind of like a dumbed down version of May. And more annoying, too.

Charizard and Mewtwo. Both get two mega evolutions. Only their Y mega evolutions are cool and their X mega evolutions make no sense (seriously, Mewtwo turns into a fighting type?? And Charizard is now blue/black??)
Also now there are rumors that they’ll be getting a Sword/Shield form in the new games. Why so spoiled?

The fairy type is under appreciated, because not only are there good mons (Xerneas, Florges, Tapu Lele, etc) but they also calmed down all the insanely powerful dragon types and have an immunity to Draco Meteor and a locked-in Outrage.

Palkia and Dialga are by far the worst looking box art legendaries.
Palkia doesn’t even look like a water type at all and is over designed.
Dialga is like a weird horse thing and it’s head weirds me out.

Dragonite is stupid and I hate him. He’s so under designed and both of his pre evolutions look much better and are more original. Also, how does a beautiful little serpent queen evolve into an obese Charizard??

Gen 1 has by far the worst Pokémon of any generation. Out of all the Pokémon, only a few have something going for them. Snorlax, Arcanine, Vaporeon, Lapras, Gyarados, Gengar and Zapdos.
Other than that, Persian is just a cat with a gem on it’s head, Tauros is a bull with a gem on it’s head, the Kingler is just a crab, Raticate is a rat, and PIDGEY IS A FREAKIN’ FAT BIRD. These are just a few, there’s tons more horribly designed monsters but I can’t be bothered to list everyone here.

I disagree on Palkia and Dialga being badly designed. I just think the issue is that both have very complicated designs. I remember Masuda mentioning that Dialga and Palkia were among the hardest to name.Both are phsically based on dinosaurs, with Palkia being theropod and Dialga being a sauropod. There are several allusions for why Palkia is a Water Type:

• Pearls, its motif, are found in the ocean originally.
• If you look at its claw plates, as well as its " wings " on the back, they look like the fins of a fish.
• Its head look like that of a Goblin Shark. ( See below )
• Another theory that explains its Water typing is that Astronauts often use water to simulate weightlessness before going into space.

Now Dialga is a bit more straight forward, but some people speculate that its steel typing comes from the fact that diamonds are compressed and come from alloy of steel and carbon. ( Or something similar, I'm bad at Chemistry. ) Alternatively, it might come from the fact that most clock parts are metal. If you closely at the stripes, you'll notice that they resemble clock hands.

I really wish Gamefreak would go into much more detail on how they design Pokemon, rather than just give tidbits, because this is all just speculation. Like, release an actual artbook like Intelligent Systems did for Fire Emblem Awakening and they are about to do Fire Emblem Fates. The Awakening artbook not only showcased how he designed the characters but on how they animated the scenes as well full fledged Illustrations. As far as I know, I don't remember Pokemon releasing an artbook. Which is a shame, because Pokemon have some incredibly complex designs.

Yeah, the XY models and animations were for the most part pretty damn bad and it's extremely disappointing that they're being used three gens on.

I also agree that the XY models weren't exactly the greatest, but I can see why it wasn't the greatest; as an inspiring Illustrator with an intention to minor in Animation, Computer Animation is very difficult. It takes a lot of effort to model, rig, light, texture, then animate: Imagine doing it for 600 + characters. So that's why I can excuse them. My problem however, is that there has been little to no attempt to make them more livelier or heck, more proportionally accurate for the past few years.

Look at this video from Pokemon Battle Revolution using Dialga and Palkia ( Decided to show these two off due to talking about them. ) Look how Palkia gets up on its wings to use Brine and Thunder, while Dialga slowly moves back up from being struck by its attacks. When fainting Dialga slowly tumbles to its left and collapses, while Palkia tries to stands but only to fall forward. Even during turn selection, both are raring to go, with Palkia and Dialga lighting up. Not to mention the huge size difference visible between them when compared to their trainers.

But the 3DS games never did any of this. Looking James Baek's videos, Dialga barely moves during turn selection, only making an interesting pose during the attacks, which is hardly visible thanks to the animations of the moves. And I can't really tell that Kyogre is supposed to be 16ft wide. So this is my unpopular opinion: I prefer the animations and models from the stadium series over the core RPGs since they give me a more of a battle ready vibe. While I can excuse it for XY because they were rushing, it shouldn't be this for two generations.

You know, Masuda stated there are no more stadium games because the games are in 3D already, which was the main point of the Stadium series. Yet strangely, the core series doesn't have any of the previously mentioned, nor does fix it anything, nor does it have that giant stadium feel. While I can excuse that due to the smaller size of the 3DS, there's no reason for why the Switch can't handle those animations.It all goes back to the yearly, releases: not enough time to fix these models, but as long as they make money who cares? Let's Go was a perfect opportunity to brush up some models, since there was only 153 Pokemon, but no. The lack of care slowly ruins the quality of the franchise, while making rely on its brand name.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Sure but I interpreted that post as if it's a downgrade. And I know that people used to argue that 3D would take away the inherent "charm" that 2d has, which I believe was argued in this forum many times, where we even have a thread exclusively how bad some Pokemon look in 3D, so I think I read in between the lines.

IMO I think Hitmontop is an upgrade. :P

we got from

clumsily teetering Hitmontop that's inexplicably bobbing and ruining the headspike

or Hitmontop in a really bad free-fall dream

to dance star Hitmontop with nice attack animations

It takes a lot of effort to model, rig, light, texture, then animate: Imagine doing it for 600 + characters.

It certainly does, but if you're a pro, you can probably model one entire Pokemon, from the first primitive you put in Maya, to the complete texture in one day. Lighting is pretty irrelevant unless you mean how light interacts with the texture, though Pokemon doesn't seem to have any special textures, like bumpmaps and specmaps and metalmaps and maps that deal with incandescence), that deal with lighting nor does Pokemon seem to employ and sort of advanced lighting; again though, I don't think setting up lights is the modeler or animator tasks. Rigging doesn't seem too hard either, neither does the animation. But again, you have to deal with 600 characters along with environment modeling. But good news is that a LOT of people worked on Pokemon X and Y, with a whopping 11 character modelers (games generally don't have a lot of those compared to the environment and prop artists as character modeling is a highly specialized profession and requires top-notch 3d work and not a realistic aspiration if you want to be a 3d modeler; even in Pokemon's case, there are 20 environment modelers). I can't really fault the modelers though, as their job is only to model and texture; we have to look at the animators who rig and pose, which I'm not sure who is responsible.

 

[Siggu]

I really wish Gamefreak would go into much more detail on how they design Pokemon, rather than just give tidbits, because this is all just speculation. Like, release an actual artbook like Intelligent Systems did for Fire Emblem Awakening and they are about to do Fire Emblem Fates. The Awakening artbook not only showcased how he designed the characters but on how they animated the scenes as well full fledged Illustrations. As far as I know, I don't remember Pokemon releasing an artbook. Which is a shame, because Pokemon have some incredibly complex designs.

All we've got is a few interviews and videos stating origins and other data, such as how Ditto is based on the ":)" emoticon, or how Lugia was actually intended to be a Water-type until the typing was changed, and a tiny etcetera.

I'd like to see more about it, too. Especially for things like Remoraid to Octillery, which many don't have any idea what it means (and maybe we still don't have the exact idea).

 

[Detective Barricade]

All we've got is a few interviews and videos stating origins and other data, such as how Ditto is based on the ":)" emoticon, or how Lugia was actually intended to be a Water-type until the typing was changed, and a tiny etcetera.

I'd like to see more about it, too. Especially for things like Remoraid to Octillery, which many don't have any idea what it means (and maybe we still don't have the exact idea).

I don't know, I think the Gold/Silver beta demo sprites for them made it pretty explicit that they're going from a gun to a tank. (and was dialed back considerably for the final designs because parents would lose their minds otherwise)

 

[DreamPrince]

Sure but I interpreted that post as if it's a downgrade. And I know that people used to argue that 3D would take away the inherent "charm" that 2d has, which I believe was argued in this forum many times, where we even have a thread exclusively how bad some Pokemon look in 3D, so I think I read in between the lines.

IMO I think Hitmontop is an upgrade. :P

we got from

clumsily teetering Hitmontop that's inexplicably bobbing and ruining the headspike

or Hitmontop in a really bad free-fall dream

to dance star Hitmontop with nice attack animations

It certainly does, but if you're a pro, you can probably model one entire Pokemon, from the first primitive you put in Maya, to the complete texture in one day. Lighting is pretty irrelevant unless you mean how light interacts with the texture, though Pokemon doesn't seem to have any special textures, like bumpmaps and specmaps and metalmaps and maps that deal with incandescence), that deal with lighting nor does Pokemon seem to employ and sort of advanced lighting; again though, I don't think setting up lights is the modeler or animator tasks. Rigging doesn't seem too hard either, neither does the animation. But again, you have to deal with 600 characters along with environment modeling. But good news is that a LOT of people worked on Pokemon X and Y, with a whopping 11 character modelers (games generally don't have a lot of those compared to the environment and prop artists as character modeling is a highly specialized profession and requires top-notch 3d work and not a realistic aspiration if you want to be a 3d modeler; even in Pokemon's case, there are 20 environment modelers). I can't really fault the modelers though, as their job is only to model and texture; we have to look at the animators who rig and pose, which I'm not sure who is responsible.

I believe that Creatures Inc. was in charge of the 3D Modeling animation for XY. I guess they hired Creatures.Inc because barely anyone at GameFreak knew animate that well so they had to hire another company. Creatures is also known for making the Ranger series and Detective Pikachu.

All we've got is a few interviews and videos stating origins and other data, such as how Ditto is based on the ":)" emoticon, or how Lugia was actually intended to be a Water-type until the typing was changed, and a tiny etcetera.

I'd like to see more about it, too. Especially for things like Remoraid to Octillery, which many don't have any idea what it means (and maybe we still don't have the exact idea).

I'm more interested in Legendary Pokemon, since they are considered by GameFreak to be most difficult to design.

Also, another unpopular opinion, I prefer models used in Detective Pikachu over the core series games.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

I feel like I have posted this one in the past but I'm too lazy to check so:

I love a lot the Veterans and Ace Trainers from BW because I think they live up so much to their actual trainer class. They use such a high variety of Pokemon that just exceeds 5x times the poor distribution of mons among other trainer classes throughout the gens (like in HGSS Ace Trainers are pretty pathetic in team rosters). Mons that I remember from BW that they use include: Stoutland, Basculin, Darmanitan, Escavalier, Accelgor, Eelektross, Gigalith, Mienfoo, Klang, and etc. They are a lot, I would say the amount of different mons they use is 1/5 the dex.

 

[Magcargo]

While I initially hated it, I've grown to like Mega Audno. I still wish another Unova Pokemon got a Mega Evolution, but Audino getting one definitely helps it stand out a lot more than it did before. Before it got a Mega Evolution, I considered is a pretty generic Chansey clone that was mainly useful for getting easy EXP. Didn't find its design too appealing, its typing was generic and its stats, though not bad, weren't anything to write home about either. Audino's Mega Evolution gave the Pokemon a fresh new design that's much cuter than its original one, and can stand better on its own rather than being directly compared to Chansey / other Pink Blobs, an interesting Fairy / Normal type, and genuinely amazing defensive stats that not many other Pokemon can match. Really, my only gripe with the mon is that it got stuck with Healer as its ability, which is pretty much useless in singles.
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Not sure how unpopular an opinion this one is, but I like Mega Garchomp much more than regular Chomp. Always thought it was way cooler due to Guillotine-like arms and even though its more jagged chin does make it look a bit goofy, it also gives it a more battle-hardened look if that makes any sense, which I like. I also prefer its offensive statspread compared to normal chomp for a few reasons. The devs didn't make it a direct upgrade over Chomp, but rather, a sort of side grade more geared towards wallbreaking, which I like. Additionally, even though its speed tier is worse than normal Chomp's, I don't think its ~that~ bad since it still has enough a good portion of relevant Pokemon like Landorous-T, though getting beaten by base 95s and 100s does kinda suck. Really, my only gripe with the mon is its ability, which while not awful, is more situational than something like Sheer Force or Intimidate, which would have definitely seen more practical use on Chomp.

 

[DreamPrince]

While I initially hated it, I've grown to like Mega Audno. I still wish another Unova Pokemon got a Mega Evolution, but Audino getting one definitely helps it stand out a lot more than it did before. Before it got a Mega Evolution, I considered is a pretty generic Chansey clone that was mainly useful for getting easy EXP. Didn't find its design too appealing, its typing was generic and its stats, though not bad, weren't anything to write home about either. Audino's Mega Evolution gave the Pokemon a fresh new design that's much cuter than its original one, and can stand better on its own rather than being directly compared to Chansey / other Pink Blobs, an interesting Fairy / Normal type, and genuinely amazing defensive stats that not many other Pokemon can match. Really, my only gripe with the mon is that it got stuck with Healer as its ability, which is pretty much useless in singles.
.
Not sure how unpopular an opinion this one is, but I like Mega Garchomp much more than regular Chomp. Always thought it was way cooler due to Guillotine-like arms and even though its more jagged chin does make it look a bit goofy, it also gives it a more battle-hardened look if that makes any sense, which I like. I also prefer its offensive statspread compared to normal chomp for a few reasons. The devs didn't make it a direct upgrade over Chomp, but rather, a sort of side grade more geared towards wallbreaking, which I like. Additionally, even though its speed tier is worse than normal Chomp's, I don't think its ~that~ bad since it still has enough a good portion of relevant Pokemon like Landorous-T, though getting beaten by base 95s and 100s does kinda suck. Really, my only gripe with the mon is its ability, which while not awful, is more situational than something like Sheer Force or Intimidate, which would have definitely seen more practical use on Chomp.

I think the issue with Mega Audino is that it takes up a Mega Slot and is very passive, it feels like one of those Pokemon who would be better as a regular evolution. Not to mention that Healer is useless ability in Singles, and in Doubles, well, let's just say that it has an extremely high opportunity cost. Though I do appreciate it as a brilliant check to fighting types on Mono-Normal teams, even though its currently ranked D.

I do agree that there could be more Unovan Pokemon that can use utilize a Mega Evolution- like Swanna. I've always like Swanna. Excellent typing offensively and Defensively, and strong movepool of Hurricane and Brave Bird. Yet, base stats hold it back so much. I could rant a bit more about Mega Evolution, but those points are already spoken of so I'm not gonna.

So I'm gonna talk about Z-Moves instead. My qualm with Z-Moves is that they only help Pokemon who were good before hand adjust to the powercreep. In a VGC sense, that means Landorus-T, Volcarona, Incineroar- Pokemon who were already good before Z-Moves. The reason I find it a problem is that despite GF's attempt to make all Pokemon usable is via Z-Moves, it still leaves Pokemon horribly outclassed. An example would be Ledian- Z-Moves aren't going to make it the top of VGC, but a Mega might.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Dawn was terrible in the anime. Everyone else before her had something defining about their personality, but Dawn is kind of like a dumbed down version of May. And more annoying, too.

Well until Serena in XY, Dawn was the mostly "girly-girl" of Ash's female companions. In addition to that a lot of her character is based in her backstory, she's a daughter of a famous Coordinator so she's sort of living in her mother's shadow trying to become a Coordinator herself. While May never questioned about being a Coordinator, there was several times Dawn wondered if she actually wanted to be a Coordinator or was just doing it because it was what her mother wanted. And while Gym battling wasn't her thing, she does have a sense for fashion which lead to interactions with Pokemon Stylists, a type of coordinator who designed clothes and accessories for Pokemon and trainers. While Dawn at the moment is still a Coordinator, the anime has hinted several times she could become a Stylist.

Charizard and Mewtwo. Both get two mega evolutions. Only their Y mega evolutions are cool and their X mega evolutions make no sense (seriously, Mewtwo turns into a fighting type?? And Charizard is now blue/black??)
Also now there are rumors that they’ll be getting a Sword/Shield form in the new games. Why so spoiled?

Money. That said, it does feel strange only they get two Mega Evolutions. And while Mewtwo I could buy getting two, I do agree Charizard getting too is a bit pandering (not impressed with MCX myself, I rather they made MCY Dragon-type).
That said, remember the Armor Evolution thing is just a rumor.

The fairy type is under appreciated, because not only are there good mons (Xerneas, Florges, Tapu Lele, etc) but they also calmed down all the insanely powerful dragon types and have an immunity to Draco Meteor and a locked-in Outrage.

They are? I though Fairy-type was well received and some feel that, in trying to nerf Dragons, they made Fairy-types OP.

BTW, the Dragon-type wasn't really all that OP. The Type was rather scarce in Type match-ups. What made Dragon-types very powerful was because it had a lot of powerful Pokemon that just so happened to be Dragon-type, notably many Legendaries and pseudo-Legendaries. And whenever they just a random Dragon-type (Druddigon, Axew family, Noibat family) they're not all that great as they don't have the stats to make up for the lack of Types match-ups.

Dragonite is stupid and I hate him. He’s so under designed and both of his pre evolutions look much better and are more original. Also, how does a beautiful little serpent queen evolve into an obese Charizard??

Actually Dragonite is more like an obese Dragonair that grew arms and legs. Remove the arms and legs and Dragonite keeps the serpent body. It feels like they may have wanted to mix the two most popular dragon concepts (the sea serpent and winged reptile) because, well, the Dratini family was the first Dragon-types.

I'm not saying we move back to sprites; I specified XY's models and poses which continue to be used. There's nothing wrong with like the entire concept of doing stuff in 3D; thinking so would just be dumb.
It's just that the XY models and poses which continue to be used are just terrible. Typhlosion, Swellow, Xatu, Hitmontop, Lucario; I could go on and on.

The problem is many Pokemon are just standing there/hovering in place (notable for winged Pokemon who are somehow flying without flapping their wings). Why aren't they in a more dynamic, "ready-for-battle" pose? That's how the sprites were, many Pokemon look to be in an in-between action pose. We don't want to see the Pokemon just standing there, we want to see them looking cool/cute/funny (depending on the Pokemon, obviously)!

There are several allusions for why Palkia is a Water Type:

Palkia might be Water-type because the most common element in the universe is hydrogen. The most recognizable form of hydrogen? H20, water.

It takes a lot of effort to model, rig, light, texture, then animate: Imagine doing it for 600 + characters. So that's why I can excuse them.

For XY it was excusable... but they didn't have that excuse in Gen VII. With now most of the Pokemon models made, why not go back to at least the ones in the National Dex and touch up their animations? Hoping they maybe do this for Gen VIII and the first trailer is just from the early days when they've been mostly focusing on building the region.

I think the issue with Mega Audino is that it takes up a Mega Slot...

(...)

So I'm gonna talk about Z-Moves instead. My qualm with Z-Moves is that they only help Pokemon who were good before hand adjust to the powercreep. In a VGC sense, that means Landorus-T, Volcarona, Incineroar- Pokemon who were already good before Z-Moves. The reason I find it a problem is that despite GF's attempt to make all Pokemon usable is via Z-Moves, it still leaves Pokemon horribly outclassed. An example would be Ledian- Z-Moves aren't going to make it the top of VGC, but a Mega might.

I think the main problem with Megas and Z-Moves are the same: you can only use one of each. They can give each fully evolved Pokemon a Mega Evolution, however the ones people are going to use are most likely the ones who were already good in their base form. Same issue with Z-Move, why give it to any other Pokemon besides the one that can hit the strongest?

Now am I suggesting they should allow multiple Pokemon to Mega Evolve or use Z-Moves? Actually yes... but with a catch. While I myself have thought how it could work, it's all wishlisting so I'll keep my thoughts simple: you can Mega Evolve as many Pokemon as you want but only one of your Pokemon can be Mega Evolved at a time and each Mega Evolution has diminishing value (until the only change would be any Type and Ability changes with nothing changed about the stats). Same with Z-Moves, the more of them you use the weaker they become.

I also think maybe they should find a way to combine Mega Evolution and Z-Moves but once again that's going into wishlisting territory so I'll just stop right here.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

I think the main problem with Megas and Z-Moves are the same: you can only use one of each. They can give each fully evolved Pokemon a Mega Evolution, however the ones people are going to use are most likely the ones who were already good in their base form. Same issue with Z-Move, why give it to any other Pokemon besides the one that can hit the strongest?

I mean, there are Megas like Beedrill that are useless in base form but are actually pretty strong in their Mega (esp in LGPE OU, where Mega Bee is a viable Mega option). I think the approach with Mega is to give it to weaker mons, as opposed to give it to, um I don't know, Mewtwo, Latios, Latias and Diancie??? Or to strongholds like Lucario and Salamence. Kangaskhan is also another example like Beedrill; Kanga isn't that great but its Mega is Ubers (albeit unviable Ubers). If they didn't give some strongholds Megas, then the Mega concept would be much more interesting and better executed.

 

[Sondero]

BTW, the Dragon-type wasn't really all that OP. The Type was rather scarce in Type match-ups. What made Dragon-types very powerful was because it had a lot of powerful Pokemon that just so happened to be Dragon-type, notably many Legendaries and pseudo-Legendaries. And whenever they just a random Dragon-type (Druddigon, Axew family, Noibat family) they're not all that great as they don't have the stats to make up for the lack of Types match-ups.

While the Dragon type seems like it was just good because some good Pokemon just happened to be dragon type, I think the fact that they were dragon type is a huge reason as to why they were good. In competitive Pokemon, a good sweeper doesn't necessarily care about what types it's super effective against. After 1 or 2 boosts, it can finish off a lot of Pokemon that it hits neutrally with STAB, especially if hazards are up. And Dragon wasn't a bad STAB, aside from steel, it was completely unresisted in gen 5. And what type has an ability that specifically traps that one type? Steel! So the one type that resists dragon has the potential of getting easily lured, trapped and eliminated. It wasn't a bad defensive type either, it resists 4 types that are quite common, while only being weak to itself and ice.

It's easy to say that the type isn't that great because it's super effective against practically no types, but only being resisted by one type is such a good quality that outweighs it quite a bit. So while it's not a type that's super effective against much, it has a lot of stuff going for it when making great set-up sweepers. The type is good defensively, if it gets set up, there's only 1 type that resists the main STAB and most dragon types have a coverage move that helps against it like Earthquake or Fire Blast/Fire Punch/Flamethrower etc., there's also the fact that Magnet Pull exists, and of course, the only status move that happens to be dragon is an excellent one that boosts both their speed and attack in one turn.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

It's also worth mentioning that Dragon had key resistances to Grass, Electric, Water, and Fire, of which 3 are relatively common types in casual and only weaknesses to itself and Ice, but we know how subpar Ice-types were before Fairies appeared. So not only Dragon had almost no resistances against it, but it also could shrug off considerable amount of types.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

I wish they didn't affix megas to already-strong Pokemon. But again, maybe I'm just really salty they're not giving any attention to Magcargo; that thing should get a Mega that's overpowered so it can exact revenge for those that constantly exploit its type weaknesses and cover Mega Rayquaza with its rocks.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

I wish they didn't affix megas to already-strong Pokemon. But again, maybe I'm just really salty they're not giving any attention to Magcargo; that thing should get a Mega that's overpowered so it can exact revenge for those that constantly exploit its type weaknesses and cover Mega Rayquaza with its rocks.

Or make its dex entry accurate.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I mean, there are Megas like Beedrill that are useless in base form but are actually pretty strong in their Mega (esp in LGPE OU, where Mega Bee is a viable Mega option). I think the approach with Mega is to give it to weaker mons, as opposed to give it to, um I don't know, Mewtwo, Latios, Latias and Diancie??? Or to strongholds like Lucario and Salamence. Kangaskhan is also another example like Beedrill; Kanga isn't that great but its Mega is Ubers (albeit unviable Ubers). If they didn't give some strongholds Megas, then the Mega concept would be much more interesting and better executed.

Yes, but would you use Mega Beedrill over say Mega Scizor (for Bug-type), Mega Gengar (for Poison-type), or the other Megas for Pseudo Legendaries, Starters, or some of the other more popular Megas? Even in LGPE you still had the Mega Starters, Gengar, & Aerodactyl.

I think the Megas do need some fixing, specifically with how much stats are increased. The +100 BST isn't enough to help the Pokemon who didn't have that high of stats to start with catch-up. Not to mention a Pokemon who has a Mega you'd want to have it go Mega over holding a Life Orb or Choice Item. To start with I think they should make the stat increases percentage base instead of a flat number, I don't think we'd have such huge numbers as we have now so a bit more balanced and easier for the lower BST Pokemon to catch-up (especially with the right Ability). Also would get rid of the need to decrease a stat in order to increase another stat unless the decrease would benefit the Pokemon (like making a slow the Pokemon even slower to take advantage of Trick Room).