Your controversial opinions

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Yeah but we didn't at the time.

 

[stunning_cyan]

How does basing it on real world places mean that grass and bug have to come early? Kalos had grass midway through, Alola had the secondary villain be the bug master.

And it's not like the villains (save for generations 1 and 3) have real world reflections in those regions.

It doesn't mean that for to be certain, but all real world locations have the same focus on agriculture and from a symbolical point of view, agriculture based gym can't be one of the last because agriculture - country bumpkins, home town, farms. With fantasy, you can create ultra tech countries without farms, for example, or a land of exclusively dark mages who create food out of this air or something. In any case, a gym order will be much more unexpected there almost for certain because you don't have to repeat 'national fruit/food/tree/sport/pastime' route every time. It is so obvious that I am surprised I have even to explain that.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Why does that mean it can't be one of the last? I don't follow that at all. If anything shouldn't symbolism make it stronger and thus moved further in the ranking?

 

[Emmy]

So in Gen 7 we got pretty deep into the lore of the Extradimensional Pokémon and worlds, but for Gen 10 I would like to see a game (be it a spin-off or otherwise) that deals with the Extraterrestrial Pokémon.

This is just a roundabout way of saying I want to see a Space Opera themed Pokémon game.

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

I actually enjoyed sword and shield

 

[Bolt Strike]

The story was the only good thing about BW1 (the post game was also good by modern standards but just okay compared to other contemporaries like FRLG, DPPt, and HGSS). In fact, I'll go a step further. It's really just the end game plot twist at N's Castle that's the only good thing about BW1.

BW1 marked a major shift in design philosophy for the series that was, IMO, largely for the worse, focusing on making the game much more casual and stripping away almost all sense of adventure and challenge. The region design became more linear, having a strict progression order with no alternate paths, no optional areas branching off aside from the odd dungeon or so, and minimal backtracking. Trainers had such short, easy rosters that you'd think it was illegal to carry more than 3 Pokemon. NPCs constantly interrupted you to tell you where to go and generally hold your hand throughout most of the game. Longtime sidequests and side content such as the Game Corner (which granted needed to be removed due to EU gambling laws but they didn't bring back Voltorb Flip or something equivalent), Safari Zone, Contests (which technically saw a spiritual successor in the Musicals, but failed to retain what people liked about Contests which was the move based appeals), and Secret Bases and QoL features such as the ones seen in regional gadgets were stripped away. Overall it felt like the video game equivalent of gluing training wheels to a bicycle, they wanted to casualize the game and force the casualizations down your throat. I've seen a lot of people complain about these things, but they falsely attribute these changes to XY. XY continued down that direction but it wasn't the game that pioneered it, that was BW1.

But BW1 had its own issues apart from the general change in philosophy for the series. Restricting the dex to only the new Pokemon was also a poorly executed idea. The notion of wanting to create a sense of discovery and wonder with a completely new set of Pokemon is a good idea, but when many of said new Pokemon feel like rehashes of older Pokemon, especially ones that we've seen frequently in past regional dexes, it undermines the newness that they were trying to go for. Replacing the Zubats and Geodudes that annoyed you in caves with new Pokemon that are very similar to Zubat and Geodude in Woobat and Roggenrola for example, does not make me excited to discover Woobat and Roggenrola for the first time. It makes me feel like they gave me Zubat and Geodude again without actually giving me Zubat and Geodude again. If instead of giving me another bat and rock Pokemon they'd have had a new bear or bug Pokemon inhabit Unova's caves or something, yes, that would've been very cool and made me feel like I was discovering new Pokemon throughout the entire game but as is it just felt like they didn't want to really have new, original ideas.

Storyline wise, yes the storyline was really good. But again, mainly because of the plot twist at the end where instead of fighting Alder, you conclude the Team Plasma storyline by capturing your dragon, fighting N with his dragon, and then fighting Ghetsis, who masterminded the entire events of the story. The storyline up to that point mostly felt like standard Pokemon fare and even a bit intrusive as I mentioned earlier. But overall, the storyline's climax specifically is the only aspect of the game that truly feels like it was a step up from previous games and in just about every other way the game felt like a regression for the series.

 

[Norzan]

Platinum is the last mainline pokemon game that legit feels like a complete experience (outside of HGSS), everything after feels like something is missing and it has gotten progressively worse. Black and White 2 tried to put more stuff to compensate for the lack of content in Black and White, but it wasn't enough.

 

[Pasio]

Get rid of IVs. This is an outdated system that makes competitive Pokémon sets so much more ludicrous to obtain than necessary. They also hardly have a real purpose now, thanks to Hidden Power being removed from major mainline titles and otherwise being repurposed in minor mainline titles like Legends Arceus. Legends Arceus set it as an exclusive move for Unown that always inflicts damage with a type Super Effective against its target.

 

[Eitarou]

Well that's another thing, people act like Unova is the entire USA and it drives me up a wall. Unova is very specifically the area around New York City--a very small fraction of the USA. Heck it's not even the first American region we got, since two gens earlier we got Orre.

Uh, Virbank at least is inspired by California given it contains a Hollywood expy. Plus the Burbank pun in the English translations.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Yeah and Hollywood is in Japan in the anime so?

 

[Eitarou]

How is that relevant. Also, it's only Hollywood in the dub. It's a parody location in the original.

 

[JollyYoshi]

Yeah and Hollywood is in Japan in the anime so?

The reason why it exists in the anime is that the writers didn’t know that there would be a place that could be based off of Hollywood later so they just made some like that to give it a little reference and have a fun episode.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Aren't there a few places that double up as well?

 

[FelipePR]

Get rid of IVs. This is an outdated system that makes competitive Pokémon sets so much more ludicrous to obtain than necessary. They also hardly have a real purpose now, thanks to Hidden Power being removed from major mainline titles and otherwise being repurposed in minor mainline titles like Legends Arceus. Legends Arceus set it as an exclusive move for Unown that always inflicts damage with a type Super Effective against its target.

They've kind of gotten rid of that in this generation, and maybe since the previous generation. At the moment, IVs are just a "grind" mechanic to keep players a bit more busy post-game and give the feeling of having a Special Pokémon, but, with Hyper training, it has no impact on the competitive scene.

In case Game Freak manages to develop new appealing post-game mechanics and activities, as well as interesting unique features for each individual Pokémon, they will most likely remove the system.

NOTE: Legends Arceus specifically does not have IVs at all.

 

[Emmy]

Now that Pokémon Snap has resurrected, GameFreak should collab with the people at Koei Tecmo to make a new Snap game in the style of Fatal Frame. You could be a Paranormal Photographer exploring haunted locations like the Old Chateau in order to catch photos of real ghosts but only get Ghost-Type Pokémon.

I think it would be pretty cool at least.

 

[tazmily menace]

pokemon x and y are good pokemon games and i will die on this hill

 

[Emelie]

I don't know if this is controversial but if Liko doesn't get a badge quest now when Ash has left the anime I will officially give up on hoping for female empowerment in Pokémon ever again lol.

I also think GF should research the cultures and countries they base their games on a little better, maybe even involve some native people. Then we could avoid stuff like Lenora being a "natural born mama", the misuse of the Hawaiian terms in SM and the colonial undertones of PLA. I also think they should stop changing the characters' Japanese names and stop censoring religious references.

 

[Poke Dragon]

There should be some sort of a single-version Unova-based game. Doesn't matter whether that's Pokemon Gray, a single version sequel, or a Legends game, just any game where the differences between the two versions of Unova are combined.

 

[Emmy]

I don't know if this is controversial but if Liko doesn't get a badge quest now when Ash has left the anime I will officially give up on hoping for female empowerment in Pokémon ever again lol.

What does the Badge Quest have to do with “female empowerment”? Riko can easily be a strong character without just turning her into Ash lol.

 

[StrawberryLemonade]

I feel like really my only controversial Pokemon opinion as that Hey You Pikachu is a good game.